Frequently asked questions

AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition) is the format Sony, Panasonic, and Canon camcorders used from roughly 2006 to 2015. The video is stored as .MTS or .M2TS files inside an AVCHD folder structure on the SD card or hard drive. Modern phones, browsers, and TVs don’t natively support .MTS, which is why your files won’t play. CamcorderRescue converts them to MP4 (H.264), which plays everywhere.

Mini-DV is tape-based, so you first need to capture the footage from the camcorder over FireWire (IEEE 1394) or via a video-capture device — software like WinDV, iMovie, or OBS will save the capture as a .DV or .AVI file. Once you have that file on your computer, upload it to CamcorderRescue and convert to MP4 for permanent digital storage.

Yes. Files upload directly from your browser to our storage via signed URLs — they never sit on a third-party server in between. Both the original upload and the converted output auto-delete on a short timer; we don’t keep your footage.

They’re the same MPEG transport-stream container with different extensions. .MTS is what AVCHD camcorders write directly to the SD card. .M2TS is what shows up after the file has been imported by software like Sony PMB or Panasonic HD Writer (and on Blu-ray discs). Either uploads and converts identically on CamcorderRescue.

There is some loss because MP4 (H.264) re-encodes the video, but with the default settings the visual difference is negligible on consumer camcorder footage. The trade-off is enormous compatibility — the resulting file plays on any phone, laptop, smart TV, and modern editor.

Up to 5 GB per file, which covers nearly any single MTS or DV capture from a consumer camcorder. For multi-hour Mini-DV transfers, split the capture into chapters first, then convert each one.