Member Avatar for Jerrisney

When looking for free software to convert some MTS and WMV files to play on my galaxy note 3, I found two software talked about most by people online, Handbrake and MacX Video Converter Free Edition.

Handbrake, I know it is popular among people, could convert any video to MP4 (M4V), MKV and convert videos for popular mobile players including iPad, iPod, Apple TV, PSP, etc.

While MacX Video Converter Free Edition is able to convert between HD videos MKV, M2TS, AVCHD and SD videos AVI, MP4, MOV, FLV etc. It also can easily convert videos to iPad 5, iPhone 5S, iPod, Samsung, HTC, PSP, Microsoft, Xbox and ,more as well as convert pictures into a slideshow video.

Anyone tried both of them? Which one is better?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rubberman

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Quick take: was right to compare HandBrake and MacX, and ’s suggestion of ffmpeg is spot-on — they solve the same problem in different ways. For an Android phone like a Galaxy Note 3, the safest target is MP4 with H.264 (AVC) video + AAC audio; that maximizes device compatibility. Many .MTS files are AVCHD containers that already hold H.264 video, which changes whether you need to re-encode or can just rewrap. (developer.android.com)

A practical, low-effort workflow:

  • Inspect the file first (MediaInfo or ffprobe) to see codecs and container information.
  • If an .MTS contains H.264, remuxing (change container only) preserves quality and is very fast. ffmpeg supports stream-copy/remuxing (no re-encode) for this purpose. Example commands (use one test file first):
# remux (fast, lossless when possible)
ffmpeg -i input.mts -map 0 -c copy output.mp4

# fallback: re-encode (safe for WMV/VC-1 or incompatible streams)
ffmpeg -i input.wmv -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4

If remux fails on some streams, re-encode with HandBrake or ffmpeg. (manpages.debian.org)

Which tool to pick:

  • ffmpeg: most flexible, scriptable, and can do lossless remuxing for batches if you’re comfortable with CLI. (manpages.debian.org)
  • HandBrake: open-source GUI with good presets and fine control over quality and encoding parameters — great when you want predictable, high-quality results without hand-writing commands. (handbrake.fr)
  • MacX: convenient one-click device profiles and marketed speed/GPU acceleration if you prefer an appliance-like GUI. Good for quick device-targeted jobs. (macxdvd.com)

Final notes: test one converted file on the actual phone before batch converting; use MediaInfo to confirm codecs; prefer remux where possible to save time and avoid quality loss, and re-encode only when the codec/container is incompatible with the device. (mediaarea.net)

Member Avatar for rubberman

The best tool I have found for video transcoding is ffmpeg. There are binary builds for Linux, OSX, and Windows, plus source code of course. Here is a link to their download page: https://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html

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