How to Keep 5.1 Audio for Editing in Adobe Premiere Elements 9?

With the new Panasonic TM700 camcorder, I can get HD videos with 5.1 audio, and the bundled HD Writer AE works great on my Windows computer. However, I would like to keep the 5.1 audio in its original format, and then import it in PE9 or Studio 14. I could not see any approach to get it work in HD Writer AE.

Other users for Panasonic HDC-HS700 and HDC-SD700 would face the same problem like me. After googling Panasonic MTS 5.1 Converter, I downloaded Aunsoft MTS/M2TS Converter to have a try. To my surprise, I can not only output 700 videos with 50fps and 60fps, but also choose to output Dolby Digital AC3 5.1-channel audio.

If you would like to keep AVCHD 5.1 audio in original format for importing to Adobe Premiere Elements like me, or for editing in other non-linear editing (NLE) applications like Adobe Premiere Pro, Pinnacle Studio, Sony Vegas Pro, just follow the steps below.

Step 1. Load Panasonic video to Aunsoft MTS/M2TS Converter.
Run Aunsoft MTS/M2TS Converter to load AVCHD footage for conversion. As my TM700 files are transferred to computer folder, I just need to click the "Add" button and browse the .mts or .m2ts files. You may also connect the camcorder to computer with USB cable, and browse the AVCHD footage from folders like AVCHD > BDMV > STREAM.

Step 2. Choose HD MOV format with 5.1 audio.
Click the "Format" option and navigate to HD Video > H.264 HD Video(*.mov) as output format. As AAC is selected as default audio format with 5.1-channel, we can change the audio format by clicking the "Settings" button for AC3.

Actually the .mp4 and .mov formats available under the HD Video group also provide AC3 as output audio format with 5.1 audio. To output Output 700 with 50fps, 60fps, just type 60 or 50 to the video frame rate option.

Step 3. Convert Panasonic 700 video to MOV with AC3 5.1.
Click the convert button under the preview window, and the AVCHD 5.1 converter will start converting MTS to MOV with AC3 as original 5.1 audio format, keeping 1080/60p or 1080/50p in high quality.

When the conversion is done, it is easy for you to import the videos with 60fps or 50fps of the original footage and 5.1 audio to Adobe Premiere Elements for editing.

Tips:
1. For other camcorders with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio like Sony HDR-CX550, HDR-XR500/CX500, which records AVCHD files in interlaced mode, just click the "Editor" button and go to the Effect tab to deinterlace 1080i videos, removing the unexpected lines.

2. Aunsoft MTS/M2TS Converter also exports movies with 5.1 audio in different formats like .wmv, .mkv, .ts, .3gp, .3g2 and so on. If you are using Mac computer, just try Mac MTS 5.1 converter.