Help please! No sound on MTS files in Resolve on Catalina

Hello Everyone! I have been having some significant issues trying to work with some AVCHD/.MTS files that I need for a project that I'm working on. My friend and I are both using Catalina 10.15.4, and DaVinci Resolve Free 15.3.1.003. On his system, he can open one of these .MTS files, and it has sound in Resolve. However, when I try, there is no sound - despite the fact that if I click file properties, it shows it as having sound, and there is the little music staff in the corner of the clip.

I CAN load the file into VLC player and it has sound there, but if I try to put the same clip into Adobe Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, or Quicktime, I still have no luck.

Ultimately, I want to convert these files into Apple ProRes 422HQ, so they can be used in a very VFX heavy project. In Resolve, if I go to I/O Preferences, everything seems to be set correctly (built-in speaker output), but my level meters are not registering any dB. Can anyone out there please help me get this working? Is it a driver issue or something that I'm unaware of? Thanks in advance!

Can you post a short clip for testing?

What make/model camera was used to record the footage?

I'm assuming your Mac didn't originally come with Catalina, right, and you upgraded the OS? If so, try this:

1. Go to your system prefs, and see if you have Perian installed. If so, click on that, then click on the Uninstall button.

2. If you don't have Perian, there may still be a leftover plugin from Perian that is preventing the audio from playing. From the "Go" menu in the Finder, go to Library > Audio > Plug-ins > Components and see if there is a file there called a52Codec.component. If so, delete it.

Perian (and the detritus left over from it) prevents .MTS files from playing audio in Catalina and I think Mojave as well. It's a legacy app and serves no useful purpose anymore; you can safely delete it.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I'm assuming your Mac didn't originally come with Catalina, right, and you upgraded the OS? If so, try this:

1. Go to your system prefs, and see if you have Perian installed. If so, click on that, then click on the Uninstall button.

2. If you don't have Perian, there may still be a leftover plugin from Perian that is preventing the audio from playing. From the "Go" menu in the Finder, go to Library > Audio > Plug-ins > Components and see if there is a file there called a52Codec.component. If so, delete it.

Perian (and the detritus left over from it) prevents .MTS files from playing audio in Catalina and I think Mojave as well. It's a legacy app and serves no useful purpose anymore; you can safely delete it.

Brad, this ended up working like a charm! Thank you so much, you saved the day!