How to deinterlace ATSC MTS and save result as H.264?

[jdmc]

I'm using VLC v2.1.2 (Intel-64) in OS X Mavericks (v10.9.1). I have a DVR that records ATSC digital-TV broadcasts to hard disk as MPEG Transport Stream (.mts) files. The video streams are typically 480i or 1080i. I would like to deinterlace these with the Yadif (2x) filter, then save the result as H.264, but I haven't been able to figure out how. Is it possible with the GUI, or is the command line required?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It possible with the GUI, activate the deinterlacer.

[jdmc]

Yes, turning on the deinterlacer is elementary (Video menu > Deinterlace submenu > "Automatic" or "On"). But as far as I can tell, that only deinterlaces the video for live viewing in VLC; it does not modify the source file or save the deinterlaced video stream. What I want is to take the deinterlaced video and save it in H.264 format. That's what I'm asking for help with.

[spritle]

You might be better off using Handbrake for that kind of conversion. That's what it's designed for, while VLC is more of a media player with some conversion tools added.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No, I meant on the transcoding interface...