Converting .avi files for use in iDVD

I have multiple .avi files that I'd like to add to a DVD using iDVD. These files are in their original format at 30 kb/sec and not compressed at all so they are HUGE...totaling almost 20G.
What is the best way to convert these files so that they can be imported into iDVD and fit on a single DVD. The files would be about an hour and a half playing time so I am hoping that can be done. I realize quality may be compromised but I'm willing to lose a little bit.

Roxio Toast is your best option IMO but if you want to stay within the iApps then you'll first have to add the avi files to iMovie => iDvd. That or use a third part app likeMpegStreamclip (free download):
I suggest you do not exceed 120 mins playback for SL Dvd-R
Hope this helps but if not just come on back.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

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Hi everyone! does anyone know how to convert .AVI files for using in iMovie without losing the original clip time and date? Handbrake, MPEG Streamclip and Evon all replace the original timecode with the date of modification. This is very frustrating when you are trying to keep the chronology right. I know that if you upload the files to iMovie from one device the chronology isn't a problem, but I'm adding video files from a couple of iPhones and a couple of camcorders. any help much appeciated.
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Here is an article that will help you and has links to some software to help convert your wma files to a usable format.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/consumerelectronics/ipodfaq/ipod-supported-music-formats-good-sound-quality.html

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I don't want to use DV because these .m2t files are from an HDV camcorder and I want to preserve the aspect ratio and resolution in the files. What other "flavor" of HD would you suggest that I convert them to since (a) I can't bring the files into FCP6 or Compressor (b) I don't see any other flavors of HD to use in VisualHub.
The whole business of converting .m2t files to a FCP6 compatible format, i.e. a Quicktime format, would seem to be one that is commonly encountered, and yet I have never found a thread on this forum that really answers this question: What is the best workflow for converting .m2t files for use in FCP? Surely, one of the pros who frequent this forum must have dealt with this issue and have an answer.
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Midnighttrain wrote:
… MPEG Streamclip, & something about needing to separately download an MPG2 converter for it w/ Lion or Mountain Lion - the process sounded confusing …
MpegStremclip is THE Swiss Army Knife, when it comes to conversion, a 100% reliable, it IS absolutely free (any download a dollar = Stefano would be a millionaire!), I dare to say it is THE most recommended 3d party tool in the editor community ....
How & why you need to install the mp2 plug-in does Signore Cinque explain in simple words on his website:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

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does anyone know of a free program to convert avi files to use on my pod
i sed to use isquin but it doesnt seem to work anymore- got a video ipod with no videos on it!
thanks

I have never been able to get Handbrake to recognize many file formats, at least not the version that runs on Tiger.
MPEGStreamclip; you need to export the file. I don't have an ipod so I don't know what format.
My feeling is that you might get more concrete assistance if you asked this on an ipod forum. At least there everybody will likely own one. On the other hand they may therefore also be able to afford the newest computers and tell you to run something on a newer OS.

Converting VOB Files For use in FCP

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I have a large FCP project using VOB files shot on a DVD Recorder.
I have been been using a freeware called MPEG Streamclip to convert them into Quicktime Files for use with FCP7. The resulting QT files have all been very choppy when used in the FCP Timeline etc.
I have options with this freeware to convert to MPEG, TS or export to Quicktime, DV, AVI, MPEG4 or other formats.
Any suggestions on how to bring these VOB files into Final Cut Pro so that they work well.
Thanks,
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Nick's tutorial is good. Read it.
I had been using Cinematize for this but would always have trouble with the aspect ratio.
With MPEG Streamclip I have no problems if I do it this way:
Export to QuickTime
Change Compression to: Apple DV/DVCPro-NTSC
Quality: 100%
Frame Size: 720x480 (DV-NTSC)
Sound: Uncompressed (the default)
Make Movie
I do a preset of the above.
Now, when you take that resultant file into FCP:
In FCP make sure your sequence set-up is DV anamorphic (if footage is anamorphic/16:9). When you bring that file into FCP it will not be flagged as anamorphic. In the browser scroll over and check mark it as anamorphic. NOW drag into the timeline. Aspect ratio is good if you do it this way.
Sharon

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*The file:*
*Retains sound, builds and movement.*
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The simplest way is to export as QT and then open the QT using Quick Time Player. If you've got pro you can export as .avi.
There are videos on youtube showing you how to upgrade to QT Pro for free...

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When loading movies taken on a friend's digital camera to my PC, the video files were saved as Quicktime .mov files. I am now unable to pull those files into any other software program (I want to put them onto a CD or DVD and play on external players.) How can I convert .mov files to a .wmv or .avi or mpeg?
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Kodak Digital Camera QuickTime MOV Problems
After battling a number of serious problems with the videos taken by my new Kodak Digital Camera, I decided to write up this page so that anyone searching the web would find out the true answers without as much grief!
I’ve also made some other comments about my experience with the camera, in case anyone was considering buying a Kodak camera in the near future.
I bought the camera just before Christmas 2004 in the US. At the time of writing, it is a pretty good model for domestic use—about 5.2 megapixels, costing about US$400 (or AU$600 back here in Australia). From a company as reputable as Kodak, I expected no problems.
The first disappointing thing was that the spring inside the spring-loaded battery clip, inside the camera, came loose within days. It proved impossible to reattach it without completely dismantling the camera, which (despite my engineering qualifications) I was not willing to do. This would usually have been a warranty item, but Kodak’s warranty does not extend to other countries. I’ve since had to jam cardboard in to keep the battery clip engaged, and have taped the battery bay shut to avoid it opening accidentally when taking the camera out of the case. This works fine with the docking station (an extra AU$100!), but it means I can no longer charge the battery without the docking station (since you need to take it out to charge it). I was not impressed!
The camera takes good photos, and I have no complaint with that. The controls and camera menus are well-designed. The large display is excellent.
The EasyShare software is not as easy to use as it looks, has a habit of crashing, has a web update program that is always running in the background of Windows, and transferring images is nowhere as easy or quick as it should be. I’ve now uninstalled it completely, and simply copy the photos directly from the device. (If the camera memory is nearly full, and you just want to transfer the last few photos, then it’s impossible to use the EasyShare software to browse the camera’s photos without it actually downloading the whole lot through the USB cable—and it takes forever! Copying from the device directly doesn’t hit this bug.)
The capability to take video using the camera was a great attraction when I selected it, and, if it worked properly, it would make it quite a handy little camcorder in its own right. With a 512 MB memory card in it, over an hour of video can be recorded at Video-CD quality (320 x 240 24fps video, 8 kHz audio). It’s not full digital video, but it would still be a pretty good feature for a US$400 camera. If it worked.
The first disappointing thing about taking videos is that the optical zoom cannot be adjusted while the camera is recording. It can only be adjusted between video sequences. I don’t know why this restriction was made in the design.
The real problems, however, start when you try to do anything with the video clips captured by the camera. Kodak has chosen to capture the videos in QuickTime format. This is fine—QuickTime is, technically, excellent—except that there is no simple way to convert QuickTime MOV files to AVI or MPEG or VCD. The Kodak software comes with a QuickTime player, so you can see the video clips on the computer you installed the software on—and they look good. Problem is that you can’t just dump those MOV files onto your Video-CD creator (it will usually want AVI or MPEG files).
It takes some time to realise that Kodak have not even bothered to include any software with the camera that can convert these MOV files to a more useful format. This is a serious PR blunder, and anyone bitten by this is unlikely to go near the Kodak brand ever again.
After some web searching, owners of these cameras generally find that the best (only?) freeware solution to convert MOV to AVI is Bink and Smacker’s RADtools program.
RADtools is amazingly powerful for the price (i.e. free), but it hits two fundamental problems with Kodak Digital Camera MOV video files, that are the fault of the Kodak camera, not RADtools. (I know this because every other MOV converter hits the same problems—except one, as you will see below.)
The first problem is that the sound cannot be converted properly. When you convert any Kodak MOV files, there is an “aliasing” of the sound at the upper frequencies. This is a technical description—you get a whispery, tinny, C3PO type of echo to everything. It really destroys the quality of the video clips (especially bad when I am trying to capture priceless memories of my 4- and 7-year-old sons—I don’t want their voices destroyed for all time).
Every conversion program I tried ended up with the same audio problem. I concluded that it is something strange in the way the Kodak cameras store the MOV files.
Strangely enough, I noticed that the QuickTime player didn’t distort the audio like this. The audio sounds just fine through QuickTime. More on this shortly.
The second, more serious problem is that RADtools could not properly convert some of the video clips at all. (This problem only affected less than 10% of the clips I originally filmed, but most of those clips were very short—less than 20 seconds. It seems that the probability of this problem gets worse, the longer the clip.) RADtools would misreport the number of frames in the clip, and would stretch out a small number of frames of video (in slow motion) to match the length of the audio.
Again, I confirmed that this is a property of some of the MOV files stored by the camera. Other conversion tools also had problems with the same MOV clips.
After more angst, I found a number of websites in which frustrated owners of these Kodak cameras have reported the exact same problems.
It was only then that I discovered that QuickTime itself can convert MOV files to AVI. Believe it or not, it’s built into the QuickTime Player that Kodak supplies, or that you can download free from apple.com. The problem is that you can’t use it unless you pay Apple to upgrade to QuickTime Pro.
After realising that this would probably be the only way to get decent audio for these clips, I paid the AU$59 to Apple Australia to get the licence key that enables the extra “Pro” menu options in QuickTime.
Sure enough, you can “Export” any MOV file to a number of formats, including AVI. And guess what? The audio comes out fine!
So, the first piece of advice I can give is: pay Apple the US$29 (or whatever amount it is in your country) to upgrade QuickTime to QuickTime Pro.
From here, however, there are still a few snags to untangle.
The first is that the default settings for Exporting to AVI don’t give a great result. It defaults to the Cinepak codec, medium quality. This looks terrible compared to the original QuickTime movie. Even on maximum quality, that codec just doesn’t give good results.
I finally found that the best option is to use the Intel Indeo Video 4.4 codec, set on maximum quality. This creates AVI files that are 10 to 20 times larger than the original MOV files, but the quality is there. If (like me) you only want the AVI files so you can dump them into your Video-CD program, then you want to keep the quality as high as possible in this first step. The extra hard disk space is not really a concern. When your VCD program converts the AVI files to MPEG, it will compress them to the usual VCD size.
Now for the biggest snag: those problem MOV files are still a problem, even for QuickTime Pro. Unbelievably, these Kodak cameras are spitting out MOV files which have some sort of technical flaw in their data specifications. QuickTime is able to play them back fine—and that seems to be all that the Kodak engineers really checked. However, if QuickTime Pro tries to export them, then when the progress bar gets to the end, it never finishes. It just keeps going. If you check the output folder with Explorer, and keep hitting F5 to update the file listing, you can see the file getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. It never stops.
That this happens even for QuickTime itself (the native format for these files) confirms that the problem is with the software built into these Kodak cameras. It would be nice it they issued a patch or a fix. I couldn’t find one.
Fortunately, there is a “workaround” for this problem. I found it when trolling the net trying to find solutions to all these problems. The workaround is to use QuickTime Pro’s cut and paste facility. Open the problem MOV file, then press Ctrl-A (the standard key combination for “select all”—in this case it selects the entire film clip, as you can see by the grey selection of frames at the bottom of the player). Then hit Ctrl-C (i.e. copy, which in this case copies all the frames, but not the incorrect data structure in the original MOV file). Now hit Ctrl-N (i.e. new, in this case a new MOV file or player). In this new player, press Ctrl-V (i.e. paste). Now you have a new version of the MOV file with the bad data structure exorcised. You can save this under a new name, but make sure you specify “Make movie self-contained”—otherwise, it will simply be a link to the original (bad) MOV file, which you are probably going to delete once you save the exorcised version. (You also cannot overwrite the original file, because it needs to access that to make the “self-contained” movie. You need to give it a slightly different name, save it “self-contained”, then delete the original and rename the new copy back to what you wanted it to be. A pain, I agree, but at least the **** thing works—finally!)
The exorcised MOV file can now be used to Export to AVI format. (I also keep all the MOV files on a separate CD, in case I want to reconvert them to a different format in the future. I figure it’s better keeping the exorcised ones than the haunted ones.)
So I hope that all this answers a few of your questions. No, you weren’t being incredibly stupid.

Converting avi files for FCE

Hi,
I have a ton of avi files that I need to convert for editing in FCE.
My goal: to get my avi clips into FCE so they don't have to be rendered in the timeline and everytime an edit is made. I've read several posts which suggests mpeg streamclip. My avi format is: Apple OpenDML JPEG, 640 x 480, Millions DVI ADPCM, Mono, 22.050 kHz FPS: 29.97, size: 640 x 480 pixels (this is the format listed when I open the clip in quicktime). My my final output of this FCE project is to view on HDTV (16:9) via dvd, so the best quality is what I would like.
My questions:
Is streamclip what I should be using?
And what settings should I use in streamclip to convert the avi files? (my guess would be: quicktime movie for the format) I've been trying different options under quicktime movie and the conversion leads to a jerky choppy video.
thank you!

MartinR wrote:
I'm thinking the problem is you are missing an audio codec required for this Casio Exilim video. Your camera specs say that it records MJPEG in an AVI container with a spec for WAV audio. You also indicated that the VLC media player said it was MS audio.
when I open a avi file in mpeg streamclip these are the specs that are listed under "show stream info"
Stream: CIMG1281.AVI
Path: ~/Documents/CIMG1281.AVI
Duration: 0:00:35
Data Size: 26.65 MB
Bit Rate: 6.25 Mbps
Video Tracks:
Motion JPEG OpenDML, 640 × 480, 29.97 fps, 6.17 Mbps
Audio Tracks:
DVI IMA mono, 22.05 kHz, 89 kbps
Stream Files:
CIMG1281.AVI (26.65 MB)
MartinR wrote:
Have you tried the Perian plugin for QuickTime. It adds AC3.audio support for playback of AVI files, which seems to have fixed the no-audio problem for a bunch of other people.
Yes, I have perian installed. I even tried reinstalling both to be sure.

How do I import an AVI file for use with FInal Cut Express

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Thank you. Do I need to convert my AVI file and what is the
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Converting .AVI files to use in iMovie using Quicktime Pro

Hi, does anyone know if the current version of Quicktime Pro converts .AVI movie clips into a format that can be used and spliced together in iMovie? If so, is both the sound and video maintained to the same quality?
Finally, if the answers to the above are a "yes", is the same true for iMovie 07 and 08?
Many thanks
Andrew

http://perian.org will help QuickTime Pro open nearly any AVI.
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Message was edited by: televisiontim

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