Maintain multiple video formats as versions

Question

I have a large Aperture library of personal photos and videos from a history of digital cameras going back over 10 years.  The videos are in a number of formats ranging from AVI, MPEG, MP4 and MOV. 
I have had issues syncing videos to our iPhones/iPad through iTunes using the Aperture library as the sync source due to the video format not being supported (there are a number of discussions on this forum that talk about this error).  From what I can gather, iTunes will only sync certain supported video formats, requiring the videos to be converted accordingly. The majority of my videos fall into this category.
I want to try keep all my videos in their raw format and was thinking maybe I can create iTunes friendly versions of the videos (mp4 or m4v etc) and store them in Aperture as versions of the orginal videos.  I have looked at a few articles that mention videos can be externally edited (http://aperture.maccreate.com/2011/03/14/setting-mpeg-streamclip-as-your-externa l-video-editor-aperture-3/) and saved back into Aperture as versions, however I have not been able to get this to work correctly and am usually prompted upon saving to pick a folder location for the new version.  I'm not sure how this works in a managed Aperture library.
Has anyone had any experience with this or can offer any solutions?
I was considering writing a plugin or AppleScript to go through my library and do this automatically, however I'm not too sure how feasible the option of hosting multiple video files linked back to one master is.
Thoughts or suggestions welcome.

Answer 1

To alleviate confusion, a "version" in Aperture world is a master image that has had changes applied to it in Aperture. Aperture gives you a thumbnail or preview of the master using the changes contained in the version file.
What you want to do cannot be done by using versions, because video is not edited in Aperture. That is why each time you edit it with an outside editor, it is asking to import as a new Master, and thus, where you would like to store it. In a managed  library, master images are stored in the Aperture library along with everything else. In a referenced library, the masters are stored wherever you like and only versions ("changes") and preview files are stored in the library.
The answer to your question is to use stacks. Import all your converted videos and stack them with the originals. Use the "friendly" version as the stack pick. It should be seen by other programs. When you want that original "unfriendly" file, its in the stack. This will double all your videos though...you won't have versions, you will have two masters.
There is no need to write an applescript. View all your picturs, then use the magnifying glass tool in the top right corner of the browser view. Click on "Add rule", go to file type, and pick movies.  Or, conversley, you could display everything that is not an image. Then you can see all your videos and drag them to an album. You could also make a smart album that contains all your videos by adding the same rule. I highlighted my movies in purple using the metadata editor. Much faster to spot them.
My personal point of view is that doubling your videos will make your library much larger unless you are using referenced masters. If you are using a managed library, you could make the original, unsharable videos referenced once they are stacked. Aperture would know where they are, but not keep them in the library. If you are unfamiliar with referenced masters, I would either learn about them or use the method below.
I don't see much point in even keeping videos in formats that cannot be shared, edited, or viewed by the programs you want, unless its solely for organizational purposes or you are mixing work and life. I would just convert all the movies, leave the originals in an untouched folder, then import the converted ones I am actually going to share and watch into Aperture.  But I can easily imagine reasons to use the stacks method as well.
Good luck, hope that all made sense.