Can you convert old Quicktime files into h.264?

[trojan18]

I'm a little confused as to how this new codec works. If the majority of video downloaded from the net is currently just mpeg-2 or mpeg-4, how can we take advantage of this new codec?

Can you convert an mpg or .mov file from Panther into the new h.264 codec like you can convert mp3 files into aac in Itunes?

If not, will a lot of companies start using this new codec for their videos now that apple supports it?

 

[swissmann]

I don't have Tiger yet so am not 100% certain. However, if you have Quicktime Pro 7 I am pretty sure that you can open up any quicktime compatible movie and then export it in any other format like H.264. Of course the more times you convert it the worse the quality will be. If you start with a full DV or HDV video and go straight to H.264 I assume the results will be outstanding. If you don't have Quicktime 7 Pro you can do some of this still in iMovie and all of it in Final Cut Pro. Hope this helps.

 

[LawHog]

Slight hijack: is QT7 any better at opening a wide variety of codec formats than the previous versions? That is, will I immediately need to download a 3d-party video player to view most of my movies?

 

[andysmith]

Just got my QT7 Pro key - and you can (my 3rd 20 quid down the drain after QT6 for Win and Mac.. money grabbing bastards..)

Go File>Export to 'Movie to MPEG4' and select H.264 as the codec.

 

[7on]

Slight hijack: is QT7 any better at opening a wide variety of codec formats than the previous versions? That is, will I immediately need to download a 3d-party video player to view most of my movies?

QT can open any video you download codecs for. Only videos my QT in Panther that won't play are WMV and some scattered mpg files (mostly corrupted ones). A lot of those 3rd party video players are being sued at the moment... can't recall if it was because of the codecs they reverse engineered or if they stole some sort of technology.

But if you do a cmd+I with the video open in QT it should tell you what codec is needed, and a prompt search in Google will give you the results you ned.

 

[jaknudsen]

Only videos my QT in Panther that won't play are WMV

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17787