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APPLEFAN8

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
1,183
3
NJ/GA/FL
Does anyone know what free program i can use to convert transformers from .AVI to MP4 so I can put it on my touch? Thanks
 
I use VLC Media Player. I have complete instructions on osxtechtips site in my signature below. Just substitue Cue/Bin for avi.

Brian
 
any free alternatives? It appears that isquint isn't available.

Don't know of any free alternatives. In fact, iSquint was the free version of VisualHub. I know that VH has had development discontinued, so the same could have been done for iSquint; I imagine that if they stopped developing the program that was making them money, they did the same for the free version.
 
Visualhub is very good. It's not free but SerialBox may help you out with that if you want to try before you buy.
 
Visualhub is very good. It's not free but SerialBox may help you out with that if you want to try before you buy.

Perhaps, but they're very aware of such attempts to circumvent purchase. They started making the app shut itself off after vocally telling you that "pirating is bad". Funny to everyone around when they find out someone nearby is pirating software. :p
 
weird, I tried Handbrake but it says that my avi file is an invalid source. And I also have the latest version.

I just downloaded handbrake for the purpose of converting .avi files to mp4 for my ipod. I'm not having any problems with it so far. I've converted 4 videos already. Great recommendation! Handbrake is rad! It's very light weight and easy to use. :) and if anyone is looking for a good word processing program for OS X then try Bean http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html another light weight free open source success.
 
I know you said "free", but some programs I've come across are worth the price.

I love Wondershare Video Converter.

It'll convert almost every single video type to any other.

I've got to say, I'm really impressed with it.

You can even convert, say a music video, into just an mp3, so if you've found a song you like in a video and don't want the video on your iPhone (etc.) or the video on your computer period, but would like the mp3 of the song, it'll convert it (and quite quickly).

The only thing I wish they would change is offering a conversion of .SWF to other video formats. It's about the only format that it doesn't interact with.

Other than that, it's quite slick. You can put in hundreds of files, hit the Convert button and just let it go. Come back later and its done.

I'm really critical when it comes to software programs (and their inefficiencies or lack of functionality). Aside from the lack of .SWF support, I love this program.

Justin
 
weird, I tried Handbrake but it says that my avi file is an invalid source. And I also have the latest version.

Did you install the VLC Media Player software? Handbrake uses some drivers from there. Not sure if it is the AVI ones, but the complete install of Handbrake should include VLC.

I've converted a lot of AVI files with the latest Handbrake. It's worked great for me.
 
what about Perian? You may need Quicktime Pro though......

No, I use perian and don't have quicktime pro.
I suggest Handbrake its the perfect all-rounder converts practically all movie files and can be customised to how you wish the final file to be, including subtitles and much more.
 
I just downloaded and AVI file and when I played it in quicktime, the it didn't have sound so I spent all afternoon looking for a codec to make it play sound and none of them worked. I am wondering, if I convert the AVI to a m4v will it play sound once I move it over to iTunes?
 
I couldn't figure out how to keep the sound in a video file I had to convert to edit in iMovie. I ended up copying the sound file using a program like Wire Tap Studio from the original video. I then pasted this audio into the converted, albeit soundless file, in iMovie. It synced up exactly, much to my surprise.

There is probably a better way to do it, but that was my digital version of WD40, a hammer and duct tape. :D
 
I just downloaded and AVI file and when I played it in quicktime, the it didn't have sound so I spent all afternoon looking for a codec to make it play sound and none of them worked. I am wondering, if I convert the AVI to a m4v will it play sound once I move it over to iTunes?

Make sure you have Perian and VLC installed. Both these make sure you have all the necessary codecs. So far I've yet to have any videos of AVI or MP4 formats that don't play sound correctly. Give that a try and let me know how it works.
 
Is it a torrent file? Some of mine do it. Play it through Boxee or Plex and you should be good to go. But if you play with Quicktime then there will always be no sound. Unless you buy their codec, which is what they want. But I never thought to convert it, interesting. Please let me know if it works.
 
change the extension from .avi to .mp4. If it works, you don't have to transcode and loose quality in the process.

good luck!!!
 

I second this, isquint is very simple to use and extremely fast

I just downloaded and AVI file and when I played it in quicktime, the it didn't have sound so I spent all afternoon looking for a codec to make it play sound and none of them worked. I am wondering, if I convert the AVI to a m4v will it play sound once I move it over to iTunes?

Yeah it will. You can use handbrake to convert it to m4v and then import it into itunes. Do not mess with any of the advanced settings in handbrake unless you know exactly what you are doing. Just use the default settings for the m4v which is one of the basic presets.
 
Yeah it will. You can use handbrake to convert it to m4v and then import it into itunes. Do not mess with any of the advanced settings in handbrake unless you know exactly what you are doing. Just use the default settings for the m4v which is one of the basic presets.

I'm new to this so bear with me. Handbrake works like a champ to convert ripped DVDs into Apple TV format. I am , however, having issues converting .avi into .m4v. It crashes when encoding downloaded files for some reason!

eV
 
I'm new to this so bear with me. Handbrake works like a champ to convert ripped DVDs into Apple TV format. I am , however, having issues converting .avi into .m4v. It crashes when encoding downloaded files for some reason!

eV

To answer my own question ... handbrake crashes when converting .avi to .m4v because of the sound encoding. The solution is to click the audio track and disable track 2. It's working great now.

I used the Apple TV settings at first but wasn't happy with the quality at 59%. Space isn't my issue, I'm backing up my DCDs for future viewing. I upped it to 63% which looked great but its taking too long! 59% encoded in 2 hours, 63 is taking up to 5.

How would 61% work? I don't feel like running handbrake on another movie just to test the quality at 61.

eV
 
avi to mp4

all i do is open the avi into quicktime then click file, export, mp4. easy :]
 
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