Help!!! avi file nightmare

[gmkarr]

I am not very knowledgeable with Mac , but I thought I could make a go of it. I had some 8mm files converted to digital from a local shop. They gave n=me 4 DVDs and I had them put the uncompress files on a passport hard-drive. It was returned to me with 4 avi files about 16GB in size They use a PC based program so my files are Canopus Type 2. How do I convert these to something I can use in iMovie? Any help please.

 

[aloofman]

What is the name of the codec used? You can find it by doing a "Get Info" for the movie. When you know the name of the codec, google it to find the Mac version of it. Once you've downloaded and installed the codec, you should be able to work with the files just fine.

In the future, you should specify to them what format you want it in.

 

[gmkarr]

Here is the file info. I have tried Divx Doctor, Perian creating a mov file, a dv file I have tried ffmeg, 3iVx I don't know what I am doing incorrectly

Summary:
Duration: 01:33:02
Bit rate: 30311kbps
Video:
Format: CDVC
Size: 720x480
Frame rate: 29.97fps
Audio:
Format: pcm_s16le
Bit rate: 1536kbps
Sample rate: 48000Hz
Channels: Stereo

 

[PsychOff]

CDVC, I've never heard of such a codec. Aloofman was right, you should specify the format you want in the future. Ok so let me think, it is an AVI contained format file, the codec within it is CDVC, whatever that is. Audio is PCM which is fine. The thing is you are dealing with digitised 8mm rushes which is kind of out of date now, not saying you shouldn't have used it (I don't know what situation you were in) and not being offensive whatsoever, just its something of a challenge with modern day technology is all. Is it 16gigs total or 16gigs per the 4 AVI files you have (total 64gigs)? AVI is generally quite heavy.

I mean it is clearly SD quality and NTSC format. To use in iMovie... which is, I'm sorry to say, is only good for crappy small compressed HD camcorders, not high-end HD professional cameras or film stock rushes such as 8mm. I recommend FCP and Compressor. Although I don't know what your budget is, but in terms of it working, Compressor will certainly be able to re-format it into a readable codec and .mov file.

 

[aloofman]

You still need the CDVC codec, whatever that is. If you can find that and install it, then you have a chance. Otherwise, tell the ones who converted it that they gave you an outdated video codec and demand that they make a different one. That Canopus codec seems to be old even for PC users.

 

[gmkarr]

Thanks for the input. Thought I could get by with iMovie or QT Pro, looks like I can't. The guys who created the files said they would reformat them, what should I ask for?

http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/products_professional/

From what they told me this is the kind of software the PC people are using.

I told them I was using a Mac, they said this should work. Files are 16 GB each

 

[aloofman]

The easiest thing would be to get them as DV files, like off of a DV tape.

 

[hazmatzak]

CDVC is the Canopus flavor of the DV codec. You can often just change the two FourCC codes in the AVI file to generic DV. There are dedicated tools for this, but you can also use a plain hex editor like HexFiend. The four bytes are in the file twice, usually in the first 200 bytes. (Be careful with Search and Replace -- it takes a long time to search 16GB when the bytes aren't there.) Make sure you overwrite the bytes, and don't change the length of the file.

Change "CDVC" to "dvsd".

 

[YogY11]

Thanks, thats ingenious

the last post works like a charm!

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ai, I cheered to early. It appears the timecode of the files gets ruined. The videos are much shorter than they should be at 30 mb/sec.