how to load avi h264 footage into itunes w/out re-encoding

[pale9]

i often come across video footage that is in h264, avi format. isnt't that what itunes is supposed to understand? yet, i always wind up reencoding the file with visualhub which takes forever.

no easier way to do this?

 

[jackerin]

Does it open in Quicktime?

 

[iGrant]

i often come across video footage that is in h264, avi format. isnt't that what itunes is supposed to understand? yet, i always wind up reencoding the file with visualhub which takes forever.

no easier way to do this?

iTunes is designed to play .mp4 files encoded to H.264. You do however have 2 options, not sure if the first will work however, but I think it does.

Option 1: Download Perian, its always Quicktime and I think iTunes to play a whole slew of video formats, its free and works great.

Option 2: Get the Turbo.264 or the Turbo.264 HD from Elgato for your Mac, its make re-encoding video a real time process and it works fantastic. I have been using their products for about 2 years and it works amazingly.

You are going to have to re-encode the video if you want to play it on an iPod or anything like that so its probably a good idea to do it anyway.

-iGrant