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Video File Converter

D

Drew144

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2006
20
0
So basically i am extremely unlucky....

A few months ago we bought a JVC Everio video camera which make .MOD files which arent compatable with imovie. So i need to convert then all. So far all the converters i have downloaded are crap. They make HORRIBLE video quality. Do you guys kno of any that wont ruin the video's quality? Im willing to buy one from a store or something too.

Problem #2...
My movies are in my movie folder BUT THEY WONT SHOW UP IN FRONTROW! It keeps telling me to put movies into the movie folder, but their already there.

So far my first few days of having my first Mac have not been happy days.... :(
 
Drew144 said:
So basically i am extremely unlucky....

A few months ago we bought a JVC Everio video camera which make .MOD files which arent compatable with imovie. So i need to convert then all. So far all the converters i have downloaded are crap. They make HORRIBLE video quality. Do you guys kno of any that wont ruin the video's quality? Im willing to buy one from a store or something too.

Problem #2...
My movies are in my movie folder BUT THEY WONT SHOW UP IN FRONTROW! It keeps telling me to put movies into the movie folder, but their already there.

So far my first few days of having my first Mac have not been happy days.... :(
Click to expand...

The camera stores video in the same format as a DVD. It's MPEG-2.

Yes you will need to convert it to an editable format. MPEG-2 uses a set of "key frames" that occurs about every second or so and then the other frames are "difference frames" iMovie like DV format where each frame stands alone DV can be cut on any frame with no re-encoding required. MPEG-2 will suffer from generational loss when edited.

Look here h=for a list of converters
http://www.pure-mac.com/video.html#mpeg2playback

The best converters for MPEG-2 is called "ffmeg" all the free converters are based on it. Qualitycan be very good.

But notice Apple sells an MPEG-2 decoders as an add-on for Quicktime.


About Front Row not finding any movies. That's easy. it does not know how to play those .mod iles that contain MPEG-2. What it is really saying is that "there are no movies that I know how o play in the folder"
 
so .mod is the same as mpeg-2? but i made the videos in imovie so shouldnt the work???
 
D-Simpsons-Head
Can you use MPEG Streamclip to convert AVI's to mp4 to watch on ATV easily?
I just installed it today and it's taken 4 hours so far to do one, and is only 50% through

Have seen nothing to compare with PC Videora so far, for this anyway.
Handbrake is awesome for DVD to mp4, but there is a bit hole for AVI / divx, etc conversion

Unless someone can tell me otherwise.
And before anyone says, Visualhub and Techspansion's other product is discontinued

Is there anything that can do the trick??
 
PC users, AVI to ipod / iphone format?
Videora without a doubt for me
Used it for a month before my imac arrived, and worked a treat

Fast and brilliant quality, plus free
 
Anyone wanna try this one on for size?

I had a PC and have a BlackMagic capture card for hi def xbox capturing. After I captured the footage(s), I switch to my mac. Now Premiere claims that the file has a problem with the compression of the files. Some will play in quicktime and some wont. I've tried to use software to convert some of the files, but nothing seems to be working.

I see that there are some files that were captured as a MJPEG, but I can't seem to find anything that will convert or run those files. I have no problem recapturing some of those files, but the ones that confuse me are the ones that ran on Premiere in Vista/Windows 7 and wont run on the Mac. Please help :)

Thanks!
 
Help for converting MOD files for MAC

Thank you Chris from JVC for your information regarding JVC Everio camcorders and downloading to MAC from the camera. As you say, all you have to do is hook up the camera to the computer and open imovie and press 'Import movie'. My problem is that I have transferred MOD files that I had on an external hard drive. I had originally transferred these files from my camcorder to a PC, then stored them on an external hard drive. When I bought my MAC I then transferred these files to the MAC but can't play them. I have read the threads on this forum and tried a couple of free sample downloads which certainly play the MOD files, but I want to convert them , then move them to imovie so I can edit them and make movies. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions short of going to the Genius bar at an Apple shop?
 
Conversion not just playing

Apple Dummy said:
Thank you Chris from JVC for your information regarding JVC Everio camcorders and downloading to MAC from the camera. As you say, all you have to do is hook up the camera to the computer and open imovie and press 'Import movie'. My problem is that I have transferred MOD files that I had on an external hard drive. I had originally transferred these files from my camcorder to a PC, then stored them on an external hard drive. When I bought my MAC I then transferred these files to the MAC but can't play them. I have read the threads on this forum and tried a couple of free sample downloads which certainly play the MOD files, but I want to convert them , then move them to imovie so I can edit them and make movies. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions short of going to the Genius bar at an Apple shop?
Click to expand...

Apple Dummy - hardly a dumb quote. I agree fully and I did the same thing & there's just nothing out there that's super easy to convert without having to upload/download, etc. And while it's nice going from camera to iMovie, large videos are easier to just dump off onto a hard drive. In a perfect world iMovie would just import a .MOD file!
 
Video Conversion Picture Quality is Crap

Hi all,

Don't know if this is the right thread or not, I clicked on it to see if I could find an answer to my problem and haven't, so I'm hoping someone can help.

I sometimes d/l short videos in .flv format, convert to .m4v to add subtitles in iMovie and then export from iMovie to .mv4, and convert from there to .wmv so I'm certain the PC it will play on can play it. By the time the video is converted to it's final format the picture quality is crap.

The converters I'm using are Zamzar and FLV Crunch. The videos usually aren't long (i.e. music videos) and when they're in iMovie they look great. But the final product will play on a PC using different players (sometimes QT, sometimes GOMPlayer, etc) and I need a format I know the player will work with. The picture quality of the final product is awful, almost not worth all the effort of adding s/t's. I played around with the settings in iMovie and FLV Crunch (frames per second, bit rate etc) but I'm not a techie so that doesn't really mean anything to me. I've looked for something to explain how to get the best picture quality from these settings but haven't found anything. The final video is displayed on an overhead/smartscreen so it's a big screen.

What settings should I be using in the software I'm using? Is there other (free) software that will do a better job of converting and retaining pic quality? Is there an easier way to do all of this? (The process I've described I've come to via hit and miss, trial and error). Any suggestions/tips would be most appreciated. It's discouraging to see the result of hours worth of work look like crap on the big screen, all so there can be some subtitles on the bottom of the video...
 
Image quality takes a hit each time you compress video. As you can't avoid recompressing it several times with what you're doing, you'll need to use less heavily compressed codec for all but the last stage.

Instead of compressing your source FLV to M4V, use MPEG Streamclip to compress it to Apple Intermediate Codec (with uncompressed audio). Add your subtitles in iMovie. From here it's a question of what the software you're using to compress to WMV will accept as an input source. It might not like Apple Intermediate Codec, so I'd recommend Motion JPEG A (at 80% on the quality slider) as the fallback.

I'm not quite sure how far you can squeeze WMV before it goes to crap, so I'll let you test that for yourself.
 
Easy Solution

Apple Dummy said:
Thank you Chris from JVC for your information regarding JVC Everio camcorders and downloading to MAC from the camera. As you say, all you have to do is hook up the camera to the computer and open imovie and press 'Import movie'. My problem is that I have transferred MOD files that I had on an external hard drive. I had originally transferred these files from my camcorder to a PC, then stored them on an external hard drive. When I bought my MAC I then transferred these files to the MAC but can't play them. I have read the threads on this forum and tried a couple of free sample downloads which certainly play the MOD files, but I want to convert them , then move them to imovie so I can edit them and make movies. Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions short of going to the Genius bar at an Apple shop?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I have an answer for you.

First, you are correct. If the video is still on the camcorder, simply connect via USB and Import the video direct into iMovie. No conversion required at all.

Now, to your solution. If for some reason you have moved the video off your camcorder here is a trick that has worked for me.

1) Go to your HD and make a new folder call it "Mp_Root"
2) Inside that folder make another called 101PNV01.
3) Now take all of you movies with the .MOD file and change it to .MPG
example: (MOV01.MOD) change it to (MOV01.MPG) It will ask are you sure you want to change the file....say yes.
4 )Now take that new .MOD movie and drag it to you 101PNV01 folder.
5 )Once you start up iMovie, it will automatically see that movie and import it. iMovie will think you have a camcorder connected.

Give this a try. I think you'll find it works.

Chris
 
Convert MPG to usable high quality video on MBP

Okay, so I made a video of my Sister-in-law's wedding. I recorded the wedding with a Sony Handycam, DCR-SR45 in the highest res available on the camera (HQ,). The format is MPG's. I have a MBP, 2 GHz Intel Core i7, that I purchased at the end of May, 2011. None of the videos will play on this machine. I've tried multiply free apps, but they either suck as far as quality, or have a water mark on them. I'd like to convert the files into a format IMovie can handle and not lose any of the quality.
My goal is to put together a DVD I can burn and give to my Sister-in-law. I'd like to play the DVD on a large 60"+, LED TV and look as good when I connect the Camcorder directly to the TV. I tried Calling Apple, they told me to google it. And when I went into the Apple store, the Genius told me VLC converter. But again it does not have the quality as the original video.

Any help? Thanks.
 
theshaff78 said:
Okay, so I made a video of my Sister-in-law's wedding. I recorded the wedding with a Sony Handycam, DCR-SR45 in the highest res available on the camera (HQ,). The format is MPG's. I have a MBP, 2 GHz Intel Core i7, that I purchased at the end of May, 2011. None of the videos will play on this machine. I've tried multiply free apps, but they either suck as far as quality, or have a water mark on them. I'd like to convert the files into a format IMovie can handle and not lose any of the quality.
My goal is to put together a DVD I can burn and give to my Sister-in-law. I'd like to play the DVD on a large 60"+, LED TV and look as good when I connect the Camcorder directly to the TV. I tried Calling Apple, they told me to google it. And when I went into the Apple store, the Genius told me VLC converter. But again it does not have the quality as the original video.

Any help? Thanks.
Click to expand...

You try MPEG Streamclip? you can convert the files to AIC to edit with iMovie

or did you camera come with software?
 
theshaff78 said:
... I recorded the wedding with a Sony Handycam, DCR-SR45 in the highest res available on the camera (HQ,). The format is MPG's. ...
Click to expand...
You have a hard drive-based camcorder that stores its video in the MPEG-2 format. If you want to play your video in the Quicktime Player or to edit it in iMovie, then you will need additional software. Download and install the Perian codec suite. You should have done this long ago. If you still cannot handle the video, then must spend some money. You need Apple's MPEG 2 Playback Component ($30 US). With this Quicktime component installed, MPEG Streamclip can convert your video into whichever format you want.
 
Hi All,

I'm a bit stuck with my mpg/MTS files.

I saved all my 'raw' footage to an external drive to free up space on my camera. I am now trying in import to imovie events.

I know that imovie does not support this format. I have tried the following and it still doesn't work.

1/ FFmpegx
2/ Streamclip (with £15 add-on)
3/ Trying to copy files back to the camera (canon HF10)
4/ renaming the files
5/ trying to create a camera ' copy' on my desk top for imovie to navigate to.

All the above does not work.

I have found the following and wonder if this is the way to go?

https://www.regnow.com/checkout/cart/item/39CB6HC-AHWD62

any ideas? HELP!


edit: I just noticed that Lion supports MPEG-2 if I upgrade from snow Lep. will that take care of the problem. (bit pissed as only brought the computer last month and din't get the free upgrade within 30 days.)
 
Last edited:
Drew144 said:
So basically i am extremely unlucky....

A few months ago we bought a JVC Everio video camera which make .MOD files which arent compatable with imovie. So i need to convert then all. So far all the converters i have downloaded are crap. They make HORRIBLE video quality. Do you guys kno of any that wont ruin the video's quality? Im willing to buy one from a store or something too.

Problem #2...
My movies are in my movie folder BUT THEY WONT SHOW UP IN FRONTROW! It keeps telling me to put movies into the movie folder, but their already there.

So far my first few days of having my first Mac have not been happy days.... :(
Click to expand...


I would try this converter that you can actually use online

http://godromo.com/convert/profile?profile_id=cc81d21689b61613

It's a java app but it uses ffmpeg and x264 in the background so the quality is great. You can also adjust the size/quality of your file on the settings page.

They actually have a few other on that site iPad specific here
http://godromo.com/convert/profile?profile_id=3449f3c8e67f24c5

and iPhone specific here
http://godromo.com/convert/profile?profile_id=ca050c28ee5eab69

If I'm not mistaken the 'Apple generic' that I linked first works with most Apple stuff while the other two have optimizations for the iPad and the iPhone.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Does any one have a free converter for dvr-ms files. I need to open them in fcp x. Cheers Sean
 
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