Why can't Itunes not accept Xvid and avi file formats(and others)???

[luffytubby]

Most of my video content is in a format not compatible with Itunes, but I would like to have everything organised within it.


But why cant Itunes use more formats? Apple should just buy the company that makes VLC player or something, and then make them build an in-side movie viewer, so you can use any format within Itunes.


'If I have to convert my files to Itunes compatible files, then what programs do I use? I got some videos with soem obscure codecs... I dont think Imovie will do the trick:/

Sony Vegas? Final Cut Pro? What exactly do you guys use if you have to convert something video related an put it in Itunes?

 

[Chundles]

iSquint - it's free.

AVI, XVID, DIVX, all of these are not standard file formats. In fact none of them are formats at all - they are containers that hold a file format that could be one of hundreds of the video formats out there.

Apple base their products around internationally recognised standards. For iTunes, the two big ones are videos encoded in either MPEG-4 or H.264 (the resolution and bit rate doesn't matter unless you want to put it on an iPhone/iPod.

iTunes can playback anything Quicktime can so plugins will enable playback of many formats but the fact that a plugin is required shows that it's not a standard video format that you are using.

 

[richard.mac]

because iTunes is proprietary (closed source) and Apple is a HUGE company that wants to make moneys.

you can play avis with xvid, divx, flv etc. formats in QuickTime Player using Perian and play WMV using Flip4Mac. but iTunes only supports mp3, aiff, wav, mpeg4, aac and Apple lossless.

this is exactly like Microsoft only allowing wmv, mp3, aiff & wav support (+ others im not sure of) but not support for the open source codecs. you need a codec installer or pack to play them.

iTunes uses the QuickTime layer in Mac OS X so you can actually play divx etc in iTunes but it has to be in a format that iTunes understands like a .mov which you can make using QuickTime Pro.

 

[Chundles]

because iTunes is proprietary (closed source) and Apple is a HUGE company that wants to make moneys.

Totally false.

MPEG-4 and H.264 are international standards for video encoding.

XVID, DIVX, AVI etc are not. They aren't even formats, they're containers. As is .mov

The only difference is that most video made by Quicktime in a .mov container is still encoded in a standard format.

 

[luffytubby]

If I would convert my content.. like HD movies to an external hard drive in my Itunes folder, then what would the quality be like?

I got an new Imac(3Ghz) but... I heard people saying that Quicktime is a very bad player. But I like to have things organised and in order in Itunes... thats very nice.

I plan to hook my Imac up to a 40' Samsung TV, and watch film from the Itunes player. Is that a bad idea?


How good would you say the Itunes quicktime player is compared to VLC and DivX player?

 

[Vidman34]

Xvid specs

Totally false.

MPEG-4 and H.264 are international standards for video encoding.

XVID, DIVX, AVI etc are not. They aren't even formats, they're containers. As is .mov

The only difference is that most video made by Quicktime in a .mov container is still encoded in a standard format.

I do not mean to be rude, but you are incorrect. The Xvid/DivX codecs are forms of the MPEG4 format. AVI and MOV are container files, but the formats for Xvid and DivX are internationally recognized (they both have a 4cc code) and are used in several places.