dplambert
asked on
MOV to MPEG, then edit
I'm looking for a video file converter. I have MOV files (QuickTime) and I want to convert them to MPEG files on a Windows box. I'd also like to be able to edit the MPEG files, like add special effects, splice, join files, ect... Shareware / Freeware would be nice.
Thanks.
Thanks.
weed
You want to do your editing BEFORE you go to MPEG because of the way MPEG stores information. MPEG is also lossy so if you go to MPEG, then add stuff, youll have to recompress as MPEG to "render" the effects and in the process, lose more quality. So, go to www.versiontracker.com and do a search for video editors. Anything thats half decent will support MOV and various transition effects etc. Programs like Cleaner 5 are the best for exporting to various formats but is probably more expensive than you want to get into. You can find freeware/shareware on versiontracker though.
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ASKER
You put me on the right track. Thanks a lot.
Here's what I'm doing and it works for me with all free / shareware:
How to convert MOV to MPG:
1) Install the free QuickTime 5 on your machine (required for #2).
2) Install RAD Video Tools. This program does MOV -> AVI w/ great compression.
3) Install TMPGEnc. This program does AVI -> MPG.
How to edit
1) In RAD Video Tools, export JPG images from the AVI.
2) Edit the files in your graphics utility.
3) import the JPG images to build a new AVI.
4) for more features, like sound, AVIedit (free) offers more in terms of AVI editing.
Here's what I'm doing and it works for me with all free / shareware:
How to convert MOV to MPG:
1) Install the free QuickTime 5 on your machine (required for #2).
2) Install RAD Video Tools. This program does MOV -> AVI w/ great compression.
3) Install TMPGEnc. This program does AVI -> MPG.
How to edit
1) In RAD Video Tools, export JPG images from the AVI.
2) Edit the files in your graphics utility.
3) import the JPG images to build a new AVI.
4) for more features, like sound, AVIedit (free) offers more in terms of AVI editing.
Ok, but you could have done ALL of that with TMPGEnc!!!
;-)
;-)
ASKER
True, but RAD Video produced much more compact AVIs than TMPGEnc. I'll have to read more about it.
ASKER
I understand this is a hot topic. I've received email about this. I do things a bit differently now. I'm a programmer, not a graphics person...
-------------------------
How to convert MOV to AVI
-------------------------
1) Install QuickTime (free) on your system, found at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
2) Install RAD Video Tools (free) on your system, found at:
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm
3) Read over this helpful guide at Nicky Pages' Digital Solutions:
http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/mov2avi.htm
For me, the "Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V2" encoding does the job in RAD Video Tools. It saves an AVI, but you can rename it to MPG and it still plays in Windows Media Player under either of these extensions. This conversion cuts the file size roughly in half for me. I distribute family video clips like this and everyone can view them. I used other codecs, but V2 worked everywhere and it has better compression than V1. I remember trying V3 at first, but it wasn't viewable by some of my relatives.
I don't understand why the file renaming thing works. I guess it's because I'm using an MPEG codec. All I care about is that most people can view the video in a more compact format.
-------------------------
How to convert MOV to AVI
-------------------------
1) Install QuickTime (free) on your system, found at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
2) Install RAD Video Tools (free) on your system, found at:
http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm
3) Read over this helpful guide at Nicky Pages' Digital Solutions:
http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/mov2avi.htm
For me, the "Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V2" encoding does the job in RAD Video Tools. It saves an AVI, but you can rename it to MPG and it still plays in Windows Media Player under either of these extensions. This conversion cuts the file size roughly in half for me. I distribute family video clips like this and everyone can view them. I used other codecs, but V2 worked everywhere and it has better compression than V1. I remember trying V3 at first, but it wasn't viewable by some of my relatives.
I don't understand why the file renaming thing works. I guess it's because I'm using an MPEG codec. All I care about is that most people can view the video in a more compact format.
ASKER
I forgot to add that RAD Video Tools allows you to export JPG images from the MOV and build an AVI from JPG images. So you can add special effects this way. I haven't played with sound yet.
I found an application which can convert to wmv which can be shared over e-mail
http://www.riverpast.com/download/videocleaner_setup.exe
http://www.riverpast.com/download/videocleaner_setup.exe