How to convert AVI to iMovie easy

[Blossom]

[edit by Ed Dyreen 23 May 2012] links disabled, banned Blossom for reason, only spam !

Question 1: avi in imovie.
My Canon Powershot camera takes movies in .avi which does not support in imovie. I got the divx codec to play them in quicktime, but I still would like to import and edit them on iMovie.

Question 2: avi on imovie.
Is it AVI compatible with iMovie and is there free software that will allows to convert avi to .mp4 or any other format compatible with imovie?

Question 3: imovie avi import
When I try to import AVI files from my Flip Mino video camera to iMovie, it crashes and shuts down before they import... I need help. Also, even if I try to just play a file in finder, quicktime will crash. It is weird, because the files worked perfectly on my old PC. Help please!

Why import AVI to iMovie?
AVI is a popular video format with high video quality. You can download avi videos from some video websites or record with your camcorder. As mac users, you may also want to edit avi with iMovie. But you will findit is not allow to import AVI to iMovie directly.

Thus, it is necessary to know what compression formats are contained in you AVI file in order to know if it is edit/import compatible with iMovie '08/'09. If your movie plays in the QT player, then open the "Inspector" window and check the "Format:" to determine which compression formats are being used by your AVI file. For example, in the video inspector it says divx 6.0,640x 480, millions mpeg, mono, 44.100khz. This is a third-party, proprietary codec which can be converted to MOV or DV with AVI to iMovie Converter for Mac.

iOrgsoft http://_www.importavitoimovie.com/avi-to-imovie/ AVI to iMovie would be your best choice to help you easily convert AVI to iMovie on Mac so as to let you import AVI to iMovie freely for unlimited video editing and sharing. With this Mac AVI to iMovie converter, importing AVI to iMovie would be simply like a piece of cake for you.

Step by step on how to convert AVI file to iMovie ?

Step 1. Download and Install AVI to iMovie Converter for Mac.

Step 2. Add AVI files from your hard disk to the software, you can add more than one file at one time.

Step 3. Convert AVI to MOV importable into iMovie.

Step 4. Import MOV to iMovie.
First start iMovie, then choose File>Import, next, choose the converted videos you want to import from your project library, finally click "Open" to import.

So you have just http://_www.iorgsoft.com/Video-Converter-for-Mac/ imported AVI files to iMovie successfully. Note that Video Converter for Mac is able to convert AVI and many other files to iMovie 11/iMovie 09/iMovie 08/iMovie HD on Mac OSX, including Snow Leopard and Lion. Have fun.

[foxidrive]

Handbrake comes in a command line and a GUI version and will convert to .mp4 or .mkv

I use it to convert .rec and .ts and .mpg and .mkv and .avi files - it works well and it utilises multiple CPU cores, also being available for MAC, Windows and Linux. It's free.

[Fawers]

Handbrake comes in a command line and a GUI version and will convert to .mp4 or .mkv

Sounds very interesting. Is the command line version easy to use? If yes, I'll download it. I'm not interested anymore in GUI video converters.

[foxidrive]

See the edited post below:

My batch file for handbrake - Change the path to where you install handbrake.
Original files are renamed with a 1- at the start of each one - allowing conversion from mkv to mkv and making sorting in the folder easier.

Change the .mkv to .mp4 in the conversion command line to use mp4 format.

If you rip a video to a single VOB file then it will work with that too - cropping is automatic. Always check the result to ensure the correct aspect ratio is detected.

[Fawers]

Nice! I'm going to test it when I've enough time to.

[foxidrive]

I altered the batch file a bit - hopefully I didn't break anything.

Handbrake command line can be downloaded here. It has codec support built in.

http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

Code: Select all

@echo off

:: change the path to the handbrake exe here
set "hb=C:\Program Files\HandbrakeCLI\HandBrakeCLI.exe"

:: change the destination path here (currently set to the desktop)
set "dest=%userprofile%\desktop"

:: set default horizontal resolution
set size=-w 720


if "%~1"=="/?" (
echo This will convert *.MPG and other video formats to *.MKV
echo or MP4 if you change the saving filetype.
echo. 
echo The source video files will be renamed to "1-filename.ext" before conversion.
echo. 
echo Cropping is automatic but station logos can be an issue and
echo need specific cropping points set.
echo There are switches to change cropping points for a specific filename
echo.
echo Usage: 
echo convert avi files [optional horizontal resolution]
echo      : cmkv.bat *.avi [horiz_res]
echo convert file.ext and crop points can be zero [optional horizontal resolution]
echo      : cmkv.bat ! "file.ext" top bot left right [horiz_res]
echo.
echo.some extra switches can be added
echo -s, --subtitle [number] Select subtitle
echo -a, --audio [string]    Select audio channels, separated by commas
echo --crop T:B:L:R  
echo use 0:20:0:0 for VCR cropping the bottom head switching noise lines
pause
goto :EOF
)

:: default filetype to MPG unless extra ! switches are used.
set filespec="*.mpg"

if not "%~1"=="" set filespec=%*

if not "%~2"=="" set size=-w %2

:: to set cropping limits: cmkv.bat ! file.ext top bot left right horiz_size
if "%~1"=="!" (
set filespec=%2
set crop=--crop %3:%4:%5:%6
if not "%~7"=="" set size=-w %7
)


for /f "delims=" %%a in (' dir %filespec% /b ^|findstr /v /i "^1-"') do (
Title Encoding: "%%a"

ren "%%a" "1-%%a"


rem constant quality mode - hi quality video, MP3 192 KB audio

"%hb%" -i "1-%%a" -o "%dest%\%%~na.mkv" %crop% %size% -e x264 -q 20.0 -a 1 -E lame -B 192 -6 stereo -R Auto,Auto -D 0.0,0.0 --detelecine --decomb --loose-anamorphic -m -x b-adapt=2:rc-lookahead=50

rem other command lines below

rem H264 1800 kbps with MP3 192 kbps - turbo first pass
rem "%hb%" -i "1-%%a" -o "%dest%\%%~na.mkv" %crop% %size% -e x264 -b 1800 -E ac3 -f mkv -m -p -2 -T -x ref=3:mixed-refs:bframes=6:bime:weightb:b-rdo:direct=auto:b-pyramid:me=umh:subme=7:analyse=all:8x8dct:trellis=1:no-fast-pskip

rem xvid AVI 2 pass 3000 KBPS video, MP3 192 Kbps audio below
rem "%hb%" -i "1-%%a" -o "%dest%\%%~na.avi" %crop% %size% --decomb -e xvid -b 3000 -2 -E lame -B 192 -R 48


)

title Done!

pause