.mov (DV) to .avi (DivX) impossible?

[pfrsn]

I've tested all of ffmpeg's choices to produce a DivX-AVI from a DV-MOV. None worked as expected. (And yes, I've studied Major's Manual and browsed the forums for weeks now before posting this)

Here is what I did, maybe someone can either help me or tell me what my buddies say: Trash your Mac and buy a PC...

Source: I want to convert iMovie films, either filmed with a camcorder or imported from TV via Formac Studio.

By the way: Converting those films to MPEG2 with ffmpegX works fine (CVD, SVCD, DVD-anything). MPEG4 does not.

- Choosing the mov file in the iMovie project folder makes ffmpeg mumble some garbage about a broken file. The same with (S)VCD encoding, but then, ffmpeg seems to take a closer look and finds out "Hey, this is a movie" and does it's job. Not so when asked to produce an AVI. No matter which I choose (MPEG4 ffmpeg or mencoder, divx3, xvid) always the same feedback in the terminal: "Unknown input or output format: ppmpipe" instead of reading the movie.

- The workaround is saving the .mov file as an independent file, which takes almost the playing time of the film to complete. If that wasn't enough time waisted, ffmpeg scans the whole file before you can start the encoding, which takes again half the duration of your movie. So, until now, with a 90min movie, it's been over two hours of useless hardrive-rumbling, moving files around that are already where they should be.

- This independent .mov file is now graciously accepted, if I choose Xvid or mencoder. Well, DivX3 is accepted as well, but: the resulting files are so HOT, touching them with the mouse makes the Finder or QT Player crash.

- XviD and Mencoder make a nice 1,1 MB video track out of an original 77MB 10sec. clip.
But: Xvid and Mencoder both refuse to encode MP3 sound. No, it's not the well known bug MP3 in AVI doesn't play correctly in QT. THERE JUST ISN't ANY AUDIO TRACK.

- So, I chose AC3 sound. The Manual says, it's not supported with Mencoder. Luckily the software hasn't read the manual and encodes fine! BUT: The result is a 16MB file. So what? Audio is 15times larger than video? 10sec, 1MB video and 15MB sound? Unheard of ! QT-Player Info says, audio is "less than 1kb/sec. FFmpeg seems to wrap the movie in at least 14 Megs of empty, useless bytes, producing a 16,6MB file. Wow, what a compression rate!

- If I encode a Movie which I filmed with my camcorder, the size problem disappears. Instead, the resulting AVI RUNS AT DOUBLE SPEED, the rest of the time is filled with a still image from somewhere in the Movie (???). When encoding, the Terminal feedback tells me, the encoder skips a lot of frames. Guess it shouldn't do that and encode them instead of skipping them.

- That's not the end of it: Neither QT nor Mplayer will decode AC3 sound in an AVI! The stupidly big files or speedy files, that miraculously do in fact (wow, who would believe it) contain both video and audio, don't play the audio. DivX Doctor II won't fix them either.

So, in the end, there is no result at all.

I'm quite frustrated and didn't find any answers in the forums yet. Am I the only one who wants to save his VHS tapes on DivX to play them with a Divx capable DVD-Player?

Or am I just too stupid to use ffmpeg correctly? I am on a PowerBook G4 with OS X 10.2.6 and QT 6.3.
Don't tell me to use 3ivx or DivXPro: This is the ffmpegX forum so i didn't report my efforts on those codecs. In short: 3ivX offers neither a MP3 nor an AC3 codec. DivXPro doesn't encode MP3 sound, not even with it's own MP3 encoder, just like Mencoder.

Any ideas anyone?Is there anyone out there who has ever successfully converted a DV-mov to DivX-AVI? Please Help!

[major]

Upload me a clip of your movie on some web space and I'll check it and post you my suggestions.