help encoding

[veganjustice]

I have about 8 different .avi that I want to put on a disc, I could just throw them all into Toast, but I don't want 8 different scenes on the screen to choose from. I'd rather run it all together, and then have a scene selection page. So I was going to import them all into iMovie, and then set chapters, and then share it with iDVD and set up my themes, etc. and then burn.

But when I try to import them into iMovie, it is giving me an uknown error(which is what it says).

I tried to encode the .avi's into a different format using ffmepgx, when i put them in there, the video is a mpeg 4, and audio is mp3. I have tried encoding them into quite a few different formats, yet iMovie will still not accept them, giving the same 'unknown error' pop up.

Is there any other way I can get all of these in iMovie? Or even if there is a way I can combine them all so there will only be one thing in Toast. I'll even just burn it with Toast, as long as it is all one file, instead of 8 seperate ones.

I have Quicktime Pro, if there is any way that will help this whole situation.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,


veganjustice

[veganjustice]

Well, I finally figured out what was wrong with my iMovie. But instead of importing all the scenes, is there a way with QT Pro, or some other app that can get all of these avis as one long movie? or is iMovie my only option?

Thanks,


veganjustice

[terryj]

First, you have to figure out what CODECS each .avi file
needs to play. The fact that iMovie is tripping up
on some of these is becasue you are missing CODECS,
and thus it is probably giving you the dreaded "error -2048",
which basically means, you don't have the right codec
to play back/ import this file.

Try playing each one with VLC. While each is playing,
take note of the codecs used by perfoming a "cmd-i"
or get info, on each file's stream.

Once you have done that, and wrote that info down,
you can then start to divide the files into two folders,
one for each codec type. ( more than likely, you
should only have two folders, one for the DIVX encoded
avi files, and one for everything/anything else)

Now, go to www.divx.com, and download the codecs
for Mac ( should be version 6, should be FREE).
Follow the install instructions.
Google for the codec for the other avis.

Once you have got the codecs installed, all you
then need to do is Open the files in Quicktime Pro,
and then Copy and Paste one after the other into
the AVI you want to designate as the first one to play.

OR

Import the files into MPEGStreamclip one at a time, and
export out to DV Stream. Then open iMovie and import
the DV Streams you just made. Then, you can
place the files in order on the timeline in iMovie, edit
as needed, and then export to iDVD.

[veganjustice]

Thank you very much. I figured out what was wrong with iMovie, I somehow moved the project from where it saves to, and it wouldn't let anything import into it.

Yeah, I have all of the codecs, I, atleast I am pretty sure, I am up to date on them all. But I was able to save the whole thing using Quicktime Pro. I didn't know you can copy and paste them like that. That made it a lot easier, now I can just burn with Toast, a little quicker than waiting for them to import into iMovie, then waiting for the whole thing to burn through iDVD(adding menus, etc). It is a lot prettier through iDVD and iMovie, but it takes forever.

Anyways, thanks a lot!


veganjustice

[terryj]

veg, u r welcome!