What software will convert my AVI files to something I can read in iMovie

[Quinn82]

Kind of bummed out after buying a Vivitar 840xhd HD camcorder and I can't view the files on anything other than there crappy image manager software which I can't edit in.

[guns1inger]

Question one : What format does this camera produce ? This may influence the choice of software

Question two : What version of iMovie ? Apple has a habit of constantly revising the features and codecs in different versions of iMovie, so not all codecs are valid in all versions

Question three : Can you better complete the computer details in your profile so that say a little more than just MacBook. Look at the system details under the Apple menu on the finder, starting with About This Computer (or similar)

Lowest common denominator format that will work is DV, so anything that can convert your source to DV will work, however DV is not HD. Don't know if all versions of iMovie will handle HD material.

[johns0]

Moved to the mac forum where you can get more responses.

[terryj]

To answer your question, You'll need to mount the camera, either as a HD, or
mount the memory card the camera uses.

Once you do that, you should be able to use MpegStreamclip to
open the .avi files from the Camera and convert them to
DV Stream files, which (any version of) iMovie likes...

and for what its worth, a quick google search would have turned up
the answer before purchasing:
Vivitar 840xhd HD imovie

[Quinn82]

Thanks. I actually did a bunch of google searches before asking here, whats funny is when I click on your link those are both questions I posted. The reason I got the camera was the price was right and it shot HD, but I'm starting to figure out its a piece. What do you mean by mounting? I'm curious because I tried streamclip and when I dragged the files in it played but it was a white screen and no audio, also I couldn't find an exporting option.

@Gunslinger: I'm using iMovie 09', I thought the format was AVI, sorry I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to video. Sorry bout' the profile info... fixed it up better.

@johnso: Sorry bout' the crossthread, I was reading the threads in the conversion forum and they just seemed way more advanced than mine so I posted again in the newbie section.

[fitch.j]

Open your files in MediaInfo, post what the text view shows here so then we accurately know what your dealing with as a source. Without knowing that we'll only be making educated guesses really.

[Quinn82]

k, I'll try it out, thanks.

[Quinn82]

Media info told me:

AVI: 1.78 MiB, 1s 501ms
1 video stream: AVC
Writing Library:
AMBA
ICRT: 00:02:28

Video:
9 808 Kbps, 1440*1080 (16:9), at 29.970 fps, AVC (Main@L4.0) (CABC / 4 Ref Frames)

[Quinn82]

Solved, I found a converting program called prism that will convert the avi format to mov which iMovie 09' reads. Its blocky but I think I just need to figure out the output better.

Has anyone used Prism?