What will convert a .dv file on the PC?

[monkeyhouse]

I export my movies from iMovie uncompressed, which results in a file with a .dv extension. On the Mac I have no problem converting this file to DivX or a .mov (or anything else) using ffmpegX, but I had backed up some of these .dv files and opened them on my PC to convert to DivX. Getting them to open and play is not a problem, but what program will convert them, like ffmpegX, to another, compressed, file format? All I seem to find on this website regarding DV on the PC is dv AVI's.

The .dv files are all less than 4Gb, and I don't have access to a Mac like I used to, in case anyone wonders.

Any help on how to manage these files on a PC would be greatly appreciated.

Ta.

[Cornucopia]

(Not using iMovie) I was under the impression that what it exported was QT movies that used the Apple DV codec. If it doesn't specifically have the QT wrapper, it is probably just the raw DV stream (QT headerless).

BTW, DV is 5.5:1 compression, not really uncompressed.

For PC's to use this, the file extension must be ".DV" (although it could occasionally also be ".DIF" or ".DVD").

Then, you need to us a DV file converter app that specifically supports raw DV streams (not just DV-codec within AVI wrapper). These can usually cross-convert (losslessly) by applying or removing the wrapper, and/or by adding or removing the duplicated audio stream (Type1 vs. Type2 DV-AVI's). The best of these apps was a shareware app, but it has since been bought out by Focus and renamed the "Firestore DV converter" (in concert with their Firestore line of DV-Harddrive recorder modules). Here's the link: http://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/dvconversionsuite/dvcsuite.html

There are a few other apps out there: Riverpast Video Cleaner, Boabab ?something?,...

One other way you can convert is, if you've got Quicktime Pro, open the DV in that app and re-export as a DV-codec'd QT.mov. If you have QTPro on the PC you could take that and re-export a DV-avi (using MS's fourCC, IIRC). Or you could bypass the previous step and open the raw .DV stream in you PC's QTPro and export to DV-AVI (still no loss). Then you could use it in all the usual ways PC users work with DV-AVI's.
QTPro is probably the cheapest of the bunch, but that Focus app is VERY versatile and worth the $$.

Scott

[monkeyhouse]

A great and fast reply there Scott.

I actually tried TMPGenc out and it actually understood the .dv file and I could export from there, a DV-AVI using the Panosonic DV codec. I then took that into VirtualDub to make the modifications I need, and managed to export it to DivX, though not using the preffered codec, I kept getting an error (I used 'DivX ;) MPEG 4 Fast/Slow-Motion' rather than 'DivX 5.2.1 Codec' which gave me the error, if you are familiar with this app). I think I'll try out your idea's first next time though!

Thanks a lot for the help - much appreciated!
Rich