Convert wmv to mpeg

[SirAngler]

Okay. I admit I'm a video idiot. Most of it makes little sense to me. i only know that the only video I can get to play properly on my Mac is .mpeg. Not mpg4, not avi, not wmv. How can I convert my wmv files to plain old mpeg? I don't see that choice in the 'to' window.

Now I've read the posts from lots of people who understand all of theis stuff a lot better than me. Frankly a lot of it is over my head. Sorry...I guess I'm just old. Maybe I'm trying to get this ffmpegx to do something it can't do. Or maybe I'm trying to use a fighter jet to get across the street when tennis shoes would work better.

Thanks

[redwudz]

Since you are using a Mac, you would probably have better results asking this in the Mac Forum. Moving you.

There are a fair number of dedicated Mac users here. They should be able to give you some ideas for converting WMV using Mac tools. I use my G4 mostly for graphics, so I'm afraid I'm not much help for Mac video work. I use a PC for that. (I know, I went to the 'Dark Side'. )

[terryj]

Hello, and welcome to the Mac Forums!

First, you are saying you need to get an .WMV file to play on your mac.
The simplest solution is to go and download and install
the Flip4Mac component, WMV Player.

This will enable you to play MOST wmv files natively in Quicktime.
The ones it will not play will be the WMV files that have been
encoded with Windows DRM, making them Windows Media 10
encoded files. For those, there is nothing that can play
OR convert them for use on a Mac.

If you are wanting to encode the WMV files you can play
through the WMV Player, then it is as simple as converting
those with Quicktime Pro, which is easily purchased
from Apple for $30. What you are purchasing from Apple is a
"key" which unlikes the Pro architecture of the Quicktime
software already on your Macintosh, as each Mac ever made
comes with a "lite" version of this software to do most
small tasks, such as play movies, and encode Mp3s
through iTunes.

Post back once you have gotten and installed the WMV Player
software, and we can help with further troubleshooting.

[SirAngler]

Thanks.

I've checked my wmv files and they are Standard 9.

I have the Flip4Mac WMV 2.0.1 componant, but my wmv files play really jumpy (both video and audio). So I started to think I should just convert them to the mpeg format I'm used to that always works for me.

I also have Quicktime 7 Pro with the key installed. I notive that I can "export" to several formats but not mpeg. If I export to avi the movie plays smooth but I lose my sound. If I try to export to mov the export fails. If I "save as" mov I get the same jumpy playback.

[terryj]

Ok, from your last posting it seems that:

Video/audio plays "jumpy":

This could be to a lack of a codec necessary to play back the file.

This can be solved by when in Quicktime, Perform a Command -i
and look ath the info box and see what codec it is calling for
for both Audio and Video.

export to avi, video plays smooth, no sound:
Cannot export to mpeg:

Again easily fixed. The fact that it is exporting the video
fine, but not the audio to avi from the WMV means
that again, you are missing a codec for that audio.

The fact you cannot convert to Mpeg is because you
do not have the Quicktime MPEG-2 component,
a $20 add-on to QT Pro, that you can purchase
directly from Apple at the Quicktime page.

Here's what you should do:

First find out what codec it is calling for with the audio.

Second, google that codec and add "for mac" in
the search term, so for instance "ac3 for mac",
or "mpeg aduio for mac", whatever the case is.

Third, download and install the codec.

Fourth, once that is done play the wmv again,
and see what happens.

Fifth, and this last step is entirely up to you.
You could go and download the QT Mpeg-2 add on from Apple,
and pay the $20. OR you could simply export your WMV files
to AVi, and then process them through ffmpegx, which you have.
at this point, either exporting to mpeg will work, it depends
on whether you wnat to pay $20 more or not.
I would, but YMMV.

[live4ever]

In your details it says your computer is 500MHz - this could result in bad playback depending on the video resolution and bitrate.

I'd recommend trying VisualHub to convert to MPEG
http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/

[silversleeves1]

I though somebody would suggest VisualHub.

Okay I'm still using it in Demo mode, but so far absolutely None of the Web-downloaded wmv's I've attempted to convert with it to MPEG will do so without that 'friendly error' about settings maybe being wrong somehow, coming up. The furthest I can take them is AVI, and only that if I don't customise the settings.

So apart from the $30-40 first-steps of Flip4Mac payware, from which you could at least get them to a nice malleable QuickTime .mov with an audio track that other apps on the OS X side could work with, WMV-to-MPEG still seems a bit beyond the pale in the Land of the Big Cats.

Silversleeves

[albloom]

Why the demo of VisualHub, Silver? Why not the freebie
iSquint from the same folk? I just dropped a WMV on it,
and it converted to MP4 quite nicely.

And why not the Flip4Mac freebie (not the payware)?

[silversleeves1]

Why the demo of VisualHub, Silver? Why not the freebie
iSquint from the same folk? I just dropped a WMV on it,
and it converted to MP4 quite nicely.

And why not the Flip4Mac freebie (not the payware)?

Thanks for the suggestion for the freebie, albloom. The latest version of the free Flip4Mac stamps the video track (all frames) of files it converts from WMV with "Made with Flip4Mac Trial" or something very similar. Since my last post, I've been able to take wmv's to mp4 with about the same quality in output as the avi's I was making before.

Silversleeves

[albloom]

When you're right, you're right. The Flip4Mac web site is only offering
trial or pay-me stuff. To get the freebie go to microsoft.com and
search for Flip4Mac. The QT components are still free there. The
url is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

[silversleeves1]

When you're right, you're right. The Flip4Mac web site is only offering
trial or pay-me stuff. To get the freebie go to microsoft.com and
search for Flip4Mac. The QT components are still free there. The
url is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

That's the one I first installed months ago. It'd be going backwards, which seems pointless now I have another means of getting from wmv to mpeg. I happen to keep a copy of Cleaner 6 (and not the Pro of that either, coincidentally), which can take anything QT Player Pro would, if it were capable, into muxed MPEG1 to that format.

I have toyed with the idea of getting the first "pay-me" from the Flip4Mac guys, just so I could WMV files with the same degree of flexibility as i DivX stuff, but as my standalone DVD player wouldn't know WMV from a hole in my head, I should continue to put off that expense.

Silversleeves