AVI or MPEG to MOV Convert: Will Quicktime Pro do this?

[pointyskull]

I'm working on a site for an indie film, and I'm trying to convert the trailer from an .avi and/or mpeg to a .mov. Is Quicktime Pro my best choice?

I currently have the file up as a streaming .wmv, but it's my understanding Mac users will have a problem, so I figured .mov would be a better choice.

[Cornucopia]

Probably not.

QTPro does NOT handle MPEG's transparently--it only sees a muxed stream, so it'll lose the audio and certain flag info.

It also doesn't accept many AVI codecs, so unless it's simple Uncompressed, DV, DivX/Xvid, it probably couldn't read it even.

There are much better conversion apps out there...
You didn't say whether you're Mac- or PC-based, let us know...


Scott

[pointyskull]

I'm PC-based. I'm experimenting with Super, but I'm having problems reducing the file size to anything under 15mb

[ozymango]

There is an mpeg2 plugin you can get for QT Pro (for an additional twenty bucks) that'll allow you to import/export said mpeg2 files in Quicktime; then you could save to .mov if you wanted.

But frankly I wouldn't do it; as Cornucopia noted, there are much better conversion apps out there. And you don't have to save as an .mov file for Macs (or even QT on a PC) to be able to view your video. I've had to save to .mov in the past for various reasons and I just don't think it's worth the pain and suffering unless your boss makes you do it.

[pointyskull]

And you don't have to save as an .mov file for Macs (or even QT on a PC) to be able to view your video.

I was under the newb impression that .wmv streams weren't Mac compatible. If that's not really an issue, I'll probably just stick with .wmv if I can get the file size down to a decent size.

[Cornucopia]

Filesize = Bitrate * time

So, 15MB = [?] * what's the length of your program?...

Scott

[pointyskull]

Filesize = Bitrate * time

So, 15MB = [?] * what's the length of your program?...

It's a two minute movie trailer. I'm trying to degrade the quality as little as possible while also being aware of the file size. The problem is that I'm not sure how to determine the correlation between file size/streaming/bandwith usage.

[Ai Haibara]

I was under the newb impression that .wmv streams weren't Mac compatible. If that's not really an issue, I'll probably just stick with .wmv if I can get the file size down to a decent size.

Macs can handle WMV... to a point. Even with the Flip4Mac Quicktime component (I think they may still not work on the new Intel Macs (no Universal binary?)), VLC or mplayer, not all formats of Windows Media are supported, or maybe even supported well.

So, if you wanted to go with a format that would be supported on Windows and Macs, there's always MPEG-1, and Real (dodges thrown tomatoes). FLV might be an option, but like Windows Media, support for it on a Mac is a little more problematic.

[Cornucopia]

Well, using that same math:

15MB = 2 min * ?

or

15 (* 8b/B) (*1024k/M) = 122,880kb

2 (*60sec/min) = 120

122,880/120 = 1024kb/sec

This will give you pretty darn good video if done with WMV or DivX/Xvid or h.264/AVC (or Flash). (Lower that figure a littlebit to account for the addition of audio).
1024 for D1-rezzed MPEG2, MPEG1 or Real is gonna look not so good.

If you do want to go with one of those codecs, you'll probably want to downrez (resize) to 1/4D1 aka 352x240 (VCD size).

If you're trying to distribute via the web, strictly for computer use, I'd avoid those older codecs.

Scott