Apple Quicktime HDV to AVI,or at least a windows compatible editing format

[SuperDre]

I've browsed the forums, but I haven't found any info on this specific subject. (using google on the subject gives me some information that a lot of people are having the same problems, but everytime the applefanboys tell people to just export the footage again with another codec, but that's not an option in this case)
The problem I have is the following:
I've received a dvd from a friend of mine with his 'raw' video for me to edit, but they are in Apple's HDV quicktime format. I cannot play the video using Quicktime (7.5.5) itself (only sound is heard), but VLCplayer plays the files correctly..
So I need a program to convert the .mov to any other format with which premiere could work with no loss in quality to the original file.. (I don't mind any increase in filesize ofcourse)..
Looking at the codec information in the VLCplayer it says it's using 'mpgv' for video and 'sowt' for audio..
So which program can I use to simply convert the video from one format to the other without me having to set sooo many settings..

[Baldrick]

What does mediainfo say(video and audio codec)?

You can try mpeg streamclip and convert to avi with some codec.

[poisondeathray]

"Apple's HDV Quicktime format" ? Do you mean ProRes? If so, install Apple ProRes Quicktime Decoder for Windows (assuming you are using PC), and you should be able to view with QTplayer

You can then use Vdub with the QT plugin directly and save lossless using lagarith .avi

or you can use QTInput() with avisynth and frameserve into any encoder that uses lossless compression

[thomseye]

"Apple's HDV Quicktime format" ? Do you mean ProRes? If so, install Apple ProRes Quicktime Decoder for Windows (assuming you are using PC), and you should be able to view with QTplayer

You can then use Vdub with the QT plugin directly and save lossless using lagarith .avi

or you can use QTInput() with avisynth and frameserve into any encoder that uses lossless compression

I'm not sure about this "ProRes" thing with Apple QT... but are you saying that I can edit my files using vdub/qt plugin and lagarith losslessly? For now, I'm editing and then re-encoding to the exact specs, but would much rather losslessly edit my HD-CAM files the same way I have done for years with AVI and MPG. Below are the specs from MediaInfo: (what is AMBA, btw?)

File Name: Zi6_0070.MOV

Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
Overall bit rate : 8560 Kbps
Origin : Digital Camera
AMBA :


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format profile : Main@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Bit rate mode : Variable
Width : 1280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.000
Title : Ambarella AVC / Ambarella AVC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40

-----------------------------------

Thanks for your help. and yes I've searched the site and google and after a few hours began getting quite dizzy. I'm no new-bee but editing HD/MOV losslessly is new for me.

peace
thomseye

[poisondeathray]

Ambarella is a company that makes hardware solutions for h.264

This is just plain h.264/aac - nothing special , you can use a lossless intermediate e.g. lagarith, huffyuv , but then you would probably export to another format (i.e re-encode the lossless format, to make the size smaller - this stage would cause some quality loss)

But if you just have simple edits only (e.g. cuts, joining), quicktime pro should even work without the intermediate (i.e. lossless edits, and retain the .mov container). Mpegstreamclip + QT Alternative should be able to do this too for free if you don't have QT Pro

[thomseye]

i have qt pro, but found its editing features lame... however, if I can remove footage from a video file (similar to removing commercials in an mpg) and save/export the resulting file using QT Pro, then that is the way to go it would seem. As it is now, exporting (re-encoding) is taking about 2hrs for 10min video.

I'll look into... and thanks for your quick response.

[poisondeathray]

I hate quicktime. The only reason I have the pro version is because it handles editing .mov files well, and I sometimes need that for some of my projects. Many of the other editors don't handle some video formats inside the .mov container very well.

The simple edits are done with "I" and "O" keys to mark in/ mark out , then you could push delete for example to delete the commercial or segment, alternatively you could use cntrl+c to copy the segment etc....and paste it somewhere else....etc...

The remaining footage when you are done your edits can be passed through i.e. no re-encoding, so that is the big benefit of QT pro.