What is the most versatile video converter for an Apple Mac running OSX?

[SheerGold]

I have some videos that I want to put on an Archos AV500. The AV500 is a small portable video player with a 4" screen.

Some of the videos were downloaded from the web.
Some are actual DVD's.
The videos are in a wide range of formats, many of which do not play on the Archos AV500.

So I am looking for a video converter that is very versatile. Plus hopefully fast as well. Obviously a free one would be preferable to one that I have to pay for.

I have tried ffmpegX and iSquint. But neither works with all files that I need to convert.

All advice appreciated.

Thanks.

[terryj]

your missing a vital step...you FIRST need to find out what video
type ( codecs) the Archos likes. Cheaper made players
(ie., non ipod) have stricter specifications moreso due
to keep the cost down, the manufactures often
forego paying licensing fees for support of wider range of codecs
(like h.264) and instead opt to support one / the cheapest standard.
(like divx)

The Archos supports the following:

the AV500 looks like a surefire PVP champ. However, before you pull out your credit card, keep in mind that getting video on to the device is a lot more complicated and time-consuming than with iTunes and the new iPod. Indeed, the AV500 is best suited to tech-savvy users who have patience for its manual, VCR-like recording process.

Before connecting the Archos AV500 to your PC, you need to decide what mode to put it in: Hard Drive or Windows Device. [snip]It's worth noting that to access any of the bundled software--which consists primarily of the freeware video-conversion utility VirtualDub and the Archos front-end MPEG-4 Translator--you'll have to put the AV500 in Hard Drive mode. Archos doesn't supply a software CD; everything comes on the device's drive, except the necessary DivX codec, which you'll have to find and download yourself. Curiously, Archos also supplies Windows Media Player 9, even though the manual focuses primarily on version 10 and autosync requires it.

After installing VirtualDub and MPEG-4 Translator, you'll use the latter to set up AVI and MPEG-1 conversions; MPEG-2 isn't supported, alas. It's an easy program to work with, except that it doesn't list the AV500 as a potential target device--only older Archos models. If you choose Archos Default as suggested in the manual, the default LCD output resolution doesn't take full advantage of the available screen resolution. You'll have to fiddle with the settings manually.

Once you're actually playing video on the Archos AV500 or an external TV, you can adjust the aspect ratio using any of these three settings: Auto, Maximized, or Full Picture. There's also a slow-motion mode with three speed settings, as well as a bookmark option. Don't worry if you forget to set a bookmark; the main menu features a handy Resume option that automatically returns you to wherever you left off. Basically, once you have playable video on the AV500, the device and its software are a true joy to use.

If I were you, I'd get DIVX loaded onto the device, and then experiment in ffmpegx
( which isn't free, I'd wish people would stop saying that),
or get a copy of VisualHub, iSquint's big brother, and encode to mpeg-4 (xvid).
Try the smallest setting ( 320 x 240) and work your way up
until you get the best file size in best quality to playback successfully.

[tomlee59]

I have some videos that I want to put on an Archos AV500. The AV500 is a small portable video player with a 4" screen.

Some of the videos were downloaded from the web.
Some are actual DVD's.
The videos are in a wide range of formats, many of which do not play on the Archos AV500.

So I am looking for a video converter that is very versatile. Plus hopefully fast as well. Obviously a free one would be preferable to one that I have to pay for.

I have tried ffmpegX and iSquint. But neither works with all files that I need to convert.

All advice appreciated.

Thanks.

For the specific task of DVD-to-Divx conversion, an excellent (and truly free) tool is D-Vision3. It is easy to use "out of the box" but also allows more advanced users to tailor conversion parameters to taste. However, the defaults it does choose will generally be satisfactory to most users.

[rumplestiltskin]

MPEG Streamclip is worth a try.