VOB or wmv to avi

[mauricemaurice]

Hi,

I have some video clips in the VOB format and some in wmv format. They play normally on my Intel Mac mini (running Tiger 10.4.11)
I copied some of those clips on a 8Gb Cruzer USB key, to transfer them to an Aigo digital photoframe. It didn't work. I then connected the key to a laptop (window XP) and plugged the photoframe on the laptop. This time, the files transferred allright but couldn't play back. The reason given by the support people was that the photoframe accepts only avi format. I tried to find a freeware for PCs that would convert my files but the two I tried did not work (or I failed to make them work0

I then remembered that I had a superb program called ffmpegX 0.0.9y that is well made and easy to use, but only works on Macs. So I thought why not let it convert those files to avi, and put them on my USB key for later transfer to the photoframe via the laptop.

With this in mind I launched ffmpegX and converted 2 videos, to try the avi format. Naturally, the first try was to play them on the Mac. Alas the result was a black screen. The copy of the files with a "wmv" suffix now had "wmv.ff.avi.avi"

Can somebody charitably tell me what went wrong?

[rumplestiltskin]

Try the free WMV components from Flip4Mac plus MPEG Streamclip.

[mauricemaurice]

Thank you for the quick answer, but could you please be more explicit?

[rumplestiltskin]

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

Download & install.

-and-

http://www.squared5.com/

Download & install. Pay attention to the "read me" regarding AVI.

Open the wmv file with MPEG Streamclip and "Export to AVI...". Set your parameters (sorry, can't help you there as I only export to MP4/H264) and save. Get a cup of coffee and wait for the export to complete. Watch video. Rinse. Repeat.

[mauricemaurice]

I already had MPEG Streamclip 1.8 but I downloaded the latest one as well and used it to open my shortest video clip (I don't drink coffee) I played it and saved it as avi on my desktop.
I then tried to play the avi file, but it only displayed a green screen. The progress bar slowly went from left to right without any movie playing.

My earlier attempt using ffmpegX yielded the same result except that the screen was black instead of green.

Can you possibly suggest something else?

[rumplestiltskin]

One last addition: Perian.

www.perian.org

This should resolve the non-playing AVI issue.

[mauricemaurice]

I followed your advice and installed Perian 1.1.3 It lives in the System Preferences folder. It cannot be opened like other apps, with menu and help. So how can I use it? Does it work in the background, by itself?

What I am trying to do is convert my .wmv or .VOB video clips into .avi format to enable them to be played by a digital photoframe. Can Perian do this? I tried ffmpegX and MPEG Streamclip. Neither worked.

[rumplestiltskin]

From the website:

Perian enables QuickTime application support for additional media:

* File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
* Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
* Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
* AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
* Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT

[mauricemaurice]

Yes, I read those things. It tells you all the things Perian can do, but not a word regarding HOW it is done. What is the user supposed to do to make use of this app?

[rumplestiltskin]

Perian is there simply to make the opening of these otherwise "foreign" formats happen in apps that operate under QuickTime (QuickTime Player, MPEG Streamclip, etc.). Once it's installed, it just informs the apps that it can open the file if QT, alone, cannot.

If just having Perian there doesn't let MPEG Streamclip resolve this issue for you, your problem lies elsewhere.

[MacDSL]

Ok, restart.. You have a WMV that plays fine in quicktime on your intel mini?

If yes, then you should be able to use Quicktime Pro to make the AVI file. If you export from Quicktime Pro, you can do "movie to AVI" and that might work....

If that works, then For the VOB files You could just use Handbrake to convert the VOB to .m4v or .h264 format and check the movie in Quicktime and export it using the "Movie to AVI" again and you would be all set...

Just test to see if it works, we can improve the quality of the end files later..