Converting video files

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Posts
3,606
Location
Liverpool
Hi guys.

I've recently bought a video camera which records .mov files, and I'm not having much luck converting them to another format. I've been filming in 720p at 60fps and was trying to keep the same film size and frame rate, just change the format.

I was hoping to be able to open them using Microsoft movie maker, however it doesn't let me open .mov files. I've tried the bundled software (Presto! Video works), however the files it produce are either too small or with a noticeable drop in quality, none of the options do what I'm looking for. When saving as wmv it gives me a list of internet connection speeds to chose from rather than anything sensible :rolleyes:. I've also tried Rad Video tools, again trying all the codecs, which just gives me a black video or a message saying it can't be played back, but the sound is fine. I downloaded SUPER but my virus scanner flagged it up saying it had a virus so I've deleted that.

Does anyone know of a free program which is capable of doing this? I can upload a short video clip if anyone wants to have a play with what I'm trying to convert. I wouldn't be too surprised if I was just choosing the wrong settings tbh but I don't have much of an idea what's best to use. :(

Thanks.
 
Don't worry about the super virus warning, it's a false positive (assuming you got it from the official site). I used to get a warning with AVG, avast and avira don't flag it as a virus though. If you upload a clip i don't mind having a mess around to see what works best.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll have another go with SUPER then, see if I have a bit more luck with it.

I've uploaded a short clip - here (10.7MB)
 
What format do you want it in? Lucky for you, you might not have to reencode. Your camcorder seems to use h.264, so you can just strip it out of the .mov container and place into a new container format, something like a .mkv or .mp4 file if that suits you. Quick, and it doesn't lose any quality. Should be natively playable on a 360 in .mp4 too.
 
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I was hoping for anything that is editable with windows movie maker

The file types it lists to open are:
  • avi
  • mpg
  • mv1
  • mp2
  • mp2v
  • mpeg
  • mpe
  • mpv2
  • wm
  • wmv
  • asf

So any of those formats I think.
 
Ok, i can convert it to several of those using super, but one slight problem. Windows movie maker (xp) can only export files up to 720*576, and a max of 25fps. So it can certainly open and edit the files, but the output might be a bit crappy.
Here's the settings i used anyway, file size and quality looked about the same as the original to me.
settings.png
 
Ok, i can convert it to several of those using super, but one slight problem. Windows movie maker (xp) can only export files up to 720*576, and a max of 25fps. So it can certainly open and edit the files, but the output might be a bit crappy.
Here's the settings i used anyway, file size and quality looked about the same as the original to me.
snip

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it :) The converting worked with those settings.

I've found a profile for Windows Movie Maker which adds the option to export at 720p. It's still only 24fps though.

I got it from here (links near the bottom) and saved them to C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\shared\profiles if it's any interest to you. I'll have a play around with it but it looks like it should do the job.

Thanks again! :)
 
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