ASF --> MOV?

December 27, 2006 6:24 AM

Can I convert ASF to a mac-friendly format for editing?

I was just gifted a very inexpensive video camera (it's an Aiptek MPVR+ if that matters). It's the type of digital video camera that writes directly to a SD card as an ASF (MPEG-4 encoded). I can play the video on my mac with VLC (it won't open in QT or iMovie), but I haven't found a way to edit it (preferably in iMovie), and that's a must for what I wanted the camera for in the first place.

Since I don't know if I'll actually use it like I hope to, I'd rather not spend additional $$$ to upgrade to something that'll play friendly with my mac just yet.

What are my options?

posted by 10ch to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Try out MPEG Streamclip.

It's open source. You'll want to convert the files to:

DV NTSC Codec.
48khz audio (16 bit stereo.)

Once you've done this, (and tested it) you can save it as a setting. Then just pull the stuff from your camera and convert it quickly for the future.
posted by filmgeek at 7:16 AM on December 27, 2006

OP, here...
Thanks for the recommendation, filmgeek. I (bizarrely) already had MPEG Streamclip installed, so I just tried it. It managed to convert the audio, but the video is a black screen. Here's the data provided when I select "Show Stream Info" ... any ideas?

Stream: CLIP0003.ASF

Duration: 0:01:35
Data Size: 33.56 MB
Bit Rate: 2.94 Mbps

Video Tracks:
?, 640 × 480, ~30.303 fps

Audio Tracks:
Microsoft ADPCM mono, 11.025 kHz

Stream Files:
CLIP0003.ASF (33.56 MB)
posted by 10ch at 8:14 AM on December 27, 2006

ASF is proprietary and patent-encumbered by Microsoft, and likely the lack of tools licensed to work with this format factors into the price of the camera. That said, I haven't come across anything that can edit this format (and I've looked a bit). Try snooping around vcdhelp.com, maybe there's some old software that can deal with it, or maybe some kind of underground solution.
posted by rhizome at 8:37 AM on December 27, 2006

That ? mark is the killer. I tried it, btw, with some asf files here (and it worked.) But there's defintly a codec discrepancy.

VLC technically can do the conversion to something else...

You also might want to try playing around with VLC's Wizard (yes, really, under the file menu.) I played with it and had no real good output, but I'm not as determined as you are. Realistically changing it to any format that quicktime can recognize will permit iMovie to use it.

This guy did something with this camera brand and FFMPeg.
posted by filmgeek at 9:50 AM on December 27, 2006