Comments on: How do I deal with Indeo Video 5 on OS X?

Question: How do I deal with Indeo Video 5 on OS X?

Steve3 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:21:27 -0800

I have a set of 45 short videos that I need to batch convert to anything that plays nicely with Quicktime on OS X, which is almost anything but the .avi with Indeo Video 5 they're in now. I tried QT Pro, ffmpeg and VisualHub before reading that Indeo and OS X just don't work together. I have a MacBook with WinXP under Parallels to work with, but I don't know video conversion on Windows at all. It seems like VirtualDub would help, but I can't figure out the batch conversions. My attempts yield me responses like "the function SetMode was called on a stream [?] that hasn't been previously initalized with SetSource". Say what?

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:50:33 -0800

According to this page you should be able to view Indeo Video 5 compressed files in Quicktime under WinXP with the proper codecs. If you can, you should be able to use Quicktime Pro's export functionality to save them out to MOVs. It won't be fun doing it by hand but it should work.

For that matter, why not just install the Windows version of FFMpeg if you're familiar with that software?

By: nathancaswell

nathancaswell — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:53:17 -0800

Or boot into classic if you can and do it in Quicktime Pro there.

By: Steve3

Steve3 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:09:56 -0800

I'm familiar with ffmpegX- the Win version I found isn't quite as friendly.

Booting into classic isn't an option- I have an Intel Mac.

I dug around a bit more, and VirtualDub is batch processing them, based on a job file built by VDubBatcher. With Cinepack output, the exported files play in OS X.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:43:17 -0800

Have you tried Mediacoder? I've found it pretty good in the "convert anything to anything" stakes, and now that it has "wizards" for common conversions, it's easy to use.

Otherwise, to automate things in VirtualDub, use the "Job Control" option in the file menu, and get it to add a whole folder.

By: bkeene12

bkeene12 — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:03:32 -0800

Use iSquint. It is free but they accept donations. It will do the job for .avi files with no problem... http://isquint.com/. I use it on my Mac all the time. It is drag and drop, hit start and you are done.

By: melorama

melorama — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:47:59 -0800

bkeene12: "Use iSquint. It is free but they accept donations. It will do the job for .avi files with no problem... "

Uh...did you actually try this before making the suggestion to use iSquint? If VisualHub didn't work for Steve, iSquint certainly isn't gonna work for him either, considering the fact that iSquint is just a dumbed down version of VisualHub.

I am having similar problems with IV5 on my MBP, and so far the only workaround I've been able to figure out is to run Parallels, as Steve mentioned. It's a big pain in the ass, though, since Parallels does not recognize Firewire drives, so I have to copy all my IV5 (and even worse, that horrible, but ubiquitous-in-the-late-90s, I263 codec) videos to my internal drive first.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 06:07:59 -0800

Super is GPL, runs on Windows and is supposed to convert video from any format to any format with a nice GUI.

By: Steve3

Steve3 — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 06:54:51 -0800

Right, iSquint, VLC, or anything OS X won't handle IV5 input. I'm sure this is one place MacOS is not the right tool for the job.

I went to the Super link, found my way to 4 download options, and none of them get me a file, using either firefox or IE.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 09:05:44 -0800

Hope their product is better than its truly dreadful website.

Here's an alternative download source, which should be OK despite all the FUD on the Erightsoft site.

By: jbelkin

jbelkin — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:04:18 -0800

If the resolution is not too limiting, there's also the free ipod video converter.

By: bkeene12

bkeene12 — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 20:16:50 -0800

burp, sorry about that. One should not drink and answer questions... my bad.