Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with avi

AVI-to-MP4 while preserving creation dates?

philosophygeek — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:06:08 -0800

I'd like to make a script to mass convert .avi files from my digital camera into iPod-sized .mp4 files, while preserving the creation dates from my camera. I'm on a (non-snowy) Leopard mac. My current workflow involves getting my movies off the camera through iPhoto and then exporting/converting the files to .mp4 via MPEG Streamclip. The downside is that the new .mp4 files have the current date/time rather than the time that the movie was taken on the camera, which messes up my organizational system. I'm sure there's a way to automate the creation date conversion, but I don't know how.

Free methods are obviously preferable to paid ones.

What digital video format is best for the technologically impaired?

latentflip — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:09:53 -0800

I am pre-loading some flash drives with promotional material to give away to students. I want to put three videos on the drives, and I want them to be immediately viewable by anyone, regardless of their level of technical ability. What's the best format? .avi? .mov? .mp4? other?

And if I'm working on a Mac, what's your best recommendation for a piece of software to convert the videos?

Finding the right AVI encoder settings

Yakuman — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:21:34 -0800

How do I encode AVI files in Xvid or Divx according to the fashion often seen on bittorrent, where two hours of US TV, minus commercials, fits on one CD?

Best way to marry my hard drive to my TV

Billegible — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:45:19 -0800

Is XBMC on an XBox still the best solution for playing home network media on my TV? I work from home and generally keep movies running on the TV all day (keeps my inner distractable imp distracted while the rest of me gets work done). This is probably why my DVD players have an average lifespan of less than a year, and I'm tired of buying new ones.
I'm looking to find a way to hook up my media-rich external drive to my TV so I can play stuff from there instead of the DVD player, at least sometimes.
I found this AskMe question from 2007 recommending modding an XBox, but two years is a long time in tech innovation, so I want to know if this is still the best way to go or has something better emerged form the primordial pixelated ooze since then? I've been seeing DVD players with USB ports, for example, but I'm not sure how those players would deal with various media formats (.avi, .iso, .mpg etc.)
I have an old, pre-HDTV TV that is still very nice, a low-end Sony DVD player (no USB port), a wii and a PS2, if any of those are of use.

Creating video from a program help

JohnGL — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:16:24 -0800

I'm looking for a library, package, product or some sample code in either JAVA or Visual Basic that would allow me to create a video from my program. I have some software tools I've developed and I'd like some functionality to my program that could take existing video clips and pictures and then assemble them into a video. I would like the final video format to be FLV however any popular format would do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Have a great one.

How to import AVI video files in Adobe Premiere Pro?

meta.mark — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:41:22 -0800

When I import an AVI video file I recorded on a Canon digital camera to Adobe Premiere Pro, it only shows up as a still picture with audio. Why does it do this and how can it be solved? We are creating a music video as a school project and we need Premiere to add effects. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does (screen) size matter?

murtagh — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:09:11 -0800

Why do movies (.avi files) look better when viewed using a DVD player than on a computer screen? Video files (.avi), especially lower-medium resolution videos, might look a bit pixellated when viewed on my computer (20" iMac). I'm assuming that that's due to the resolution/size of the video. But when I burn the same video(s) to a DVD (data DVD, same .avi format) and view them on the TV screen, they look extremely clear. Great quality, no blurring or pixellation, even though my TV screen is much larger than the iMac.

How does this work? Shouldn't it be the other way around, seeing as the TV screen is larger than the iMac screen?

avi to mp4 converter for mac

tim_in_oz — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:54:54 -0800

Ipodfilter: converting avi to mp4 files. Can anyone recommend any free utilities for converting .avi to .mp4 files suitable for playback on a 4th gen ipod? the software needs to run on a non-intel imac running 10.5.6. Thanks in advance.

How to easily convert DVD's to AVI

hungrysquirrels — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:53:17 -0800

I'm moving around a lot. Tired of dragging movie DVD's around. Not looking to make an iso copy (i.e. DVDShrink). Too much disk space. ~750MB avi's would be more ideal, but even as a software developer the options I've Googled are confusing. Is there a simple (i.e.1-button) DVD to AVI converter?

Minimum PC specs for playing HD video files?

wastelands — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:08:07 -0800

What are the minimum specs for a PC to play HD video files smoothly? I need to replace my ancient P4 2.8 GHz (w/onboard video) for several reasons, including that it chokes on some 720p videos during high action/movement scenes. Would your basic ~$480 Dell handle smooth playback of high def video files (.mkv, .avi) on VLC media player? Could I run other apps in the background (browser, IM, etc.) without input or video stutters and lag?

For example something like this:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (3MB L2, 2.8GHz, 1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Integrated Intel® GMA X4500HD Graphics

Or do I need more power?

Windows can bite me

showbiz_liz — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:59:40 -0800

Why is windows media player acting like my .avi files are music files? I just downloaded a video in .avi format, but when I try to play it, it acts like it's music and just displays that abstract video thing instead of the video I downloaded. I can hear the audio just fine, though! I tried to play it in Quicktime too and it didn't work at all, not sure why. But I have no reason to think I didn't download the entire thing correctly, it just isn't playing.

(I have no experience at all with this sort of thing at all, as you can probably tell.)

Ripping a TV series in Handbrake

snap_dragon — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:52:59 -0800

I can rip movies to Xvid using Handbrake and it is all good....it rips the movie but no special features which is fine....But lately, when I tried John Adams (miniseries) or the TV show the 4400, it only took one chunk out of the whole disc and ignored the other episodes. Is there a way around this so I can get all the episodes even if they are lumped into one .avi file? (I really don't mind all the fast-forwarding). Thanks...and to all of those reading/responding...have a great weekend.

subs on AVI?

saysthis — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:16:42 -0800

Two-part question about subtitles and DVD-to-AVI conversions: 1) How do I, using open-source software, "hard-burn" a subtitle file onto an AVI from a DVD source? 2) Even better, is there a video player that can load and display subtitle files to an avi format? What software & subtitle formatting should I be using? Extra points all around if your solutions handle Mandarin without encoding hitches. This would, if we can peg it down, revolutionize our translation workflow and save my organization innumerable hours of volunteer labor. We organize a film festival in Beijing, and currently, here's our translation workflow process:
1) Receive DVD from filmmaker
2) Convert to AVI for volunteer translators (and to avoid sub timing problems)
3) Receive finished subtitle file
4) Remux subtitle file back into DVD format
5) Burn & deliver DVD's to venues on show night and hope their players can handle our burns (or go to venue an extra time before show night to test)

If we could stamp out the remuxing phase, we can do one conversion to lossless AVI, and then play the lossless AVI on show night.
AND, we can avoid the headache of dealing with films that aren't English or Mandarin (we're in China and get movies from all over the world), because while we need to burn the discs to AVI for sub timing, we have a hard time importing English subtitles. For those we either have to find a native speaker of the languages concerned (and try to find a Dutch volunteer in Beijing who'll sit with you for 3 days while you attempt to translate his English explanations of dialogue into Chinese, just try it) or run a pesky time-consuming dual-machine setup.

Any answers would be much appreciated, and would save us tons of sleep deprivation this week as we approach the festival!

How do I convert mkv to avi?

fidelity — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:49:00 -0800

How do I convert mkv to avi, preferably without re-encoding? My understanding is that both mkv and avi are containers, so it seems like it should be possible to extract the video and audio from the mkv and then put them back together as an avi without having to actually convert the video. Is this right? If so, how do I do it?

I'd prefer a solution that will work in Ubuntu (command line OK), but XP is also fine. Also, since I have never managed to get avidemux to do anything other than freeze, avoiding it would definitely be OK with me.

My video editor suddenly can't see my video clips ... HALP!

jbickers — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:33:20 -0800

All of a sudden Premiere Elements doesn't know what to do with my AVI files. GAAHH! So about two weeks ago, I created this really elaborate video in Premiere Elements (7, the latest version, Vista). Lots of edits, lots of clips from lots of different source files, all of which were taken on a Flip camera. No problem, it worked great.

Today, I go back to make edits ... and all of my AVI files in the timeline are sound only, no video. (Actually, a tiny little bit of squiggly color along the bottom - it's like the whole video has been smooshed down to about ten pixels tall). I've got some still photos in this project, they're fine. It's just my AVIs.

When I open the source files in WMP, they play just fine. So there's nothing wrong with the AVIs. And the fact that I can play them in WMP means there's no missing codecs or anything like that (doesn't it?)

So, why is Premiere Elements doing this - and more to the point, how can I salvage this edit file with all of those dozens of edits and crossfades and so on? Is there some trick to re-associating them? I'm wracking my brain to think of something/anything on my computer that might have changed or been installed in the past two weeks, but I'm not aware of anything.

Borrowed camcorder uses obnoxious format. How to fix?

®@ — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:55:11 -0800

Converting ".mts" to ".avi?" I've been recording stuff for work on our office camcorder. The software that came with it is useless, it's basically Canon's "picture browsing" software that they just threw in the box (if there's a "video edit" software, it's not included or mentioned in the manual). I can pull the files off the camera via USB, but they're in MTS format. I need to edit these down into discrete clips, preferably as AVI's (Adobe Premiere). Tips? Advice? I've seen a handful of programs online that claim to be able to shift MTS to AVI, but they're in that "sketchy freeware might be adware" territory. Thoughts?

Best way to convert avi for youtube in ubuntu?

The_Partridge_Family — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:18:15 -0800

Recommended route for encoding avi to smaller file size for upload to youtube in ubuntu? Earlier today I shot an 8 minute movie on my Nikon point & shoot - the avi is 485Mb. I wish to upload this to youtube, so I'd like to reduce the file size. WinFF/ FFMPEG seemed the obvious route here, but when I convert the avi using the "flv for web use 4x3" setting, it compresses the file down to a nice 17.4Mb, but video only. If I select the "WMV2" setting, I get a 47.8Mb file that looks kinda crappy but it does have audio.

Is that as good as it gets? Am I using the correct settings? Is there a better route? Happy Holidays!

Avi to DIVX DVD?

Mitheral — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:51:54 -0800

How do I burn .avi/.mpg/.flv/.divx etc. to a DVD-R for use on a Divx enabled stand alone DVD player? Windows Vista home 32bit and Toshiba SD-V39K DVD/VCR combo (apparently Divx certified) similar to this model.

Help me merge avi files on a mac

citybuddha — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:59:12 -0800

Simple stuff. I am looking for a mac based application that will allow me to merge avi files. I have a flip camera and would like combine a number of sessions I shot with it. I am looking for share or freeware

Older versions of .avi on the Xbox 360

GaGaLoc — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:06:09 -0800

How do I play old .avi files on my Xbox 360? I know that the 360 does not support older versions of the .avi format so I'd like to know the best way to "up-convert" my videos to one of the newest versions. Any suggestions, preferably free?

Convert VOB w/ subtitles

pravit — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:46:59 -0800

How can I convert VOB files to AVI or some other format, but with embedded subtitles? I have VOB files which have a selectable subtitle track when you play them in VLC. I want to convert them to AVI or some other format, but with the subtitles embedded. Is there any simple way to do this? Please keep in mind I know next to nothing about video editing/compressing etc. Thanks!

WinAVI crapped out on Vista Premium 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such.

cheero — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:28:37 -0800

WinAVI crapped out on Vista Premium 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such? Thanks in advance WinAVI crapped out on Vista 64-bit. What other friendly converter such as WinAVI can I use instead to convert xvid/divx/etc to .vob files so I can burn them as a DVD with Nero and such?

Thanks in advance

convert vobs to avis with hardsubs?

kindachris — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:12:04 -0800

How do I add subtitles (hardsubs) to an xvid avi when converting from VOBs under FreeBSD? I have a handfull of VOBs that have embeded subtitle streams, and I want to convert to AVI with hardsubs.

Currently using ffmpeg to do the conversions, but I can't seem to find the options to make it hardsub. There has to be a way, right? I'm willing to compile/install whatever I need to.

For some reason, the only [somewhat] useful results I can turn up on Google want me to use Windows, which I'd rather not.

And just for the record: No, I'm not doing anything illegal. I have the license to do what I want with the DVDs ... I just don't want to pay the production company to do it for me.

Videoplayback in Vista

Iax — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:51:18 -0800

Windows Vista seems to have much worse video playback compared to Windows XP. Any way to fix this? I just got a new computer intel duo 8400 with 4 gigs of ram and two Nvidia 8800 GT in SLI.

Ive installed windows xp on one harddrive and windows vista on the 2nd harddrive. So I can easily boot into either one.

Neither XP or vista could play some my video files (just audio of the files), so I installed the CCCP (it also comes with Zplayer, which i like) and it works fine on XP, but in Vista the edges of moving stuff seem noticably blocky. Is there a way to fix this?
Playing XVID files in vista, this is the most noticable.
Also, after installing the cccp, windows media player can play the video, and the video looks finr, not blocky atall. but I hate the user interface for any version of windows media player.

converting avi to mac

dearleader — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:47:30 -0800

I've been sent a very short clip I'd like to use in a presentation, but, familiar problem here, it's an .avi sent from a Windows machine. All I can seem to coax out it for my MacBook Pro, using VLC, etc., is sound. Can anyone suggest the best way to go about generating a quicktime mov or some such, with video, from this clip for my Mac? Is there a way to get a Windows emulator, and covert it there for something to play back in the Mac environment? Or something easier? Thanks in advance for any suggestions...