avi to mp4 converter for mac

April 22, 2009 4:54 PM

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.
posted by tim_in_oz to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: Best one I've found for Macs (or easiest to use, at least) is iSquint. It is no longer being updated but still works fine (the last version was 1.5.2). It is free, all you get is a non-instrusive dialogue box after you convert asking you to upgrade to VisualHub.
posted by good in a vacuum at 5:05 PM on April 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

mencoder (part of the mplayer package) and ffmpeg (the utility that comes with the ffmpeg libraries, which are also used by mplayer and mencoder) are open source utilities designed for this sort of thing. They run on the command line and you may need to build them from source, but they will run on a ppc mac. Both of these programs can be a bit complicated in terms of command line options, but once you figure out a command line that works, you can reuse it.

Here is a link to some mencoder command line examples.
posted by idiopath at 5:05 PM on April 22, 2009

Seconding iSquint. Using it is intuitive, and it converts avi to mp4 with no trouble.
posted by rtha at 5:07 PM on April 22, 2009

I used iSquint when I had a 5G iPod. Perfect results.
posted by rokusan at 5:18 PM on April 22, 2009

Handbrake or iSquint/VisualHub.
posted by kcm at 5:40 PM on April 22, 2009

Response by poster: Hivemind: you rock. iSquint is exactly the simple lightweight application I'm looking for. Thanks a bunch.
posted by tim_in_oz at 6:22 PM on April 22, 2009