[sethirty]

Hi. I'm a funny case: I use a Mac at work and love it, but at home I use Windows XP.

I recently have been trying out iLife '08 and it reminded me why I so like Macs. I'd like to switch at home, but I'm having trouble figuring out ways to do the stuff I want to do. The inability to find easy replacements for my XP software was why I didn't switch a while ago. It would be great if you guys could help. Here are my conundrums.

I'd really like the Mac solutions to be at least as easy as the Windows solutions, too. In other words, I don't want to have to replace a nice, graphical Windows program with all sorts of command line hacking on the Mac. This has to be possible, right?

OK. Here we go.

1. Editing all sorts of video, especially MPEG2; also, capturing video into compressed formats for editing. Right now I use Pinnacle Studio 10. I have a vast quantity of video which I've captured from a DV camera directly into MPEG2, and I want to still be able to manipulate. I also record video at the rate of about an hour a month, so I need to capture and store it in a compressed format. Since the video always ends up on DVD, I've been using MPEG2 to avoid further transcoding when I burn. iMovie '08 will NOT take existing MPEG2 files for editing, making it useless for me. Final Cut Express seems to cost $300 and that's too much for the VERY SIMPLE editing I do. I'm not doing complex stuff - I just need the FORMAT support. There are so many video editing programs on XP that do this for around $100 - is there a $100 program or a workaround on the Mac? I'll probably be using iMovie for future projects, but I can't lose access to my existing years of video.

2. Creating video DVDs from a range of source formats including MPEG2 (mandatory) XVID (mandatory) and WMV9 (not so mandatory.) Right now I use Nero, which is awesome. You can drag and drop almost any file on earth into Nero Vision, and pow, you have a nice DVD to play in your living room. I haven't been able to find an easy equivalent on the Mac, especially to burn my precious XVIDs. When I search for options, they all seem to involve extensive command line hacking.

3. Transcoding, transcoding, transcoding. XVID to MP4. MP4 to MP2. etc etc etc for iPod, AppleTV, 3GP-compliant mobile phones, whatever. Right now I use the free Videora converter apps on the PC - they're great - one button. For more extensive work I use MediaCoder.

4. Transferring over a lot of material from Outlook 2003. Several years of my life are in Outlook 2003, including calendars and especially thousands of old mail messages. If I switch to Mac, I need to have that old data accessible and searchable in some way.

Those are the mandatory walls I've run into. A minor plus would be an equivalent to Microsoft Streets & Trips, which I use to plan trips. But that isn't as important. Can you guys suggest ways that I can switch to Mac but still do what I need?

THANKS!

[Big Mac]

Glad to have you migrating to OS X. I don't have many suggestions for you, but as far as Final Cut Express, a cheaper way to obtain it is to get an older version and an upgrade to the newest version. And as for Nero, the Mac equivalent goes by the name Toast.

[adamfishercox]

Sounds like you may want Final Cut Studio, which has a hefty price tag.

Also, try Microsoft Office. It has Entourage, which is the Mac version of Outlook. I've never used it, but I can't imagine they wouldn't have at least SOME Outlook compatibility.

[sethirty]

Thanks, guys. Here are my issues and where I've run into walls in the past. Hopefully you can help me get beyond them.

1. I use Entourage at work. Entourage is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT program - you can't import Outlook files into it. Microsoft's "PST importer" only allow you to import Mac Outlook into Mac Entourage - not PC Outlook into Mac Entourage!

2. I am not a super duper video editor. I don't want to spend mega $ on a video editing program with tons of features I don't need. All I need is simple editing for a variety of video formats. On the PC I can do it with Pinnacle Studio, Ulead VideoStudio, Nero Vision etc and they're all under $100. Is there really no solution for Mac?

3. I just looked up Toast and I'm willing to buy it but I can't tell ... can I drag and drop XVID and MPEG2 (AVI and MPG containers) into the application to create video DVDs from those kinds of files? What file formats does it support to create video DVDs?

Thanks! I didn't think my needs were very outrageous ... really, it should be stuff a lot of people are doing ... right?

[adamfishercox]

iMovie '06 on the Mac is free. It's very powerful for simple video editing, too.

And Apple Mail might be able to take Oultook stuff...

[mduell]

Originally Posted by sethirty 

1. Editing all sorts of video, especially MPEG2; also, capturing video into compressed formats for editing. Right now I use Pinnacle Studio 10. I have a vast quantity of video which I've captured from a DV camera directly into MPEG2, and I want to still be able to manipulate. I also record video at the rate of about an hour a month, so I need to capture and store it in a compressed format. Since the video always ends up on DVD, I've been using MPEG2 to avoid further transcoding when I burn. iMovie '08 will NOT take existing MPEG2 files for editing, making it useless for me. Final Cut Express seems to cost $300 and that's too much for the VERY SIMPLE editing I do. I'm not doing complex stuff - I just need the FORMAT support. There are so many video editing programs on XP that do this for around $100 - is there a $100 program or a workaround on the Mac? I'll probably be using iMovie for future projects, but I can't lose access to my existing years of video.

Good luck there. I've been looking for something like Womble or nanopeg for OS X for years, but I haven't seen anything as simple yet powerful and flexible.
Quicktime Pro ($30) + the MPEG2 plugin ($20) may do it for you depending on exactly what you're looking for.

Originally Posted by sethirty 

2. Creating video DVDs from a range of source formats including MPEG2 (mandatory) XVID (mandatory) and WMV9 (not so mandatory.) Right now I use Nero, which is awesome. You can drag and drop almost any file on earth into Nero Vision, and pow, you have a nice DVD to play in your living room. I haven't been able to find an easy equivalent on the Mac, especially to burn my precious XVIDs. When I search for options, they all seem to involve extensive command line hacking.

Toast supports AVI, DV, MOV, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, VOB, VIDEO_TS folder, iMovie projects, EyeTV recordings, and TiVoToGo transfers.

Originally Posted by sethirty 

3. Transcoding, transcoding, transcoding. XVID to MP4. MP4 to MP2. etc etc etc for iPod, AppleTV, 3GP-compliant mobile phones, whatever. Right now I use the free Videora converter apps on the PC - they're great - one button. For more extensive work I use MediaCoder.

(free) ffmpegX a DVD, SVCD, VCD, CVD, VOB, DivX, XviD, H.264, PSP, iPod, MP4, MOV encoder for Mac OSX
($25) VisualHub: The Universal Video Converter for Mac.

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

iMovie '06 on the Mac is free. It's very powerful for simple video editing, too.

And it completely fails his #1 requirement of supporting MPEG2.

[adamfishercox]

With the QT MPEG2 Plug in it will, I think.

[Gavin]

Originally Posted by sethirty 

1. I use Entourage at work. Entourage is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT program - you can't import Outlook files into it. Microsoft's "PST importer" only allow you to import Mac Outlook into Mac Entourage - not PC Outlook into Mac Entourage!

You could try transferring the files into an imap account - just drag your files into a folder on the imap server. Now log in with the new software and there you go.

2. I am not a super duper video editor...

iMovie should do what you need - just buy apple's MPEG-2 Playback Component to add MPEG2 ($20). They have to charge you separately because of licensing issues.

3. I just looked up Toast and I'm willing to buy it but I can't tell ... can I drag and drop XVID and MPEG2 (AVI and MPG containers) into the application to create video DVDs from those kinds of files? What file formats does it support to create video DVDs?

It will play and convert anything quicktime can handle - you can also add DIVX (divx based mpeg4s) and flip4mac for WMV files. They both cost a few bucks for the "pro" versions that will allow you to convert not just playback.

All of these quicktime components together will cost less than $100

I think toast will do what you want drag and drop-wise, have a look at the user guide on adaptec's website

3. Transcoding, transcoding, transcoding. XVID to MP4. MP4 to MP2. etc etc etc for iPod, AppleTV, 3GP-compliant mobile phones, whatever.

Check out handbrake. Free and easy, just like a hippy

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Gavin 

Check out handbrake. Free and easy, just like a hippy

It also does none of the conversions he mentioned.