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smileLP · Mar 1, 2007, 06:20 PM

i've tried several; they all have probs/glitches

has anybody out there on the forum found something simple and easy that works well?

(i've found toast burns avi's, AND you can edit avi's, but not so (for either) w/mpgs.

thanks!

Chuckit · Mar 1, 2007, 06:53 PM

There is no specific "avi" format anymore. That extension is used for everything from DivX to Windows Media to Ogg. What are you trying to do?

Also, QuickTime Pro can normally edit MPEGs, and Toast can burn them. Unless you're talking about MPEG-2, which costs money for the codec.

smileLP · Mar 1, 2007, 07:10 PM

>>QuickTime Pro can normally edit MPEGs<<

i've tried to see how to do this; i have QT pro. can you briefly tell me the steps? thanks

in answer to your question, i DL music videos from the web and like to compile them on 1 disc. they're frequently mpgs, which toast wont' burn (unless you can tell me what i'm doing wrong). it seems to like .avi or .mov, but not .mpg

Chuckit · Mar 1, 2007, 07:28 PM

Unfortunately, I'm not at the place I used to work that had QuickTime Pro, so I can't remember if I had to do anything special. I thought it just worked. But anyway, QuickTime Pro should be able to export them into any other format QuickTime Supports. I use QTAmateur (a free program that includes the less fancy features of QuickTime Pro) to do this all the time.

mduell · Mar 1, 2007, 07:56 PM

AVI is just a container; it says nothing about what's inside. Heck, you can probably wrap MPEG in AVI if you want.

Big Mac · Mar 1, 2007, 08:37 PM

Yeah, you can mduell.

Jacke · Mar 2, 2007, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Also, QuickTime Pro can normally edit MPEGs, and Toast can burn them. Unless you're talking about MPEG-2, which costs money for the codec.

That depends on what you mean with "edit". AFAIK, you can't even copy-paste MPEG files as of version 7(?). Even before that it was never real editing, ie. save back to MPEG.

But anyway, QuickTime Pro should be able to export them into any other format QuickTime Supports.

Apart from that Quicktime won't export sound from MPEG files.

If you want to edit and convert MPEG files, check out MPEG Streamclip, an app that started out good and just seems to be getting better with each version. For just conversion to DivX/Xvid, have a look at ffmpegX.

smileLP · 05:50 PM

>>If you want to edit and convert MPEG files, check out MPEG Streamclip, an app that started out good and just seems to be getting better with each version. For just conversion to DivX/Xvid, have a look at ffmpegX.<<

thanks for these suggestions, jake

i actually use ffmpegX, but when i plunk an avi file/movie in on the left, no matter which setting i choose on the right, it always transfers it to an avi or mov at about half the total file size, and you can tell the loss of quality. so that's not a great solution (do you know which setting on the right i should be choosing to get full size file conversions? is there one?)

as for streamclip, i think i tried it a year or two ago and for some reason found it wanting. maybe i'll take another look, esp. since you say it's been improved. i have version 1.5.1. should i update? when i just now saved my mpg as a QT movie, it blew it up to 10X the file's original size. the avi setting produced a weird error msg, but the 2nd time i tried it it sorta worked, w/just a slight loss in quality (same file size), but no sound (maybe that related to the error msg. "error/can't set the compression buffer"

thanks again