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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Converting movies to iPhone format?

Converting movies to iPhone format?
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salaryman
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Nov 19, 2007, 04:54 AM
 
Hi

Can anyone recommend software for the Mac which will allow me to convert movies to the iPhone/iPod format? Is there anything which will convert DivX?

Failing that, how about software for Win32?

Cheers
     
philm
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Nov 19, 2007, 08:07 AM
 
The 'Export' function in Quicktime Player (Pro version) has an iPhone option, so that should work. If you can play the Divx movie, then you should be OK to export it in my experience.
     
salaryman  (op)
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Nov 19, 2007, 08:12 AM
 
Thanks, but I'm not paying for Quicktime Pro. I use the excellent open-source VLC for playing movies.

I've just come across this excellent piece of software which does the job perfectly:

iSquint - iPod Video Made Easy.

:-)
     
Nexus5
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Nov 19, 2007, 12:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by salaryman View Post
Hi

Can anyone recommend software for the Mac which will allow me to convert movies to the iPhone/iPod format? Is there anything which will convert DivX?

Failing that, how about software for Win32?

Cheers
     
analogika
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Nov 19, 2007, 03:51 PM
 
No, not Spam.

iSquint is free, and it's been plugged (by myself, among others), DOZENS of times in this forum - is, in fact, a Search for "iPod video convert" or somesuch would have turned up to the original poster.
     
legacyb4
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Nov 29, 2007, 02:45 PM
 
Agreed. iSquint is a pretty handy tool to have in any toolbox of media apps, especially since it's free.
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mullum
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Nov 29, 2007, 07:17 PM
 
Sometimes I use VisualHub, particularly if I want some level of control over the settings or Im converting a batch. Otherwise in Leopard, I just use the export function in Quicktime as mentioned earlier.
     
cSurfr
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Dec 11, 2007, 01:42 PM
 
Another vote for VisualHub, it's fast and the quality is outstanding. Not to mention that it can convert for other formats as well, including AppleTV, PSP, etc. . . .
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stevesnj
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Dec 11, 2007, 10:45 PM
 
I have been using Visual hub for a month now and love it. It has an excellent function to prep video for Final Cut Pro among other features.
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Big-C
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Dec 12, 2007, 03:10 PM
 
Another vote here for VisualHub - pretty excellent software.

I don't know if these are the best settings (I'm sure someone here will set me straight!) but what I do is convert all my movies to the iPhone preset, then put the quality at "Go Nuts". So far this way I can put any of my movies on either my iPhone or watch them on my AppleTV and they all look perfectly fine.

Regardless, throwing everything in VisualHub and just letting it work all night on converting everything is great - I've never had it crash or produce a bogus conversion.
     
dreaver
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Dec 12, 2007, 11:36 PM
 
VisualHub is cool, another vote for it
     
Tiny-E
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Dec 17, 2007, 06:17 PM
 
Do I have to pay for Visualhub?
Does it work for Leopard?
     
mdc
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Dec 17, 2007, 08:15 PM
 
Yes
Yes
     
SEkker
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Dec 17, 2007, 08:31 PM
 
Right click on a movie file in iTunes and it can convert files as well.

Some differences between the 3 software solutions here:

iSquint - free, but does not use dual processors when it encodes, kind of slow compared to others. Can process a queue of files.

Visual Hub - need to pay for it, uses dual processors, I found it to still be slower than iTunes. Can make a queue, tho.

iTunes - Dual processor aware, free, files are larger than standard iSquint/Visual Hub (but probably better quality). No queue.

Hardware options include Elgatos H.264 Turbo - mine has been ordered and is on its way.
     
Graymalkin
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Dec 20, 2007, 04:50 AM
 
I've found that QuickTime's iPhone preset tends to be of a little better quality than iSquint's output. If your source video is larger than 480x360 it needs to be downscaled to fit and iSquint (which uses libvacodec, ffmpeg's library) does a poor job of this (IMO). In 7.3 an "Export to Web" feature was added that exports a movie to three presets; 3GP for iPhone, a normal iPhone movie, and a full resolution "Desktop" movie with a reference movie pointing to the three. This is useful for putting the files on the web as the name suggests. The reference movie has bandwidth rules set so viewing it on an iPhone will use one of the two iPhone movies based on your bandwidth (EDGE or WiFI) and then the full resolution movie if viewed on a PC. It will also create a poster frame for the movie and an HTML snippet to easily include in a web page.
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