How to convert mp4 video

[Guest fallwood]

Ive got some video on my mda compact taken in mp4 mode that I want to convert to another format, I can play it on pc through quicktime but none of my video encoding programs (movie factory, tmpgenc, avi to dvd,media encoder) will accept the files, how do I convert these files to a different format.

[Guest fallwood]

Surely someone must know how to convert mp4 to mpeg/avi, anyone ???.

[Guest MitchellO]

If you have Quicktime pro, you can export it to AVI file with the Cinpak codec. The original video quality isn't that great, so the Cinepak codec works fine. I just converted a 54kb MP4, and in AVI (Cinepak video codec) it went to 258kb! But it worked, and TMPGEnc was able to read it no prob.

See the settings I used in both apps. MPG file came out as 181kb, but you could probably use a lower bitrate to bring that down.

Edited June 9, 2005 by MitchellO

[Guest JPo_23]

When I play an MP4 in quicktime pro I don't get any sound. Anyone know how to remedy this?

[Guest vegasbaby]

Surely someone must know how to convert mp4 to mpeg/avi, anyone ???.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

@fallwood

there are afew ways to do it, but what format do you need it in, and for why> Archiving, playback or burning to VCD/DVD?

[Guest MitchellO]

What version of Quicktime are you using? I was using version 6.5.1.

[Guest fallwood]

@fallwood

there are afew ways to do it, but what format do you need it in, and for why>  Archiving, playback or burning to VCD/DVD?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I want to put the clips to a dvd for a mate, he doesnt have a pc (weirdo) but does have a dvd player. Do i have to buy quicktime pro, dont want to fork out any more cash as ive already paid for moviefactory,tmpgenc etc.

[Guest vegasbaby]

I want to put the clips to a dvd for a mate, he doesnt have a pc (weirdo) but does have a dvd player. Do i have to buy quicktime pro, dont want to fork out any more cash as ive already paid for moviefactory,tmpgenc etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't worry about the mp4 format. It's really the best container format out there, and you can playback, encode and burn with it just like you can with avi using a variety of tools, many free.

OK, the first one is Nero. Most poeple have it anyway, but it's the full Nero Reloaded, as opposed to the OEM version you get free with a lot of DVD burners. Nero is pushing the mp4 format more than any other company at the moment and you can drop an mp4 file straight into NeroVision Express and it will burn it to DVD.

If you want to make use of your other software, (TMPGEnc is an excellent quality MPEG2 (DVD) encoder), than I'd probably recommend MP4UI http://mp4ui.sourceforge.net/

It's a tiny freeware program the takes an mp4 file and allows you to export the video and audio to separate files - .avi for the video and .aac for the audio. You can then convert the audio to a wav file and import them into TMPGEnc.

For playing mp4 files (through any DirectShow player like Windows Media Player) you basically need 3 things: An MPEG4 video decoder, an MPEG4 audio decoder and an mp4 splitter to seperate the two streams. These can also be downloaded freeware.

Video Decoder: ffdshow is generally considered to be the best and can also decode your mpg, avi (divx, xvid etc), DVD and other files with greater efficiency. http://x264.nl/

Audio Decoder: I use CoreAAC at rarewares http://www.rarewares.org/aac.html, but ffdshow seems to decode it too, along with every other audio format.

Splitter: Matroska splitter http://x264.nl/ (again) or the 3ivx suite http://www.3ivx.com

Of course nero and quicktime use their own built in filters, but a lot of people prefer using Windows Media Player, and strangely Microsoft haven't been too supportive of the standard mp4 in favour of their own proprietry wmv/wma formats!

Don't be too hasty to convert mp4 to other formats before you burn or playback, you can lose quality in the process. All my DVDs and CDs are backed up on my PC in mp4 and m4a format, and are better quality for it.

These are just some of the tools out there. If you want to know more I really recommend http://www.doom9.org, it has everything you need to know about video.

[Guest vegasbaby]

I can't vouch for it's quality, and I haven't tested it, but I've just found the following on a google search:

http://mp4cam2avi.sourceforge.net/index.htm

For a 'one-click' solution this should convert your mp4s, if you need them for another editing application.

[Guest MitchellO]

Don't be too hasty to convert mp4 to other formats before you burn or playback, you can lose quality in the process. All my DVDs and CDs are backed up on my PC in mp4 and m4a format, and are better quality for it.

If you are taking video on the camera in the Magician, I don't think quality is at the top of the list of considerations! In the method I used, I didn't lose any quality. Can't vouch for the other ideas though.