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Hey, I am a new mac user and I am putting together this video in iMovie. I have downloaded some avi files and imported them into iMovie...however when I go to look at the clips, they say taht there is no duration, and its just a black screen. I have looked at some other topics on this board, but my question wasn't really answered....I think, from what I gathered, iMovie does not support avi files....so, is there a program I can use to convert them? Thanks a lot...
Jessica
Imovie does support avi, its the basic file type for uncompressed video. So, may I ask is this the first time you have used imovie? - I just don't want to explain the basic's if its not needed
No problem. Connect your camera to your firewire port and import your footage (you may have done this already) your clips should be displayed in the clip view, if they are there great if not choose file import and navigate to where you saved your clips. then simply drag the clip your want onto your time line at the bottom of the imovie window, then the next clip and the next until you have your finished time line- add any music or photos in a simliar way just choosing the photos and audio views
.avi is NOT a video compression method.
it is a socalled
wrapper, or container, same as .mov on the Mac's side
wrapper means: this file contains (sic) ALL kind of media with all kind of compression to give an impression: a .mov can contain a still picture, compressed as tiff or jpeg or pic, it contain a 3D scenery as a QTVR, a mov. can contain audio as aiff, mp3 (with some add on even as ogg), and of course many flavors of video, as mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, h262, h264, sorenson
what a try to tell you is:
problem with .avi is a) it is low supported by Mac because it is natively a Microsoft/PC format and b) on the darker side they use sometimes some
very strange compression metheods, just to mention mvcd or mpeg2 with bitrates under 50b/s etc.pp.
so, finally
in case the .avi contains standard mpeg1 or mpeg2, you can use the methods above with mpeg2 playback plug-in from Apple and the highly recommended Streamclip tool for free
iMHD supports mpeg4 and dv of course you CAN be lucky, if QTpro is able to playback the .avi, but that doesn't mean, you can convert it (in case of mpeg2)
<wiseguy mode off>
oooh,these .avis!!! hopefully they contain any standard compressed video 😉
I tend to agree with Karsten. I tried a couple of times to get to 'see' .avi files, but the max I got was only audio. I believe I may be missing out on a further plug-in to be able to see them (3rd party or Apple?)
Well I guess the egg is on my face - being a new covert from windows to mac, i assumed that avi was a basic file format, I should have checked my facts, very sorry for any misleading information that wasnt my intention. However may I add, I have happily been able to import avi into imovie without any problems. It may have been due to my windows past when I got my mac i installed many plugins, some may not have been needed - just make the transition smooth - as it stands I have not had a single file not open correctly on my mac.
