Any way to import an .asf file into iMovie?

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Any way to import an .asf file into iMovie?

I received a VuPoint Video Converter for Christmas. It converts the playback from a VHS player to digital, recording onto an SD card. My problem is that the instructions state that the video files are mpeg4 but actually it saves the video as an .asf file. I can take the SD card and plug it into a card reader that's connected to one of the usb ports on my iMac and transfer the file, but I've discovered that iMovie won't import an .asf file.

Is there a way to convert the file to a format that's compatible with iMovie? The device its easy to use, and it was a gift from my parents, who were really excited about getting it for me because I have several boxes of VHS tapes that need to be converted to DVD. I hate the thought of telling them that yes, it works as advertised but I'd need to take the SD card to someone with a PC because the files can only be imported into something like Windows Movie Maker, along with the "I told you so" comments about having a Mac.

If I do have to have the device returned (if we can return it after having actually used it but not knowing it's file format wasn't Mac compatible) are there affordable solutions that would be doable with my iMac? I can't afford a lot, but I'm hoping there's a comparable device that saves video in a Mac-friendly format.

any ideas? 😉

iMac Duo Core, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Dec 31, 2009 1:18 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 31, 2009 5:06 AM in response to Simon01

Your "conversions" (VHS to .asf) need some more conversion in order to work with iMovie version 7 or 8.
http://flip4mac.com sells upgrades to its product that allow playback of Windows Media Player formats via QuickTime Player and other apps (like iMovie version 6).
What you really wanted was an analog to digital "converter" so you could hook up the VHS hardware directly to your Mac and import into iMovie.
You can probably convert your .asf files to QuickTime supported formats using the Flip4Mac software but that is an extra step that wastes time and may reduce the (already poor) quality of VHS conversions.

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Answer 2

Simon01 Author

Level 1

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Dec 31, 2009 9:49 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

I've done a few test runs and the video quality seems pretty decent considering the quality of some of the original VHS recordings, but a "rough around the edges" look is noticeable when the source tape wasn't the best quality to begin with.

If converting the .asf file compromises quality further then I'll avoid that. The device seems at least like a great starting point for doing something with all of those old tapes. I figure I can at least experiment in the meantime and save up to get a more Mac friendly device that does the more direct conversion. At the very least I can get my old video projects from VHS onto DVD and work with them later on in iMovie.

I'm just a little irked that every now and then there's hardware or an application that is made PC only, almost like the manufacturer doesn't even realize that Macs even exist. The device wasn't made by Microsoft or one of the major PC makers, so I don't get not making it so that the video files are saved as mpeg4 instead of .asf

Now that I think about it, how common are SD cards outside of digital cameras (still and video cameras both seem to use them)? I have a camera that uses an SD card and if I didn't have the video converter, I wouldn't have known about using the cards for something other than pics or camera footage, and I wouldn't have known about needing a card reader because the camera plugs into a USB for downloading pics.

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Answer 3

Helimom

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2010 4:23 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

I have the exact same situation. I have already converted one of the ASF files to iMovie and it worked great, just by going to file "save as" in Quick Time on my desktop, but I can't seem to get any of the others to convert. They are larger than the first one, but why would that have anything to do with it? The error message is "An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie", when I try to open the converted iMovie file. I'm not sure what that means.

When you said that flip4mac offers upgrades to its product, do you think that getting the upgrades would solve my problem? If so, I will gladly purchase the upgrades. Where would I get one of those Analog to digital "converters"? When I Google that, it doesn't really give me a product or where I can purchase such an animal.

Thanks so much for your help.

Hellimom

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