how do I play .avi files on itunes

no my point has been that I use a Mac quite easily for my needs. I'm happy with its performance, and I know I could get a windows machine to do the same.

I use Mac software less and less. other applications with far superior features and compatability are all third party developments. while "seamless" and commercially viable (for Mac) services continue to move forward while

functionality is lost to improve revenue.

I'm not a big apple store purchaser, having had enough trouble trying to "seamlessly" incorporate my own PAID for and OWNED media, via apple store (or other resources) into MAC only, old, new and mobile peripherals ive seen more effort put into limiting our options to preserve thier profit than improve any technology.

now I understand all these "improvements" (thought they feel more like bugs to me) can be worked around to be "compliant" for Mac. but no, I'm not going to invest my time into converting so many files types or anything else. it all works for me without apple developed software. macs progression leaves behind currently and widely used albeit dated technology. the day Mac decides for me that i can't use my own media even with the use of decent 3rd party programs I will throw my Mac directly to the trash.

our property bought by us to achieve our own goals shouldn't have the rug pulled out from under it to benefit the revenue of the company developing the technology. remember when software updates and new versions were a method for improving the software??? consumers are saying these changes don't benefit us, it's blatant revenue control!

take a look and compare the chargers and adapters on any series of iPhone and tell me it's a decision to improve on the technology and not to make an older technology obsolete within 12 months.

we pay the monetary demands...

give us a little functionality.

also thankyou for the input Jon walker, you are suggesting helpful solutions.

these forums exist and are repeated constantly because the consumers are trying to be heard.

If I worked for apple I'd be proud of a product that could "do it all".

but I'd probably avoid looking ppl in the eye for such a thing as iTunes.

I use Mac software less and less. other applications with far superior features and compatability are all third party developments. while "seamless" and commercially viable (for Mac) services continue to move forward while functionality is lost to improve revenue.

In my case, functionaly not used is functionality not lost. As to third-party developers, I would agree that there are many out there that both provide excellent products and are often more responsive to customers than Apple. Unfortunately, they are often placed behind the proverbial 8-ball when Apple comes up with some new system modification that adversely affects their product are are forced to scramble to update their own products. (E.g., the recent Lion to Mountain Lion audio modifications.)

now I understand all these "improvements" (thought they feel more like bugs to me) can be worked around to be "compliant" for Mac. but no, I'm not going to invest my time into converting so many files types or anything else. it all works for me without apple developed software. macs progression leaves behind currently and widely used albeit dated technology. the day Mac decides for me that i can't use my own media even with the use of decent 3rd party programs I will throw my Mac directly to the trash.

My problem is somewhat different. Have always been a movie/TV media collector but was never really involved with video processing until the release of the iPod 5th Generation device. Suddenly saw a way to store, carry around, and view my entire Doctor Who video collection on a portable 60 GB device. Spent nearly a year digitizing and converting the content. Had just about finished this project when Apple annouced the device had been updated from QVGA to VGA playback capabilities. So, it was back to computer to recompress the files to the higer resolution format. In a similar manner I have updaded for 720i24/540i30 formats, the addition of AC3 DD5.1 secondary surround audio support, anamorphic 720p30 files (my current "universal" format for all mobile devices, in-home wired/wireless TV viewing, and away-from-home internet streaming of my iTunes content. In short, much of my retirement time is spent in the continuous process of updating my video library which my wife claims "keeps me off the steets and out of trouble" in my declining years. In any case, I suspect the H.264 format will likely be around for at least another decade until someone comes up with the "next generation" compression format. (Although I am a bit worried that Apple may come of with some method of supporting 3D viewing on mobile device and I will be off the the races again to reconvert my 3D media.)

our property bought by us to achieve our own goals shouldn't have the rug pulled out from under it to benefit the revenue of the company developing the technology. remember when software updates and new versions were a method for improving the software??? consumers are saying these changes don't benefit us, it's blatant revenue control!

It would be silly to argue that Apple is not profit oriented. (I am surprised you have not mentioned more about other Apple "control" issues that serve more to protect the coporation than benefit the user.)

take a look and compare the chargers and adapters on any series of iPhone and tell me it's a decision to improve on the technology and not to make an older technology obsolete within 12 months.

we pay the monetary demands...

give us a little functionality.

Chargers? Obsolete? Another dead issue for me since all of my chargers have come with the devices and I have extras all over the house. As to the newer, higher capacity models, I usually use the older ones on both the older and new devices since I prefer a slower, trickle charge over a "quick" charge any day.

If I worked for apple I'd be proud of a product that could "do it all".

IMHO, no such animal. Was very disappointed to learn last month that VLC (usually my media player of last resort), does not support the VC1 BD codec. Was even more disappointed that BBC would use this codec to encode their first BD season release of the new Doctor Who series. (Thank God they only used it for one season since even the newest commercial 3D BD player connected to my home entertainment system doesn't seem to like this format.)

wow... turned the new Mac mini off for 3 days now it won't start up...!

"no bootable device-- insert boot disk and press any key...

W T F???

seriously ***! taking the crap back tomorrow.

Hi guys, AVI is a container format for lots of varied codecs. If you try to play it with some video players on your tablet, you are likely to play videos with some issues.

I advice you download and install a top Video Converter on your Mac or Windows computer to reformat AVIand other video formats to a supported format for working with your iPad.

The easist way to convert is with iFlicks, there is a good article online about it:http://appducate.com/2012/12/iflicks-best-easiest-way-to-convert-media-to-itunes /

Thanks for the link it worked for me, finally getting all my movies into itunes.

Hi Mr. Jon it was funny when the other user called you Mr. Appleismymother. Anyway, you're very knowledgable and I'm in need of some advice. There's a file I have thats 1.59 GB, with an extension of AC3.5.1.xvid in .avi. I used Handbrake, with AT3 settings to convert to mp4. It converts the file to m4v (its choice I guess) but then the file shrinks to 726 MB and the picture isn't as clear. Any tweaks I need to put in in order to sustain the quality of the avi file?

I wish movies I download were in the mp4 or mkv format - would make my life easier :/

There's a file I have thats 1.59 GB, with an extension of AC3.5.1.xvid in .avi. I used Handbrake, with AT3 settings to convert to mp4. It converts the file to m4v (its choice I guess) but then the file shrinks to 726 MB and the picture isn't as clear.

Basically the combined total data rate of your source AVI file is more than twice that of your target TV3 file. This could easily account for a loss in video quality. Unfortunately, you did not mention whether or not the encoded dimensions were changed during conversion, whether or not files are anamorphic or non-anamorphic, whether or not the target files contained both AAC mixdown and AC3 DD5.1 audio tracks, whether or not the video is interlaced and if so whether or not you are decpmbing or deinterlacing it, and whether or not the TV3 VFR setting is changing the frame rate which, in turn, may or may not affect the distribution video data—so I cannot fully evaluate the relationship between the reduction in the video data rate and the reduction in video quality to any great degree here.

Any tweaks I need to put in in order to sustain the quality of the avi file?

Assuming the files must be converted, I would recommend making some test conversions of a single chapter, fixed sample duration (e.g., 120 seconds) , or a fixed number of frames (e.g., 2800 to 3600) trying some different settings. For instance, if the content is relatively new and of good source quality, you could try increasing the "Quality" setting from 20 to 19 for 1:1.78 to 1:1.85 aspect material or even 18 for 1:2.35 to 1:2.40 aspect material. Another option would be to switch from the constant quality mode to a targeted video data rate mode with the targeted video data rate equal to or slightly greater than the video data rate of your source XviD video. Such sample tests could then be compared with your source file to evaluate the results.

I wish movies I download were in the mp4 or mkv format - would make my life easier :/

Haven't really tried using it for such purposes, but I believe the MKVToolNix utility package is supposed to be able to extract and remux AVI data streams to MKV file containers if you want to give it a try.

Yes, +1 Handbrake. You can use Handbrake (freeware) to convert files to iTunes compatible. the downside is it will take quite a while to convert 100 movies but good luck anyway.

Handbrake. It's what everyone around here uses.

Ya, I've been using MPEG Streamclip to turn my AVIs into MOVs. For the longest time I thought that I wouldn't be able to organize my movies into iTunes unless I converted them via HandBrake. Works great now!

You need to convert the avi movie to .mP4 or mpeg-4 format to be able to transfer and sync it to the iPad.

iPad can only play .mp4 type files

If you use the latest iTunes, in the top main menu, there should be a menu option to convert the movie to the iPad or iPod compatible format.

If you want to add videos to iTunes without hassle and complicated settings, have a look at VideoDrive. It adds AVI's with or without converting. Obviously, if you want to watch on your iPad, you need to convert (which it can do with HandBrake for faster performance). But if you want to organize all your videos nicely in iTunes, you can skip the conversion entirely. VideoDrive will also download covers and descriptions, all in one automatic step. It handles both movies and TV shows.

Okay, so I have a .mkv file of a movie that is in French and has three different subtitle options. They are all included within the file itself.

I went to convert the video to .mp4 and selected the video track, audio track and English subtitles and chose to burn them into the video but every time I try to convert it, it says the conversion was successful but it only takes a second and where there should be the completed .mp4, there is an .log file that says:

"Error: (mkvextract) The file '/Users/meaghani/Movies/Amelie [Ame' could not be opened for reading (No such file or directory)."

Which is weird because the video loads just fine into the application and I'm able to watch the video with VLC Player, so I don't see how it could be corrupted.

Please, please, please help?