I bought Quicktime Pro to convert *.mov files to *.avi, but I can’t find a configuration of settings that result in an acceptable quality level. Either the compression is too severe, and the video is pixelated with limited colors, or the frame rate drops to 4-5 frames per second. Does anybody have any experience converting from *.mov to *.avi with QuickTime Pro 7? What compression should I use, and what settings?
What codec are you using to convert it with? What filesize difference are you hoping for? Why are you even doing this?
There are too many variables to give you an answer. The problem is, as soon as you recompress and already compressed file it will cause a quality loss, just as you are experiencing.
My digital camera only records video sequences in *.mov format. I would like to edit a movie in Windows Moviemaker, because it has a better user interface than QuickTime, but it won’t import *.mov files. That is why I am converting *.mov files to *.avi. It is the only file format Moviemaker and QuickTime have in common. File size is not particularly important to me at this time, because I can change that when Moviemaker renders the final movie.
QuickTime supports the following compression formats: BMP, Cinepak, DV-PAL, DV_DVCPRO-NTSC, DVCPRO-PAL, Intel Indeo Video 4.4, or None. I have tried all of them, with a variety of quality levels, but I haven’t found a configuration that is satisfactory.
If you can adjust compression rate, I suggest something in the order of 2000kbps or higher, using VBR (variable bitrate) with a DV codec. DV-PAL is probably good enough. It will possibly rescale, DV has a standard ratio of 720x576.
I’m going to test it with one of my own files and see what happens.
It seems to work, but filesize gets really high. So I’d just experiment, a lot, with the settings starting from:
DV-PAL (or None)
Best
Best
Progressive
4:3
Leave the audio as uncompressed.
I will have to experiment some more. Those settings yield a very low frame rate on my system (2.40 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE, Windows Vista Home Premium )
I would give SUPER a try. Their site is ugly and a bit confusing to navigate, but it’s open-source and supports converting to and from just about every format imaginable, including all forms of Quicktime, and has both presets and adjustable levels of quality and settings. Like their site, the prorgam is a bit ugly (even with the skins), but it works surprisingly well and allows you to choose encoding via ffmpeg or MEncoder. No codecs required, as they’re all built-in.
Take a look at some of the tools here. Lots of free tools, with reviews and comments. MP4Cam2AVI looks suitable for your purposes, or Rad Video Tools, and there are lots of reviews of SUPER as well.