How to: AVI to MP4 [iPhone, iPod] on the Mac
It’s road trip time again, and that means I need to scrunch another bunch of movies and cartoons for playback on our family’s iPod touch and iPod nano—gotta keep the kiddies transfixed. Here are four AVI to MP4 conversion solutions that will get that job done with varying degrees of speed and finesse, one of which is sure to meet your technical and budgetary needs.
Of the various free AVI to MP4 converters, the only one I come back to back is Handbrake, which is also handy for ripping DVDs. This solution (requires you also have VLC Player for codec support) includes conversion presets for most common disc, computer and handheld formats, making it something of a video Swiss Army knife. Aside from a lack of speed—none of the solutions discussed here can be said to be fast on my 2.16GHz MacBook or 1.66GHz Mac mini—the only other feature Handbrake really needs is the ability to drag-n-drop files onto an established queue—that would be great and go a long way toward making this application a category killer.
Drag-n-drop is a feature which Tasty Apps’ VideoBox ($15) offers. This application also has a bunch o’ device and media specific codec presets, so you only need to drag-n-drop the files, choose a compression setting and click start. Again, VideoBox won’t set any land speed records, but it’s affordable and has the added advantage that it can extract Flash video from Web pages, which is a handy feature for scrounging source material and filler from the Web.
Also, VideoBox can be configured to export files to a folder or directly into iTunes, which is an added level of automation.
Apple’s QuickTime Pro ($30) can also get the AVI to MP4 job done and features easy, point-n-click set up and conversion. However, although you can drag-n-drop any number of files on QT Pro and open them, it doesn’t offer a process queue, so each and every file requires you export it (⌘ + Shift + E) individually.
A neat feature of QT Pro is that it automagically creates a reference .mov file and a poster frame .jpg, which are nice little gimmes for webmasters and developers.
Roxio Toast ($80) has been the optical disc burning gold standard on the Mac for well over a decade and today it also can perform a range of file conversion functions, as well. It features drag-n-drop queue creation, easy device & media specific conversion presets and, one of the features I really like, easy poster frame selection.
Another convenient Toast feature is the ability to convert and export files directly into iTunes, which can save you a step if your target device happens to be an iPod or Apple TV.
Of course, Toast can be used to not down convert video to iPhone and iPod playable formats, you can also create, edit and burn optical discs, which are handy for non-technical types (ie grandma, auntie so-in-so, etc).
Perfection is a moment
People like absolutes, but I’m definitely of the opinion that “best” is really all about the task at hand. That said, there’s a lot to like about the four video conversion applications profiled above and only you can decide which has that “goldilocks” combination of features and price.
Subjectively, I feel that Toast was the fastest, QT Pro next and neither Handbrake nor VideoBox distinguishing themselves at the bottom.
Then again, if you’re anything like me, you might just want to get all four—there’s nothing quite like having the right tool for the job…
What’s your take?
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May 6th, 2009
I use Turbo.264 with it’s acceleration USB key and it shows all the characteristics needed in the case presented by the author: fast encoding without charging the main processor, queuing with presets etc. The only counterpart is it’s price: 150€. But used with not so performant hardware it is a good investment if you have to regularly export long movies
May 6th, 2009
Turbo.264 is significantly less expensive on the left side of the pond at $77.25 from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Turbo-264-Encoder-Hardware-10020500/dp/B000PCVIEU
Nothing beats purpose built hardware for getting the job done fast!
enjoy,
Ron
May 6th, 2009
Although I believe it is no longer being supported, I still use iSquint. It has great presets for iPods and iPhones, is faster than Handbrake, and does queues. Very simple.
DD
May 6th, 2009
Your article is incomplete and inaccurate on several accounts !!!
First, it is necessary to explain that video files consist of TWO parts: the Compressed Data (compressed with H.264, MPEG4 or other compression schemes) and the file CONTAINER (AVI, MOV, MP4, etc).
It is also necessary for readers to understand that the iPod/iPhone needs H.264 compresses files in either the MOV or MP4 container.
It is also necessary for readers to understand that changing the Container will not reduce video quality but changing the Compression scheme (transcoding) does.
If a person had an AVI file that was compressed with H.264 (or X.264, same thing) then ONLY an container change is required.
There are two ways to change the container without transcoding that I use:
1) Quicktime Pro. QT can resave a file in the container of your choice IF you make a change to the file.
Open the file in QT, press CMD-J to open a dialog that displays the tracks the file contains, delete an unnecessary track (foreign language track or subtitle if one is available), Save the file, In the Save dialog choose either MOV or MP4, Click Save and your done.
2) SimpleMovieX. I use this editor instead of QT Pro now. Simple with lots of features. Open your file in SimpleMovieX. Choose Save from the File menu. Choose either MOV or MP4 from the dialog. Click Save and your done.
IF you do need to transcode (your file was not compressed with H.264 or X.264) then Handbrake is an excellent solution.
One correction/clarification to your Quicktime export info: you CAN export lots of files simultaneously. However, it is not a que. All exported files will process at the same time. To complete the exports in least amount of time, don’t export more than 2 files per processor in your Mac; unless you have lots of RAM or lots of time (over night processing perhaps)
Hope this helps!
November 16th, 2009
Freeware iWisoft Free Video Converter can do all the video conversions and that’s enough.
http://www.easy-video-converter.com/
December 3rd, 2009
Leawo Video Converter & Leawo Mac Video Converter which can do convert avi to mp4 for windows and mac respectively should be the great choice.
http://www.leawo.com/leawo-video-converter/
http://www.leawo.com/free-mac-video-converter/