Video Conversion Software

[TPK]

Hello,

I was wondering, what do folks use out there to convert video formats from one to the other...  There are plenty of video conversion softwares out there (google brings up tons of them), and in my experience none of them work...

To be more specific, I have a bunch of files here that were brought down from a JVC HDV camcorder (it records in 720p HDV format, which is kinda rare), but they were imported to an apple computer originally (I beleive using Final Cut software) using the "ICOD" codec (sometimes descrived as "Apple Intermediate Codec")...

Anyhow, I don't have a MAC (I have a Vista PC), and nothing I have tried is able to convert these files over to a suitable format, so I can work with them on my PC (I have Adobe Priemere on my PC, for example)...

VLC media player won't even recognize these files (Ive found that VLC media player usually plays pretty much anything, but not this time I guess)..

Also, recently, I purchased a WD HD TV media player, and even though the reviews say it supports a ton of video formats, Im finding that pretty much nothing I am trying to play on it works (either I get video with no audio, audio with no video, or nothing at all)...

Anyhow, Im getting kinda frustrated with the whole video codec thing...  Basically I wouldnt have much of a problem just converting everything to some kind of common format that everything can use (I do have a powerful computer capable of doing video conversions quickly), but I just can't see the trees through the forrest here (tons of solutions, all of them are bad), and I am wondering if there isn't some sort of "magic bullet" software (I'm guessing theres an open source and free solution out there that I just haven't found yet) that I should be using that will be able to understand all these formats and convert to something standard...

.... Thank you much

[techboy]

You really need to have a very good background in digital audio and video to understand how these various formats work and how they are processed by computers and display devices.   I use Virtual dub and virtualdub mod for inter conversions among formats.  check doom9.org  The current format in favor is MKV ( Matroska )  with H264 and Ac3 as the codecs.  You need these codecs registered in Windows.  Look for the direct show filter pack from ffdshow.  Register the ffdshow filters into Windows and virtualdub.  Get and Ac3 filter.  Then go to cccp ( combined cummunity codec pack) for the Matroska stream builder.  THe WD hard disk player is a poor choice.  Although it may support the codecs, it probably doesn't support the various video frame rates and stream packs. I remember looking at it and deciding it could't play most of my liberary.  I do a lot at 25fps 756p.   I don't know what kind of transport stream your JVC camcorder produces, but I'd think that it came with software to render the stearm into something Windows could handle.

[tencom]

According to the HDV website there is nothing exotic about HDV encoded video
which is nothing more then MPEG-2 video with MPEG-1 layer 1 audio. The only difference is that for editing purposes,  with the HDV video format does not include the B or  P frames and just uses the I frames only spacial compression or with-n the video frame data compression,  is used and not temporal data  compression    because it would create motion artiafacts when cut editing  in  the final product.
Since MPEG 2 is a licensed  Codec and does not come with  free video  players
it has to be purchased, that may be part of your problem  MPEG 1 is a public
domain Codec. Any player that can output MPEG-2 video should handle HDV, source material with-out problems.

  http://www.hdv-info.org/

[budda]

Cyberlink PowerProducer     Should do what you want. Based on the ifo tou gave. I do alot of this kind of stuff I try yo use freeware both legit and not so. Find it fun to just play sometimes. Now a days anybody can  edit and capture or author video. A real good site to vist has a list of tools\software states if the software is trail, freeware, or has to be purchased to use as well as where to get it and reviews. Good Luck!!  Replace XX with tt


hxxp://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/authoring-bd-hd-dvd