Editing/converting an AVI file

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My digital still camera can record movies in Motion JPEG format. The files have AVI as extension.

What software for Mac can I use to edit such a movie file? Also, do I have to convert this type file, or can I just upload this type file and anybody can watch it in Quicktime?
 
I "think" .avi is the Div-X format. I don't know if quicktime can play Div-X files. You can get Dv-X player for free, but I don't know if it's available for Macs.
(I'm sure someone more knowledgable will chime in (and perhaps correct me if I'm wrong about the Div-X)
 
I can play the files fine on my computer. I just have to edit them.

The manual of my cameras expressly states that the format in which my camera records movies is "Motion JPEG" (M-JPEG). AVI (which is an M-JPEG) is to my knowledge one of several formats that all fall under M-JPEG/AVI.

I really don't know what editing software I need, and if I need what I believe to be called a "codec."
 
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AVI is a Microsoft format. Using a DIV-X codec with the AVI format produces excellent results.

Codec for Mac:
http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/

I don't believe Apple supports AVI format in it's free offerings. Hmmm. Does Apple support this functionality in their non-free Quicktime product?
 
I don't know if Mac supports AVI, but my Mac opens and plays my AVI files in Real Player, so does that constitute support? My Quicktime Player (7.3.1) also plays AVI files. Do I really need a codec?

Is there free editing software?

I have iMovie, but it can't open the AVI file. Or do I need to convert the file with a codec before I can open it in iMovie? Yikes, I know nothing!
 
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mori,

For PC, there is VirtualDub. And for Mac, Avidemux appears to be an equivalent open-source tool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avidemux

It says that it supports M-JPEG.

But I know very little about Macs - there may be other, better tools out there.

As far as what AVI (Audio Video Interleave) is, it's really just a container format. Inside it, there could be content built using all kinds of encoding formats - mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4 (divx, xvid), mp3, wma, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVI
 
Pete, I'll try if Avidemux works for me. Thanks for the tip.

First I'll try if there's a way to use iMovie. Unfortunately I haven't even played around with iMovie at all and have no idea of its capabilities or limitations.
 
After a bit more trying out, it turns out that iMovie can open the AVI file just fine. I thought I could just drag the file on iMovie, but I actually had to to create a new project and then import the file. So, as usually with me, it was user error.
blush.gif


Before that, I did find a simple and easy to use format converter (codec?), called MPEG Streamclip. It can convert into a bunch of formats.
 
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