Converting WMV Files!!

Alright. So im a new Macbook user and i have tons of raw video clips (WMV Format) imported on my PC that i want to edit on my mac. What i want to know is what would be the best format to convert these to. And what is the best way to do this/what program should i use? <-- freeware preferably.

I have searched the internet and this forum and have surprisingly not found clear answers for these questions. help would be more than appreciated.
Thanks!

Need a little more information on your clips before we can offer a suggestion. You say it is raw video, so if that means these are captures from a camcorder, we need to know what settings you used to record the footage. (Is it HD or SD, interlaced or progressive, frame rate, bit rate?) etc., etc. If you don't know, tell us what kind of camcorder you have and what your settings are on the camera, then we will probably be able to help you.

ok its sony handy cam nothing fancy. its just filmed in standard deff.

c'mon nobody has an answer to this?

1 word

HandBrake should help you out. Is the Mac video free converting .app that a lot of people use

Cheers

EDIT : your mac comes with iMovie(iMovie Supported video formats) as well and that is good to edit movies, OR Quicktime 10 is good as well, but not sure if your OS can handle QT10 as you dont say what OS you are running

thanks. as for the editing no worrries there ive got what i need and more haha.

TattooedMac said:

1 word

HandBrake should help you out. Is the Mac video free converting .app that a lot of people use

Cheers

EDIT : your mac comes with iMovie(iMovie Supported video formats) as well and that is good to edit movies, OR Quicktime 10 is good as well, but not sure if your OS can handle QT10 as you dont say what OS you are running

Click to expand...

oh yeah and handbrake wont work. not even letting me import the WMV... starting to get really frustrated with my mac right now.

Woooo Settle petal Its only a glitch atm no need to get frustrated as we will come up with a solution for you.
Having trouble finding a .wmv file so i can try this out....

Hmmm My bad seems your right and it wont Sorry dude to take up your time.

Ill do some more looking around for you, as i know i have had .wvm before and have used SOMETHING to convert them ?? QT im thinking but ill be back

Cheers

BUT to help you a little start with downloading Perian and Flip4Mac both help to watch .wvm on a Mac. Still looking around for you though

Cheers

EDIT : Download those last to links i give you, then open the video in QT, then do a Save As and save the file as a .mov file then try to do the editing ??? Just trying things here until i find a solution

okay thank you. every program i download to convert these files when want to import them it says source invalid, or something similar. my computer seeems to be totally rejecting/hating on these files except that VLC plays the audio...?

Pretty sure you can do this using Mplayer and some codecs.

MPlayer - The Movie Player

Download codec to convert RM, RMVB, WMV on Mac

All free, so worth a try.

skierman said:

except that VLC plays the audio...?

Click to expand...

It should play the video as well .... But dl Perian and Flip4Mac

But ole' mate Kev has come through for you, as he is a bit more savvy on video than me lol

Cheers

thanks alot for the help guys. and yeah VLC definitely isn't playing the video.

TattooedMac said:

It should play the video as well .... But dl Perian and Flip4Mac

But ole' mate Kev has come through for you, as he is a bit more savvy on video than me lol

Cheers

Click to expand...

ok so heres my problem to date. I downloaded flip4mac, mpeg stream clip and all other listed in this thread. but every time i want to add the file i want to convert to the program it say : unsupported file type or another similar message. why?? is there something wrong with my WMV files?

Well after dl Perian and Flip4mac can you play them in Quicktime ?? Let start there !!!!

TattooedMac said:

Well after dl Perian and Flip4mac can you play them in Quicktime ?? Let start there !!!!

Click to expand...

yes. i can do that but for some reason it only works through a certain download..anyways.

well once the movie is in QT do shift~cmd~s to Save as and save it as a .mov ... See if you can do that ... As a next step

yup! that worked.

skierman said:

yup! that worked.

Click to expand...

Great news ..... Now it is a .mov file you can use Handbrake to convert what you want or use it as a .mov file for editing ....

Still havnt said what App are you using for the editing ?? iMovie ??

Anyways im glad i could get you this far

Cheers

im using premiere pro for the editing and the only issue with this is that since "I didnt illegally download flip4mac" i only have the trial version and once you put in i movie or premiere pro it leaves a watermark... and yeah thanks for sticking with me

p.s when i try to add the .mov file to handbrake, it just closes "unexpectedly" :S