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Best free video converter for mac?

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I was at a client's house trying to work on their mac though being unfamiliar with most of the features, I am totally unsure as far as the best video converter that's available for the Mac OS. If anyone can help, I appreciate it.

On a side note, they were trying to burn a DVD that plays on any DVD player; they tried to burn a .MOV file which obviously does not play on a TV (only on a computer)
 

Rod


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The answer is HandBrake. I challange anyone to suggest a better, easier app.
 
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chas_m

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For free? Handbrake is good, Burn handles both the conversion and the burning (and is free) and the late lamented VisualHub (which still works but is no longer available) was my favourite.
 

Slydude

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For free? Handbrake is good, Burn handles both the conversion and the burning (and is free) and the late lamented VisualHub (which still works but is no longer available) was my favourite.

Wow. Didn't know it still worked. I read about a fix and tried it but never seemed to get it working right.
 

dtravis7


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Wow. Didn't know it still worked. I read about a fix and tried it but never seemed to get it working right.

Just a quick note to Sly. Visual Hub still works. There was a patch they released for Lion and that still worked on Mountain Lion.

BUT and there is a But, in Mavericks as most know, they changed Quicktimes Video Engine to what IOS uses which is called "AV Foundation" and is 64 bit only. It broke all Codec support. QT7 will still use them but unfortionetally VH looks at the new Quicktime and uses it. Well issue is, only movies in the format that play on the new QT engine will convert in VH! Doing a test AVI right now and it business as always, but anything with FLV or anything that needs Perian to play on the new QT engine, also will not convert in VH.

So it works but it does not with all files it used to. If you are still running Mountain Lion though it works with everything it worked with.
 

Slydude

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Just a quick note to Sly. Visual Hub still works. There was a patch they released for Lion and that still worked on Mountain Lion and I forgot what I had to do but it now works on Mavericks also. I will see if I can still find the info and post it if I do as it's the best app I have ever used for that purpose.

Thanks. I'd appreciate it. IIRC I tried the Lion patch but couldn't get it working properly. Think it kept asking for a license code but don't remember for sure. Couldn't find the code so I stopped using it.
 

dtravis7


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Sly, I just updated my post. If you are still interested I will find the info but with the change in the QT engine, certain formats will not convert. Some will.

What many are recommending is a newer app called Permute. It seems to work great but I have not had a lot of time to test it.

Edit: I just tried Permute and it works great. Very much like VH but I still love VH interface more.
 

Slydude

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Thanks for the info. It should still work with most of the formats I use regularly.

Think I will also give Permute a try. Missed that one somehow.

I've tried several converters since VH, both free and paid, but have not found one I like as much as that one.
 

dtravis7


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Another recommendation for Permute here. $10 or so, and easily worth it.

Chas, having a strange issue in 10.9.1 Mavericks with Permute. It runs shell scripts one time in terminal so the helper apps will be allowed to run. Well they would not run so their forums said to open the terminal first. Well one then runs but the other errors and I get videos that are white with no picture. You ever ran into that one?
 
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chas_m

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No, I haven't thus far (but my video conversion needs are few and simple for the most part). Maybe give iFFmpeg a spin and see if that can do the job for you.
 

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