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Avi to iPad (mp4) What do you use to convert?

H

hellodon

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 19, 2006
453
0
What do you guys use to convert movies for iPad? Sucks that it doesnt just play avi files...most of what I have is already in avi format. I got this iSkysoft conversion software but the conversion time is pretty ridiculous! Almost 7 hours at first then once it got going it was upwards of 19 hours. I'm going on a trip in the morning and wanted to bring some movies but there's no way even one would convert

Anything quicker? Easier? Free-er?

Thanks in advance!
 
Take a look at air video. Realtime conversion when on wifi and 3G and also will convert movies that you can transfer to iTunes then to iPad
 
awesome, thanks guys.

So with Air Video I can just convert them and have the actual files right on my iPad? Doesnt require me to access my computer over wifi/3g right?

I have had so many issues with handbreak. I really wish I knew what I was doing. Ive never had a successful rip using it. Ive tried with DVD's and ended up with bad video and no sound, good video with no sound, sound but no video..and it sucks because I never find out that something is wrong until the conversion is done which takes quite a while. Its been a while, maybe I should try it again.
 
I use the command line version of handbrake along with a script called breakfast which monitors a "hot folder" and kicks off the conversion. I have an old mini (first Intel version) that just runs this. It used to be She Who Must Be Obeyed's computer until She found out the TV had a faster mini than She did (the HTPC running plex). That was painful :)
 
Air Video requires both the host machine and your iPad to be online. I use ffMPEGx for my video conversion needs. It's free at freemacware.com.
 
I use Handbreak myself, which I think works pretty well. I was a big fan of iSquint with my iPod, but it seems to have been discontinued. I haven't been 100% successful with hand break, but it seems to do the job pretty well.
 
btrav13 said:
Air Video requires both the host machine and your iPad to be online. I use ffMPEGx for my video conversion needs. It's free at freemacware.com.
Click to expand...

Not true actually. The 'Queue' function converts and saves in the same location as the original. No need to keep the app running on the iPad. You can then sync to the iPad with iTunes.
 
PDQ Iphone/Ipod/Ipad

I use the PDQ DVD suite to convert movies. Just toss the DVD in the computer, click where you want to save the movie and abou 20 minutes later it is done. Then just drag to Itunes.
 
you do not need to convert ..

i have transfered successfully my avi movies coming directly from my d300s to my ipad through the sd card adapter .. and it works perfectly , with hd quality on the ipad it's wonderful .. cheers
 
i use handbrake most often, with the mac.jedi scripts to automate the process
i've just tried out VideoMonkey too - which has a nice and easy interface.

on an iMac i7, both methods convert a 40 minute tv show avi in about 6 minutes, and the quality looks okay even playing full screen within iTunes
 
I converted some MKV Videos to Mp4 with Handbreak for being able to view them on my iPad. Unfortunately, the outputted files were about 3 times bigger than the original files (orig around 50MB, output up to 150MB). I don't know, did I do something terribly wrong? I didn't change the configuration of Handbreak much...well, but as least, it works.
 
You could also try avidemux. This can take avis in divx or xvid formats and repackage them into mp4s. It doesn't always work but because it doesn't transcode it is much, much faster than handbrake.
 
Handbrake though I usually queue up an entire season of a TV show and do it on the i7 980x PC cause its much faster. I just wished handbrake select all instead of selecting each file one at a time and clicking add to queue.
 
I use videomonkey because I like the convenience of being able to add the metadata at the same time. I just set them up and do it overnight so I don't notice the time that it takes.
 
hellodon said:
What do you guys use to convert movies for iPad? Sucks that it doesnt just play avi files...most of what I have is already in avi format. I got this iSkysoft conversion software but the conversion time is pretty ridiculous! Almost 7 hours at first then once it got going it was upwards of 19 hours. I'm going on a trip in the morning and wanted to bring some movies but there's no way even one would convert

Anything quicker? Easier? Free-er?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

so, yxplayer doesn't work for you? http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yxplayer/id373751560?mt=8

It plays mkv, avi, h264, etc without convert. Just copy files with itunes in yxplayer application.
I tried a mkv 720p and played choppy but a normal resolution avi played fine!
 
I bought Aimersoft and for some reason when I try to convert Itunes movies to any format it comes out choppy. Driving me crazy!
 
I've tried a bunch of things like HandBrake, VLC, etc, but they all seem to have a poor quality conversion. It might just be my file, idk, but I always get a poor conversion. A lot of times the audio gets incorrectly synced.

Anyways, what I do is kind of a hack, but it looks great.

Get Perian, it's a Quicktime codec that allows you to play .AVI files (amongst tons of others).

Save the video via Quicktime as a movie. (It'll make a .MOV).

Put that into iTunes and then use iTunes to convert it to a iPhone...Touch...Pad version and it'll make it a .MP4 or .M4V for you.
 
another vote for avidemux.

Not only for mp4 repackaging but it is good for avi editing.
 
I'm just curious why you even have avi files?
Id say just get the actual source of the videos and encode them directly in handbrake to get the best quality and compatibility.
 
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