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hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Hi, I made some presentations using an Intel Mac few years ago. When I copied the presentation files and related video files to a Silicon Mac, I got an error window saying that over 20 videos cannot be converted. These videos are of .mov and .avi type. When I played back the presentation, I found that some videos worked but not the ones listed. What is wrong and how to fix this problem?
 
If you still have the video files, you may have to delete the ones in the new Keynote file and reimport them again. Perhaps there's been enough changes in Keynote since you made that file that it can't properly handle the inserts from back then.

You might also convert all of them to mp4 or mov files. I don't think Keynote has video conversions in it. I believe it requires the files to be in a format it can play.

Lastly, I'm about 90% sure that Keynote cannot play AVI files. So if that is the list that are not playing, you need to use a converter to make them mov or mp4, h.265 or h.264, etc. There are many video converters that can do this- probably some online (website-based) one too.
 
I suspect that the Intel Mac may have had something similar to Perian to allow QuickTime (and by extension, Keynote) to read more formats.

It is good that you mentioned Perian. I think I have it installed on the Intel Mac. Since it is being retired, what other program do you recommend to get my issue solved on the silicon Mac?
 
I kept using Perian until it died. I no longer have a requirement to open old-format files so can't make any suggestions.
 
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Hi, I made some presentations using an Intel Mac few years ago. When I copied the presentation files and related video files to a Silicon Mac, I got an error window saying that over 20 videos cannot be converted. These videos are of .mov and .avi type. When I played back the presentation, I found that some videos worked but not the ones listed. What is wrong and how to fix this problem?
Try this

It is very good at video file format conversion. And it is free.
 
I love Keynote but I’ve been burned with similar issues when trying to open older presentations. The lesson to learn is that we need to keep a folder with all of the assets as well as the presentation itself. If you have the original assets you can probably find something to convert the formats. GraphicConverter is fantastic for converting almost any kind of image file.

My work flow used to be to just find something and paste it into the Keynote file. No longer.
 
I love Keynote but I’ve been burned with similar issues when trying to open older presentations. The lesson to learn is that we need to keep a folder with all of the assets as well as the presentation itself. If you have the original assets you can probably find something to convert the formats. GraphicConverter is fantastic for converting almost any kind of image file.

My work flow used to be to just find something and paste it into the Keynote file. No longer.
What "assets" do you mean?
 
I am going to convert those files. To ensure future compatibility, which codec/format should I use?
 
There's going to be lots of options and opinions but the general "standard" for stuff that is compatible with pretty much anything today (and probably for the medium term future) would be H.264 video with AAC or MP3 audio in a .mp4 file. You can use Handbrake or other tools to do the converting. If you're talking 4K videos then H.264 might make files that are very large and you need to use an alternative codec like H.265, but I suspect you're not talking 4K videos.
 
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Yep, H.264 is likely to be one of those formats that won't die, like MP3. There is an enormous amount of content in the format, and I think even Apple would struggle to claim "courage" with a straight face if they thought about removing support for it.
 
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