Hey,

I have some really cool video from last weekend's machine gun shoot. However, my camera records in quicktime MOV format. Is there a free, easy program that will convert the files to windows media player files?

I did a google search and didn't find anything that was free.

You may have trouble finding a free AND easy program. You might want to find someone with a program that can do it for you, much easier. I am not sure if I have a program that can do it. I don't use MOV, sorry.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

don't think you'll find one free, as you would need a license from apple I would think to be able to do what you want.

If you have some way of capturing the audio off, then you can certainly do it for free:

1) go into the OS screen settings and turn hardware video accelleration completely off,
2) go into Quicktime's settings and disable hardware accelleration there also,
3) download and install Wisdonsoft's AutoScreenRecorder Free program--this enables you to capture the video from the Quicktime movie as it plays, but the AutoScreenRecorder doesn't do sound. It only outputs a standard (unencoded) avi file.
4) so you need some way to capture the sound. For that I use the audio recorder that is included with the Creative Soundblaster Audigy soundcard I have.
5) then you must use a dubbing program. I got VirtualDub off of the doom9 website. This allows you to join the sound file "back into" the avi file (avi's to support audio). This finishes movie will be a BIG file--it can easily be 5X the size of the original source. Any other programs should take it as a video source format however.

It is a bit of a hassle, but (for me) it's free. Sometimes you have minor audio sync issues because it's not possible to start both the movie play and the audio recorder at the same instant, so I start the audio recorder first and then do teh movie screen-record, and edit off the front-end of the audio file intil it syncs up well enough with the video.

Also--after you're done capturing the video, you want to go in and re-enable all the video accellerations. Windows Media Player won't play many movies without it.
~

If you have some way of capturing the audio off, then you can certainly do it for free:

1) go into the OS screen settings and turn hardware video accelleration completely off,
2) go into Quicktime's settings and disable hardware accelleration there also,
3) download and install Wisdonsoft's AutoScreenRecorder Free program--this enables you to capture the video from the Quicktime movie as it plays, but the AutoScreenRecorder doesn't do sound. It only outputs a standard (unencoded) avi file.
4) so you need some way to capture the sound. For that I use the audio recorder that is included with the Creative Soundblaster Audigy soundcard I have.
5) then you must use a dubbing program. I got VirtualDub off of the doom9 website. This allows you to join the sound file "back into" the avi file (avi's to support audio). This finishes movie will be a BIG file--it can easily be 5X the size of the original source. Any other programs should take it as a video source format however.

It is a bit of a hassle, but (for me) it's free. Creative soundcards have had this "self-recording" ability for a long time, I don't know what other soundcards do, but most don't seem to have it. Sometimes you have minor audio sync issues because it's not possible to start both the movie play and the audio recorder at the same instant, so I start the audio recorder first and then do the movie screen-record, and edit off the front-end of the audio file intil it syncs up well enough with the video.

Also--after you're done capturing the video, you want to go in and re-enable all the video accellerations. Windows Media Player won't play many movies without it.

I looked a while back for a screen-capture program that could handle sound and ANY format--and the only couple that were said to be able to truly record anything were very expensive--$700 and $1000.

If you don't have anything that seems to be able to capture the sound, you may need another program to do that. I have Audacity installed and it shows the exact same options that the Creative recorder program does, so I don't know if Audacity can do that on its own (on a non-Creative soundcard) or not.
~

link

click download > under DivX / MPEG-4 Encoders................  the top one.


i have never used this program.   so i don't know if it works or not

Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn 2

There's always the Quicktime Alternative, if you don't want Quicktime on your machine.  MOVs play fine in Media Player after installing QA.  

Google it.