Convert Home Movies to MPEG 4 for Itunes

[uva25]

I just preordered the Apple TV but I have a Windows system. I had converted my home movies to MPEG format usign Roxio but not MPEG 4 which is what will be required to play on Itunes or Apple TV. I tried a few MPEG 4 freeware converters (thanks to you all for the help) but the quality does not appear to be as good as the original MPEG format. I also have the home movies on DVD (VOB format) which I had burned using an external Song GX7 dvd recorder. I'm looking for some advice on how to get the best quality video into MPEG 4 format. Do I have to recapture directly from the mini dv tape to MPEG 4? If so, what tools do I need? Are there converters which do not lose any quality in the conversion? Do I need a new video card or is that irrelavant?

 

Sorry for all the questions. I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to be self sufficient.

[sknis]

I just preordered the Apple TV but I have a Windows system. I had converted my home movies to MPEG format usign Roxio but not MPEG 4 which is what will be required to play on Itunes or Apple TV. I tried a few MPEG 4 freeware converters (thanks to you all for the help) but the quality does not appear to be as good as the original MPEG format. I also have the home movies on DVD (VOB format) which I had burned using an external Song GX7 dvd recorder. I'm looking for some advice on how to get the best quality video into MPEG 4 format. Do I have to recapture directly from the mini dv tape to MPEG 4? If so, what tools do I need? Are there converters which do not lose any quality in the conversion? Do I need a new video card or is that irrelavant?

 

Sorry for all the questions. I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to be self sufficient.

 

You are breaking new ground here so don't be surprised if you don't get a lot of good advice. At this point, I would suggest that you download and run the EMC V9 trial . You can try using VideoWave to output to one of several mpg 4 formats. Remember that if your original capture is not very good, the conversion will not improve that. You can copy that VOB file to your hard drive and use it for the source for the MPEG 4 file. That way you only have that one conversion to worry about. (You can do that in V8 if you copy to your computer and then rename the file from VOB to mpg. Make sure that you do not have Windows set to hide file extensions.

If that is not good enough for you, perhaps a stand alone converter is what you would want. I would not think that anything connected via USB would be very good. Perhaps an internal converter card?

[pfcurtis]

I just preordered the Apple TV but I have a Windows system. I had converted my home movies to MPEG format usign Roxio but not MPEG 4 which is what will be required to play on Itunes or Apple TV. I tried a few MPEG 4 freeware converters (thanks to you all for the help) but the quality does not appear to be as good as the original MPEG format. I also have the home movies on DVD (VOB format) which I had burned using an external Song GX7 dvd recorder. I'm looking for some advice on how to get the best quality video into MPEG 4 format. Do I have to recapture directly from the mini dv tape to MPEG 4? If so, what tools do I need? Are there converters which do not lose any quality in the conversion? Do I need a new video card or is that irrelavant?

 

Sorry for all the questions. I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to be self sufficient.

I get the impression that you are coverting the video to MPEG4 from MPEG2 or VOB files. These files have already been compressed and have lost some resolution and will not convert to MPEG4 very well. The best quality files you have are on the original mini DV tapes. Use the DV file as your source to output the very best MPEG4 files for the Apple TV. Make certain you use the correct Apple TV H264 file format specs for the very best results