convert asf to quicktime in Mac OS X ?

[eila]

Sorry if this question is answered elsewhere, I've been looking, really!
I am a Mac OS X user.
I recently got an inexpensive digital camera which also takes some video. The video files are in .asf format which won't open with quicktime or import to iMovie. I downloaded Windows Media Player and it allows me to view the video (but not the audio).
VLC is the only thing I have found which lets me see AND hear these files. I want to be able to edit and combine the videos in iMovie. I've heard that VLC can convert to something quicktime can play, but I don't know how. One message said "go to Advanced Output" and play around, but I don't know what to ask it to do. Help?

[The DJ]

Please read the "streaming documentaion" on our documentation part. It also allows you to stream to file.

Beware. this is not a simple task. it's not what VLC was originally created for.

[Salsa]

I realize that VLC wasn't created for converting files, but that might be especially useful now with the new video iPod. I think there are a lot of people like me who would like to get some WMP MPEG4 files into QT so we can convert it to an iPod supported format. Maybe you guys could create a Pro version for this and charge a little extra to cover the work it would take to make this user friendly.

[Guest]

Have you tried ffmpegx?
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/

[fkuehne]

VLC 0.8.4 is featuring a streaming wizard which lets you do that kind of conversation pretty easily. Please have a look at the release once it is out and the streaming / transcoding documentation. Since you are knowing what you want to do, the latter might not be necessary though, because the wizard is pretty easy and straight-forward to use.

[Salsa]

I found VLC's GUI useable enough without the wizzard. The problem was that VLC wasn't able to convert my audio from the G.726 codec to the mp4a codec on the Mac. I think you said in another thread that VLC's MPEG4 is buggy and is not being addressed in the current beta.

I went back to ffmpegX and that DID work. Hurray! I got both my audio and video into MPEG4 and encapsulated in .mp4. I don't remember why it didn't work for me when I tried it a long time ago. Now, I have about a hundred short video clips to convert. I wish that program had a batch convert mode.

[Salsa]

"I don't remember why it didn't work for me when I tried it a long time ago."

OK, I found out what the problem was. It appears that there is a bug in the newest version of ffmpegX, v.0.0.9t. I couldn't convert my video clips using that version, but I accidentally tried using the older version, v0.0.9s, and that worked fine.

Anybody who wants to convert ASF files into QuickTime for editing or loading into an iPod, shoud use version 0.0.9s of ffmpegX. That will work. I hope this helps somebody.