Output AVI from Compressor?

I couldn't find any definite answers about this from doing internet searches, so I'm posting here. Does anyone know if its possible to output AVI (or WMV) from Compressor 4? Its not something that I would normally do but I needed to convert some H264 MOVs for a friend (who is running CS3 on an older PC)?

There are no presets in Compressor for those formats, but probably it can be done as a custom preset?

I also tried VideoConverterXLite from the App store, but the results were glitchy (no audio).

Thanks!

Actually, AVI is an outdated, unsupported (officially by MS) format. You can export to WMV using Telestream's "Flip4Mac" QuickTime codec. But not the free one, you have to pay for one of the versions that does as much as you need it to do. "WMV Studio" is the most basic version that lets you "export" to WMV using setting presets. As you pay more, you get to customize more settings, get more features.

Hi, yeah, its not something I would really ever want to do myself, it was just a favor for a friend (so I didn't feel like paying for specialized software to do a one off). Most people where I live are still shooting SD DV, and using older PC computers with older versions of Premiere, AVI seems to be the preferred format for whatever reason.

Thanks anyway

Hey Simon,

AVI is simply a container like the MOV extension. If you open any AVI in quicktime you can see all sort of flavors from H.264 to XVID and so on. What you can to if someone is requiring an AVI, I would recommend exporting a H.264 version from compressor then go to MpegStream Clip. Hey have a feature in the program that will let you do a Save As (basically rewriting the headers of a video file) to a AVI file format, this way it is H.264 inside the AVI. (you can also do DV, which is common for SD footage in Premiere)

As for WMV, Ben is dead on with Flip4Mac just be mindful that this component for quicktime uses WMV9 and if you go with something like Sorenson Squeeze 7 it produces WMV but it is in the VC-1 codec not WMV9 which some clients may want.

Hi Mickey,

Thanks for that. I had looked at the MPEGStream clip site earlier, but it had stated that there was a problem with the installation with Lion so I decided not to use it. I may try to have a look at it again, as that program seems to come up on the top of all the searches.

Cheers!

Mpeg Streamclip does play well with Lion. However, if you are also going to use it to convert MPEG2 files you will need to install the QT MPEG2 component after you have installed Streamclip. At this time Streamclip does not recognize the native MPEG2 component in Lion. To install the component in Lion, download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta which will give you an optional install for the MPEG2 component.

H.264 does not always play well inside an AVI container because the AVI container is not really fit for formats that have re-ordered frames. If you need to send the file to someone who wants to work with the file in Premiere or any Windows based editor I totally agree that either DV (or Uncompressed - None) will be perfect as export formats.

If the file is simply meant to be viewed on a Windows system you can either export to WMV using Flip4Mac or even better tell your friend to install QuickTime. Then he can watch your files in their original format.

PPro and Avid both read ProRes files, too.

I'm going to give the DV option a try. Thanks for all the tips!