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880
6th June 2009, 10:44
I've recorded some screen activity that I want to edit in iMovie. Since the latest version of iMovie supports AVCHD input, I want to convert my screencast to h.264.

My screencast is saved in the lossless Flash screen video format. I have tried to convert it to other lossless formats with ffmpeg, but HandBrake does not work with any of them. I have also tried using other containers, but they do not work either.

How can I get my screencast into iMovie?
nm
6th June 2009, 16:50
My screencast is saved in the lossless Flash screen video format. I have tried to convert it to other lossless formats with ffmpeg, but HandBrake does not work with any of them. I have also tried using other containers, but they do not work either.
I tried converting ffv1 AVIs with HandBrake (an old SVN build from November 2008 that I happened to have installed) and it worked fine for me.

You could also re-encode directly to AVCHD-compatible H.264 by using x264 through ffmpeg or MEncoder, or by piping from ffmpeg/MPlayer to x264.
benwaggoner
6th June 2009, 23:38
QuickTime has a notable lack of good lossless codecs.

I've generally PNG as a codec in .mov for screen recordings.

There's also the TechSmith TSCC codec. I'm not sure if the free download includes an encoder, though.
880
7th June 2009, 00:16
OK it turns out that HandBrake does not support files without audio. (How will I encode my silent movie collection? :D )

I muxed in a dummy audio track, and HandBrake worked fine.
Leeloo Minaļ
7th June 2009, 16:53
There's also the TechSmith TSCC codec. I'm not sure if the free download includes an encoder, though.

TSCC codec can be used for encoding, but you need to install Camtasia Studio first, without the program the codec remains in read-only mode.

But there are other good and free lossless codecs, at least for screen or old games capturing : CamStudio, FM Screen Capture, MLC, MSU Screen Capture...
For my personal use :
- Camstudio 1.0 for screen capture because it is the fastest lossless codec available
- MSU screen capture 1.2 for storage because i generally get the best compression ratio, at the expense of read speed...
Mr VacBob
9th June 2009, 00:25
If you install Perian, you can import HuffYUV and ffvhuff files. Unfortunately not FFV1 yet.