Convert ASF to DV on Mac OS X

I have been trying to determine a way to convert ASF format video files to something usable on my Mac for some time now. Today, I found a way that works well. It's a two step process, but only requires one application, FFMPEGX. FFMPEGX is a shareware front end to several UNIX utilities on Mac OS X. You can download all of the utilities for free and do it by hand if you like, but the front end that this application provides is well worth the $15 shareware fee. I haven't sent my money in yet, but I will be doing that in the next couple of days.

I purchased a Mustek DV 4500 sometime back, under the impression that it stored it's videos in MPEG-4 format, and that I would be able to import those into iMovie. Afterall, Apple states that iMovie supports MPEG-4. Well, both were true. The Mustek DV 4500 does indeed store its files in MPEG-4. And iMovie supports MPEG-4. The only problem? The two MPEG-4 formats are different. So, I was stuck with video I couldn't use. I found that I could play the video fine using MPlayerOSX, and so I knew I should be able to encode it to something else. Then I found FFMPEGX. So I dropped the ASF file onto the window, and FFMPEGX recognized it. Tried to convert it to several formats that I thought would be right, but didn't have much luck. So I went looking in the FFMPEGX forums. Then I found this. I needed to convert it to DivX. Ok, so that was a step in the right direction, but not where I wanted to go. I needed it in a format that iMovie supported, and DivX wasn't it.

I toyed around some, and thought, maybe I need to convert it from DivX to something else. So I tried the DV setting in FFMPEGX. It had failed when I tried it from ASF, but I thought I'd try. And it worked. But there was no sound. A little more reading, and I found I need to set it to use audio track 1, instead of the default audio track of 0. Did that, and I had sound. But most importantly, iMovie recognized it too! WooHoo!

So there you have it. Two steps from ASF to DV.

1. Convert ASF to DivX, making sure to select audio track 1.
2. Convert DivX to DV

Finally, I can use this camera again! It's a great little camera. Not super great quality, but for small simple stuff with the kids outside, it works just great! And it is easy to carry around since it is so small.

Thanks to the author of this great tool. Your registration fee will be on its way soon.