Hi. I am sometimes using videos as a background. The videos come from iMovie and need to convert them, add a poster frame and compress them to use them with our beloved Rapidweaver.
I checked a lot of the so called video converters, but none had the mac look&feel. I am willing to spend money (I know I could use VLC or handbrake) but - is there no alternative?
What are you using?
Thank you
Jan
A good suggestion I’ve heard is to upload to Vimeo, then download their compressed version. (And then screen-capping a poster frame I suppose).
Yes, I have a Vimeo plus account. But using Vimeo, you can not get rid of all control elements. You will always see the play and pause button, and I need the video to play without any elements in the background.
Not linking to the video, but actually downloading the file I mean.
Oh sorry, yes, that would be an option. Still, an application is more fun to use for this.
??? I have no idea what you mean. Is the idea to find good compression or to have fun? This is like being unwilling to use TinyPNG because it’s a web app (and presumably “less fun”) than using some less effective native Mac app.
Vimeo does a great job with their compression algorithm. If you haven’t tried it out before then it’s definitely worth a spin.
A Mac app that does lots of conversions, and you have a lot of control, is Permute. I know it’s on the App Store, but I think you can also get a trial and buy from the developer.
Well, fun was a bit too much, mac-like would be more like it. The interfaces of so many apps for video converting are rightful ugly. Permute looks nice and I think I buy it. Thank you very much!
Got it re: Mac-like.
While it is not obvious, go into Permute preferences and you can change the specific settings for various conversions. You can also select/deselect which settings you even see in the main window.
I use Permute more for audio than video, but works well for me for both types of media. Vimeo may still be better but I haven’t done any true comparisons.
Not sure what is happening with MiroVideo, link to download does not work any longer. Stinks too, as this was our go to for video conversions
Yes, I wanted to try that one, but the link is down: "
The requested URL /pub/pculture.org/mirovideoconverter/mac/Miro Video Converter.dmg was not found on this server."
I did find it one time by googling it, it was from a download service, but I lost that link, you could try that.
Hi, Jan,
If I am not mistaken, the latest update of iMovie will allow you to export movies in web-friendly standard formats. I’m not 100% sure, though…
Hi, just as MP4 not as webm or other formats…
By the way, if anybody needs the absolutely BEST FREE VIDEO EDITOR for a Mac, please, search for “DaVinci Resolve” in Apple Store. It has a considerably steep learning curve, but nothing (among free apps) comes close to it in terms of features and professionalism. Many people prefer this FREE app to the entire suite of Adobe Premiere CC and satellite apps.
This free version is sold only through Apple Store. The paid DaVinci Resolve Studio 8 costs $995, but it differs from the free version only in some production tools that are aimed at professional work-groups.
Just thought this info may be of interest to some of you…
+1 for Miro Videoconverter if you don’t need a lot of fine tuning. It is fast and really easy. Maybe the site was down temporary some hours ago.
I personally use MPEG Streamclip a lot. And if I need to have full control over the output, I use Adobe’s Media Encoder as I already have all Adobe Tools.
I like it, but it is way too much for what I need to do. As I read, you still have to compress the results.
If you mean DaVinci Resolve – yes, this is a very complex editor and I wouldn’t suggest to anyone to use it just for conversion and/or compression… 
Speaking of Apple… I type “store.apple.com” into my browser and it resolves to apple.com… When did this happen? Site redesign. No apparent store (but I know it’s there somewhere???) Ha…