Convert video between Microsoft and Apple
This is probably more information than anyone would care to know. I'm posting it in case anyone's interested in the geeky details of using MPlayer to convert to and from MOV files. It would be far easier to simply download either mov2avi.bat or wmv2mp4.bat and use them with the instructions in the "Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker" or "Podcast primer" posts respectively.
This command converts from the QuickTime format into something that can be used by Windows Movie Maker.
mencoder -oac pcm -ovc lavc -ffourcc DIVX -o test.avi test.mov
This command converts from The Windows Movie Maker fromat into something that can be used by iTunes. It's useful if the file you're creating is to be used in a podcast.
mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts aglobal=1:vglobal=1:vcodec=mpeg4:acodec=aac -of lavf -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames -o test.mp4 test.wmv
If you need more info on batch file parameters, you can find out more from the Microsoft site.
See also: Podcast primer, Movie watermark, Editing mov files with Windows Movie Maker
Apple Software Update trouble
It appears that iTunes + QuickTime has trouble installing when Outlook is running. Occasionally, the Apple Software Update program will appear telling me there are updates that need to be installed. When I tell it to go ahead and install the updates I get a dialog with the following message.
Errors occurred while installing the updates. If the problem persists, choose Tools > Download Only and try installing manually.If I follow the instructions and run the iTunes.msi installer I get another dialog warning about outlook.
Outlook is currently running on this computer. If you proceed without quitting Outlook it is highly recommended that you restart Outlook after installation.
I run into this problem every time. I've tried a few experiments to see if I can narrow down the problem. This last time I came to the following conclusions.
- If outlook is closed when I run iTunes.msi I don't see any dialogs.
- If I close outlook before I run the update from the Apple Software Update program it still errors out.