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How to Convert AVI to MOV (Quicktime File) or MOV to AVI Format

I just shot some .MOV files with my new camcorder and copy them into Adobe Premiere, but they dont play smoothly. Is there any way to encode these .MOV files into AVIs and matching audio files? - Jessic

You may have a number of AVI movies in your collection that you'd like to playback on your iOS device, which you know that by default it only plays certain video formats, then you need a converter program to convert AVI to MOV on Mac. On the other hand, Many video files today come to us in Apple's QuickTime MOV file format, and that causes a problem when we want to transfer them to your PSP/PS3 for watch on the go, in this case, you can try to convert MOV files to a more common video format like .avi format (Windows video file).

No matter you need to convert AVI to MOV file for Mac or transfer the Quicktime MOV to AVI file, you need a third-party media conversion tool. Today we'll using Video Converter for Mac - a nice little program that can convert back and forth from most type of video/audio formats with an easy operation and better results, and it allows you to resize the video, split/merge chapters, add subtitles and more. If you are running a Windows computer, you may refer to Video Converter for Windows.

Here below is the easy steps for the conversion of AVI to MOV extension for Mac OS X. The process of videos in MOV format that aren't compatible with your Windows device (i.e. PS3) to AVI media file is essentially the same.

Step 1: Start by downloading this AVI to MOV Converter application (Mac version)

Step 2: Import AVI videos.

To add your video files to the queue to be converted, click "Add" button to open the file browser window and locate the AVI files. You can also directly drag-and-drop files to the interface of this Mac AVI to MOV video converter.

Batch conversion is available, so you can add multiple AVI files to the queue and convert them at one time.

If you want to combine serveral AVI files and export a continuous QuickTime MOV video, just check "Merge into one" at the bottom of the program.

Tip: The program can keep subtitles of the video, or you can import external subtitles from your computer (.srt, .ssa, .ass).

Step 3: Select "MOV" as the output format

Click "Profile" drop-down list option near the 3D icon, and then choose "MOV" as the output format.

Keep in mind here I am converting the file to MOV format. If you're converting the AVI file for portable devices, I recommend using one of the presets (see left) for the device you're going to be playing the video on.

To tweak the encode options for output file, click on "Add Profile" in the lower left side. You will be presented with several options. Generally, the default settings does the trick.

Edit .AVI files (optional)

There are some editing capabilities available in this Mac app: trim sections out of your video clips, crop the video frame to get the desired part, split your video clips into small clips, and even much more. Get more details with Video Converter user guide.

Step 4: Begin converting AVI to MOV format on Mac OS X

After all the settings, now, just click the "Convert" button to begin the encoding process. While it's working, the progress of the operation is displayed in a window along with the percentage of completion.

That's it. After encoding process has finished successfully, go into the destination directory you set up and you'll see the MOV file. Now you can transfer it to your media device.

Tips & Tricks

The program can also convert MOV to AVI on Mac for playback AVI on a certain device like PS3. AVI is a multimedia container format and it has not a standardized encoding method. You can manually set the output avi files with video codec like XviD, H.264, MPEG-4, MJPEG if required. There are 4 types of avi files: H.264/MPEG-4AVC VideoFormat(*.avi）, AVI-Audio-Video lnterleaved(*.avi), Lossless.uncompressed.AVI(*.avi), DV codec(*.avi).

The program works well on Mac operating system, including Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5.7, Mac OS X 10.5.8, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.