How to convert avi to mp4 for iPhone with VLC
// November 10th, 2007 // iphone
I had some problems converting my avi (divx) torrents to a mp4 format for my iPhone. Googling for some answers I only came to crapy sites offering me paid software. Because I know it’s not that hard to convert a file I tried some things my self with the free VLC player. Here’s a guide how you convert your downloaded torrents to mp4 (suitable for iPod or iPhone):
1. Download VLC player.
2. Go to the streaming/exporting wizard.
3. Choose transcode/Save to file.
4. Choose your input stream.
5. Put the video codec on “MPEG-4 Video” and choose your bitrate (I recommend 512)
6. Put the audio codec on “MPEG-4 Audio” and choose your bitrate (I recommend 128)
7. Put the encapsulation format on MPEG 4 / MP4
8. Choose the name and location you want to save the file.
9. Click on finish, that’s all!
Now you can put your movies or series in iTunes and sync it with your iPhone. If you want to convert a DVD to your iPhone or any other device I suggest you use Handbrake.
82 Responses to “How to convert avi to mp4 for iPhone with VLC”
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- JJ said: I'd do her...
- Sjel van Gils said: Hoi Pieter, weeeeeeeer een super indrukwekkend fo...
- Travis said: I'm going to sound stupid, but I followed the inst...
- needhelp said: Hello, Having some problems, I've been able to ...
- Javi said: Just so you know, Handbrake supports converting an...
I’ve had differing results with this and I’m fairly sure it’s down to the source file.
I’ve had ones that work perfectly following the original instructions and I’ve had ones that needed encoding as H.264 then converting in iTunes (see above).
Not sure yet why it is different.
Do have VLC installed on my computer, how do I convert my MPEG4 format films to avi to play on my stand-alone dvd player.
the first few worked for me, then it without changing anything it just stopped working!…
am going to try some of the tweaks suggested.
This worked great for me, i was able to convert my videos using VLC and import them into itunes and sync to my iphone. All working flawlessly. Thanks!
Hello,
Let me first thank you so very much for you innovation, money well spent, in this day and age it’s a magic..
I have a problem that I was not able to solve with Mac Support.
I have home made movies (Kind : AVI Movie) that I would like to watch on my 3G.
I have VLC, Quick Time Player on my MacBook to open…
However, I am unable to open the movies.
When I do download the move in to a designated folder with in the 3G, it appears as two of the same but with different magnitudes.
The mac Support representative asked me to drag the movie on to the desktop, open iTunes, connect 3G, Itunes File > drop dawn menu > Add to Library > find the movie > double click, and it should appear in Movie segment of iTunes.
That did not work aether.
So Please help.
Sorry I am not doing a good job explaining.
Once again many thanks for your wonderful product.
GOD bless.
Respectfully,
Cyrus.
You say you are seeing “two of the same but with different magnitudes.” I believe that you are seeing the movie file and the resource file. If the movie file is named something like “movie.avi”, the resource file will be named “._movie.avi”. The resource file is much smaller. Does this sound right so far? This is all expected. You would see the same results if you copied your movie file to an iDisk.
If I understand, though, you are trying to play AVI movies on the iPhone. This is not supported by the iPhone or by Air Sharing. The iPhone supports a limited set of movie types. In the app description on the App Store, we state that Air Sharing supports “Movie (standard iPhone formats: H.264, MPEG-4, 3GPP, etc.).” The key to all of these is that they are encoded either in MPEG-4 or in H.264.
Sincerely,
Dave
I forgot to tell you this part:
If you want to be able to play your AVI files on the iPhone, you will need to convert them to MPEG-4 or H.264. There are numerous tools that can do this conversion, including Apple’s own QuickTime Player Pro. If you google “convert iphone avi” you will find a number of converters.
Cheers!
Dave
Can you please help I am having a heel of a time with this.
Many thanks,
Cyrus.
Here’s maybe some help if only parts of movies can be seen…
When I converted my first avi file I could easily convert the file. Itunes recognised it and everything looked good. Until I noticed it was only 9 min. of a 60 min. serie. It puzzeled me…
I noticed that although you cannot see it, VLC is processing the file in the background. If you drag the file too early to Itunes it’s not ready yet and you will only transfer the beginning of a film. At least, that’s what happened to me. The one hour avi file (346 MB) took about 13 minutes to convert (to 280 MB) on my Mac Book Pro. Dragging it to Itunes and transfer it to the phone was a piece of cake. The movie played flawless after that on my Iphone…
Oh, don’t forget to put .mp4 behind the name of the file.
Great manual Pieter thanks!
Have anyone tried to insert subs yet? I think I saw an option for that…
I have converted .avi to .mp4 using h.264 and brought it into itunes. The problem is there audio play for about 5 sec then turns off. Anyone help?
Thanks! This step-by-step directions worked like a charm for me once I tried the H.264 option. Now if I could just get the file from itunes to my iphone…..right-clicking doesn’t give me a convert option.
@ Jenn
Try to drag and drop it, that should work.
does this work for ipod?
Awesome work! Worked 1st go perfectly. Thanks
Hi.
I got as far as converting it to mp4 using the Pieter as well as using H.264 as my video amount. I drug my file into iTunes and it all was going pretty well, but the sound is really messed up. The Sound was originally bad because it was a file I got from the internet, but when playing in VLC it was perfect.
Anyways, when I played the new file in iTunes , the sound was VERY choppy, and did not play as it did in VLC. What is the reason for this?
I also tried the “Convert file to fit iPhone and iPod” choice in itunes, and an error box appeared each time.
I do not know what to do! I want this movie on my iPod/ iPhone so badly! LOL.
Oh I am using a mac by the way and VLC version 0.9.8.
I thank you all so much for writing on this forum. You have all been tremendous help and I believe you can help me to get though this.
Thanks Again!
I meant to say the Pieter recipe. LOL.
Sorry for the run on comments, I understand that this post is from a while ago, but I would love if anyone ever checks this to help me out.
Thank you again.
Pieter thanks a million for this, I am fed up with installing buggy 3rd party products on my PC and didn’t realise I could transcode through VLC until I found your article 0 thanks again !!!
im using a mac osx 10.4, transcoded, but the audio files seems to be having an error
it skipped like damaged audio.
what might gone wrong?
ouput is to h 264 the video is fine but the audio doesnt seems to sound correctly,
if the output is video mpeg4 and the audio mpeg 4,
it runs without errors while streaming, but when done it doesnt show any video or audio..help please..
If you’re on a Mac, use iSquint not Vlc, Dur!
Hello. I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I have VLC but I prefer to use MPEG Streamclip (www.squared5.com). It performs this conversion, as well as many others. It is free, has a nice UI, and works for me.
I hope this may help anyone who is having a problem with VLC.
Hey I tried the Streamclip from Squared5. Worked great but without sound. Any tips?
[...] option is to use vlc (not [...]
Thanks!!! Just what I needed. VLC is my faforite, and it is nice to know I already had the tool to do it!
I tried this with my iPhone 2.0 and, while the mp4 file plays in iTunes and downloads to my phone, I get the “this video can’t be played” message. Any ideas as to why?
I had significant issues with VLC in trying to encode video for my IPhone. Though I have had good experiences with the product in the past. I did try a new free application (http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Video-to-iPhone-Converter.htm) and found it to be intuitive and the quality of the converted video was quite good. I just thought I would pass it along.
Thank you
hey pieter – I followed your precise instructions point by point but when it comes to finishing it after I click on ‘finish’ VLC doesn’t seem to do anything. I cannot see my created file name in the folder I used (Mac PB G4, and trying to save it on desktop). Is it actually converting it in the background? I don’t get it…what do I keep doing wrong? It can’t be that difficult. Thanks for trying to help in advance
have the same problem with steph what can i do i can’t find the file i convert!ty for the help
I keep getting this error. Why?
Streaming / Transcoding failed:
VLC could not open the encoder.
Streaming / Transcoding failed:
VLC could not open the encoder.
hi just wondering is it possible to do more than one at a time?
i just finished converting my file but for some reason i can’t drag it to to itunes and was wondering how the heck i do that. I am on a mac and i am trying to. When i drag it it shows the green (1) file but it wont grab it to sync, would you no how i can.
Genius..Thanks
Thank you so much! took some fiddling but it works perfectly. I ended up just using the mepeg4 option. Where it went wrong is that it didn’t like to drag and drop- I had to add to libary then add to ipod. I’m using a 180 gig click wheel ipod fyi.
Just so you know, Handbrake supports converting any kind of video into ipod/iphone video…
Hello,
Having some problems, I’ve been able to convert the file from an avi to MP4, but is really pix elated any help in getting this to stop?
Cheers!
I’m going to sound stupid, but I followed the instructions and hit “finish” and nothing happens. It doesn’t start converting the file. I hit play and nothing happens as well. So what am I not doing? I know that’s going to sound stupid, but help me out. Thanks.