[Kraetos]

Hi All,

I have recently discovered how to transfer video directly from my DVR to my Mac. The video that comes from the DVR is saved into .m2t format, which is only readable by VLC player. I want to get it into Quicktime. VLC's exporting tools are rather weak, so I am using a program called MPEG Streamclip.

However, I cannot pick a viable format, for any number of reasons. The raw data is about 50 minutes of 704 x 480 video, in .m2t format. The file weighs in just shy of 800 MB.

Many of Apple's fancy codecs (pixlet, H.264) cause the file to baloon in size to about 3 GB. Exporting to a .mov file has a similar effect. The various .avi formats cause the file increase to the 1-2 GB range. Others make the file sub-500 MB, but the quality goes WAY down.

The only one which has a smaller size and decent quality is the 3ivx D4 (4.5.1) codec. The quality has no noticeable drop, and the file shrinks to about 650 MB. However, when I do this, Quicktime launches and displays an error message: "Some of the software required to play this video is missing" or something similar. It then launches me at the quicktime website, which is entirely of no help, because I already know exactly what codec I used so downloading new ones wont help. Also, it doesn't matter if I change the audio codec, it still comes through with no sound.

Go figure - the only efficient video codec I find doesn't work right. (Tangent: arent most codecs designed to COMPRESS raw video? Why are all these codecs actually INCREASING the size of the file? Its not like their going to eek any more quality out of the video from its raw format.)

If anyone could suggest a working codec, or a way to fix the 3ivx codec, it would be greatly appreciated.