Saturday, January 05, 2008

Converting .mov to .swf for Mac

In a previous post, I discussed my purchase of two screencast programs. One of them was kind of cumbersome, and the other one was easy to use, but did not output to .swf. I almost spent another $65 for a new program that was easy to use and outputted to .swf (Screen Mimic). Moments before I clicked "buy," a friend suggested I look for a program to convert my Quicktime files to Flash.

It was like a door was opened for me, leading to vast golden fields reflecting the late summer sun... OK, maybe I am being a bit melodramatic, but I was really excited. This means that I could record a silent screencast in iShowU, then import the Quicktime into iMovie 06 to edit the video and add voiceovers at my leisure. I had been frustrated that one stutter or misspoken word in a screencast often necessitated starting over.

So I found a blog post about converting Quicktime files into Flash which also had a tutorial for Mac users interested in using the (free) program FFMPEGX. However, this program only converts to FLA and there is a whole other process to be able to play it on the internet.

I need something simpler.

Video to Flash Converter 5.7 seems to be a popular choice, but it also seems to only work with Windows, despite what some sites claim. In fact, there seems to be no shortage of shareware for Windows use. I was getting discouraged.

Finally, I found Video2Swf which, ironically, is produced by the same company that makes Screenography. For $45 (on "sale") it seems to be a good choice. It even allows you to chose from a number of players to embed your video. (The Luddite in me enjoyed choosing the pretty designs.) The demo was clear and easy to use. (The demo puts a watermark across the middle of your output file.) Here's my first demo sample (a video inspired by a 2006 school trip to Europe):




5 comments:

Michael Bazeley said...

Hi Christine. You should check out VisualHub. It will convert from and to just about any video format. We used it extensively at my last job. It's becoming something of a favorite tool among video editors on a budget who use Macs (it's just $23).
http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/

- Michael
(Dad of Alex. B)

allisyn said...

Hey Christine! I saw your great posting about BrainPOP on Curriki! I am the Director of Teacher Outreach and would love to get in touch (only I can't find your email address!). I'd love to talk some more! Great blogs:)

Allisyn

Mark Row said...

I use Flash Video MX for Mac to convert MOV to SWF, the software is $40.

Jessica said...

I think Video to Flash Converter for Mac's trial will let you do it.

Fish said...

yes, but with a big watermark in the middle...