Ajapi Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 Hey guys! Alright, so I just received a Macbook Pro as a gift from my company. They said I need a laptop, and opted to provide me with one so I can get my job done. I've been playing around with OSX for a few days now, and though I'm not yet fully comfortable with it (I'm a long-time Windows power user), I've managed some progress. It's a work of art, and I see why it has such a loyal following. I've gotten a few applications already to get stuff done. I got Office 2008, configured Entourage the same way my old Outlook was, and it's in sync with my Gmail account. This has all been so easy I can hardly believe it. Moreover, I installed Toast (a friend recommended it for burning purposes). Now there are two main questions I have, both of them software-related. What software should I use to convert AVI files into DVDs? I have to make DVDs from camera footage quite often. I do not know if the iLife '09 (which was apparently included with my Mac? Unsure..) has an app for this or if I need to buy/download one. Freeware would be preferable, but if there is an evidently superior option that has to be purchased, I'll go for it. I need to sync the Media folder of my main workstation (running Windows XP) with this a folder on this laptop. This would be done over Wifi; I don't need remote access or anything like that, just plain'ol sync between two folders. Again, freeware much appreciated, but I'm willing to shell out the cash for the best product if it's worth it. One last question: what kind of RAM and hard drive do these computers use? I'd like to upgrade my hard drive to something larger, and upgrade my RAM to 4GB. Is it standard-issue SATA and laptop-DDR2? Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 What software should I use to convert AVI files into DVDs? I have to make DVDs from camera footage quite often. I do not know if the iLife '09 (which was apparently included with my Mac? Unsure..) has an app for this or if I need to buy/download one. Freeware would be preferable, but if there is an evidently superior option that has to be purchased, I'll go for it. I would grab Perian just in case the AVI's are encoded in a format that Quicktime doesn't already know about. Then, you can use iDVD (included with iLife '09 which should've been installed on your Mac already) or Toast. Just depends on what you want to do with the DVD. I need to sync the Media folder of my main workstation (running Windows XP) with this a folder on this laptop. This would be done over Wifi; I don't need remote access or anything like that, just plain'ol sync between two folders. Again, freeware much appreciated, but I'm willing to shell out the cash for the best product if it's worth it. This is actually a good question. :p Maybe Dropbox might work for your needs, but if it's a media folder, you might have more than 50GB ($9.99 a month or $99 a year) or 100GB ($19.99 a month or $199 a year) of data. One last question: what kind of RAM and hard drive do these computers use? I'd like to upgrade my hard drive to something larger, and upgrade my RAM to 4GB. Is it standard-issue SATA and laptop-DDR2? It's a SATA 2.5" (laptop) hard drive and DDR3 SO-DIMM 1066MHz. If you're already running 4GB of RAM, it'll be fairly expensive to upgrade to 8GB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajapi Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Thanks, Perian has done just the job. I can now view Xvid/DivX videos in Quicktime without a hitch. Would it be possible, however, to import videos with such encoding into iMovie for further work within the iDVD framework? I used ConvertXToDVD on Windows to convert Xvid/x.264 videos to DVD format, and I'd be delighted if I found a way to do this with iLife applications (the templates look SWEET!). If it's impossible to import Xvid/x.264 video into iMovie, what software would you reccommend to create DVDs? Indeed Dropbox looks like an amazing solution. It isn't quite what I need, though, since I'm working with a folder that's running approximately 140GB. Besides, it's quite sophisticated and offers remote functionality that I probably don't need :p All this has to do is connect to the network and compare the files, update as needed. Thank you so much for your help though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian M. Veteran Posted October 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted October 23, 2009 For the sync, try Windows Live Sync: https://sync.live.com/clientdownload.aspx?ibm=10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Thanks, Perian has done just the job. I can now view Xvid/DivX videos in Quicktime without a hitch. Would it be possible, however, to import videos with such encoding into iMovie for further work within the iDVD framework? I used ConvertXToDVD on Windows to convert Xvid/x.264 videos to DVD format, and I'd be delighted if I found a way to do this with iLife applications (the templates look SWEET!).If it's impossible to import Xvid/x.264 video into iMovie, what software would you reccommend to create DVDs? Perian should enable the whole iLife suite to import whatever codecs it supports since the iLife suite uses Quicktime as its backend. Can't be sure because I've never tried, but I guess just give it a shot? :p Indeed Dropbox looks like an amazing solution. It isn't quite what I need, though, since I'm working with a folder that's running approximately 140GB. Besides, it's quite sophisticated and offers remote functionality that I probably don't need :p All this has to do is connect to the network and compare the files, update as needed. Figured. :hmmm: It was worth a shot to mention it. Bmaher posted what seems to be a good solution since it doesn't have a server in the middle of the operation. I was about to suggest trying Rsync, but that's a hell of a lot of trouble, especially on Windows. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Helix Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Not with iMovie, well not on SL anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliott Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 Not with iMovie, well not on SL anyway Yea, thought it might not. iMovie has its own file types it's set to handle, even if Quicktime can import them otherwise. I suppose you could always do a conversion to H.264 and then manipulate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajapi Posted October 25, 2009 Author Share Posted October 25, 2009 Well guys, Perian seems to have done the job, along with a few other codecs a buddy of mine downloaded. I haven't fired iMovie up yet, but iDVD seems to be handling Xvid files quite nicely. This, I would say, is quite a step forward: my DVDs are looking better than ever and requiring very little work. This iLife suite is freaking amazing. As for the network sync thing, I looked into the Rsync solution. It seems somewhat complex, but it's probably as powerful as it gets - and free, to boot. I'm sold..I'll try my very best to configure it to do what I want. Two way local sync between a Mac and a PC can't possibly be that difficult an arrangement :p Thank you all so very much for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzyyfool Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 For the syncing solution, surely it would be possible to set up a Smart Folder and create a workflow using Automator to sync two folders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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