How to import and convert AVI to iMovie on Mac (Mountain Lion included)

November 19, 2013 6:31 pm / Posted by Ian Lam to Video Editing

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AVI is a multimedia container format, with the extension of .avi. Most AVI files use XviD, DivX or 3ivX compression codec. AVI file has well compatible with Windows programs like Windows Media Player or WMM. However, it turns to be a rough file format, when play or edit AVI on Mac QuickTime, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, etc. You may have experienced that nothing shows up on the screen, get only audio, etc, after importing AVI to iMovie.

In fact, the iMovie (iMovie 11) can only support limited file format like MP4, MOV and M4V. Obviously, AVI file format isn’t natively acceptable to iMovie. So you have to render to a third-party program-AVI to iMovie Converter, which allows you to easily convert AVI to iMovie compatible file format like MPEG4, MOV, M4V. In addition, the Mac Video Converter for iMovie has lots of friendly options such as optimal presets for handy devices, practical editing functions, batch conversion and so forth.

How to convert AVI to iMovie on Mac (Mountain Lion included)

Download the Mac AVI to iMovie Converter and install it. Run it, then click "Add File" to load AVI files to the program.

Note: If you hope to join several AVI files to be converted, the "Clip" function can make it true. Click "Clip" to customize the start time and ending time of the target segment, as shown in the screenshot.

Click the menu bar of "Profile" to choose "iMovie" and its corresponding file format like iMovie MPEG-4, iMovie MOV, etc. Either of them has been optimized video settings for iMovie.

Hit "Convert" button and the AVI to iMovie Video Converter for Mac can automatically do the conversion for you. A bar will show you the status of conversion and when finish converting. Then you can directly access to the generated file by default.

Launch iMovie, choose "File"->"Import"->"movies" to load the generated file to iMovie. And enjoy your editing with iMovie.