OSX Video Program to View in Windows

[The_Shirt]

Greeting all,

I am looking for an OSX program, preferably easy to learn, that I can create a 3-5 minute video that can be played on Windows PCs (work so no choice). Looking for something robust enough to apply special effects and such. Not incapable of learning, just not a lot of time.

[doh123]

Whats wrong with using iMovie?

[masterchef341]

What kind of special effects?

If you're looking for a clean way to do basic editing and add transitions, iMovie should be fine, as noted. Otherwise you could look at Adobe after effects / premiere

[HLdan]

Another vote for iMovie. Can't be beat for the price and what it offers.

[The_Shirt]

Thanks folks, just wasn't sure about the playback in windows. Nothing fancy on the effects...spinning photos, fade in/out, etc.

[HLdan]

Thanks folks, just wasn't sure about the playback in windows. Nothing fancy on the effects...spinning photos, fade in/out, etc.

I understand your reasoning about this but Apple doesn't design the Mac OS to be as unfriendly as Microsoft designs Windows to be. Don't take this as flaming but it's just the plain truth. When something is encoded on Windows or if a website is designed using Internet Explorer then it's really "iffy" that it will be compatible with the Mac or any other browser besides I.E. This is not so with OS X. You can be comfortable knowing that it's designed to work on multiple platforms if it's made on a Mac. The only hiccup you could ever run into would be if someone formatted their hard disk to be Mac only.

[doh123]

iMovie will export to Quicktime or m4v... while you can run either on Windows if you really want, you can also get a free program called Handbrake to convert videos... say if you like wanted an mpg

[masterchef341]

video files with the .m4v extension will play on pretty much anything, including OS X and Windows out of the box.

[kornchild2002]

Right. Windows 7 has built-in support for the mpeg-4 container, h.264 and standard mpeg-4 video, and AAC audio. I imagine Windows 8 is going to continue with the same level of support as well. The m4v file format is just Apple's special labeling of an mpeg-4 video file. It still uses the mpeg-4 container and can house h.264/mp4 video but it will work with anything that can playback mpeg-4 AVC video files and AAC audio files whether it is OS X, Windows 7 and above (Windows Vista and XP require playback software like QuickTime or VLC), Android (I believe it has supported mpeg-4 material since it was launched), iOS, Linux (take your pick), and even dedicated Blu-ray players and gaming consoles. I don't think the PS3 works with the m4v file format but renaming the extension to *.mp4 should make things work. I think the Xbox 360 works with the m4v file format.