It looks like ffmpeg will not work with MOV files created using iMovie. Is there a way to batch convert these files (which are HUGE) to a compressed format, preferably mp4? I've also tried HandBrake with no success (though I assume ffmpeg is under the hood).
Using ffmpeg on MOV files created by iMovie
imovievideo
Related Solutions
From iMovie, go to Share-> Export Using QuickTime. Set the Export: menu is set to Movie to MPEG-4. Click the Options... button next to that menu.
Set the File Format to MP4
Set the Video Format to H.264
Set the Data Rate to something like 2048
Set the Image Size to 1080
Click OK
Click Save
That should give you a much better-quality video.
Hope this helps!
Don't forget the built-in Automator actions for encoding. The video plugin is very nice and has pre-sets starting with 480p (VGA size) and up.
The Encode for: Greater compatibility toggle keeps the audio and video at a lower bit rate. Depending on what your tolerance for "less degradation" is, you might experiment with Higher quality if you see too many H.264 artifacts on the default setting. It's unlikely as the encoder has a lot of room with 1.5 Mbps as the ceiling for the video data rate.
You could set up a few services to test the various settings and then make a folder action to apply your favorite encode setting to anything you drop in that folder.
Automation is fun—you might even be able to set up a folder action to do your uploading as part of this process.
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Best Answer
You may try MPEG StreamClip also. There is Batch mode — cmd+b
But it's hard to tell based on your information why Handbrake was not able to help you.