Video formats in AI?

Hello -

I'm a veteran Titan user but very new to AI and learning my way through.

Two questions:

1. Regarding video clip formats: Non-AIM clips I've tried in AI seem not to work at all. I just get a black square. My understanding was that AIM was recommended, but other formats should at least play. Can someone clarify?

2. Getting video into AIM format: What's the best way to convert clips into AIM? I'd prefer a Mac-based software solution if possible. Handbrake doesn't seem to support AIM. Is everyone using Compressor or something else?

Thanks!

Related follow-up: I've tried converting a few random video clips using Apple Compressor into AIM.

When I drop these into AI, I see a proper thumbnail of the media, but when I click them, they completely crash AI. The app quits entirely.

The clips open and play just fine in QuickTime Player, and it correctly identifies them as being in AIM format.

Any idea what's wrong?

Thanks!

Normally, AIM clips are recommended and should play just fine. Essentially, Ai is quicktime based, hence clips playing well in quicktime should play as well in Ai.

However, it's always the little details: bitrate, sound, format, render settings, etc. Also, as quicktime is not in favour of some bigger companies and has been removed from some systems in the past, there might be a quicktime problem as well.

If you could submit some videos, e.g. by dropbox or a similar file transfer, and then either post the links here  or send it to me by email then I'd be happy to have a look.

Personally I am a Windows/Linux guy. For the occasional converting I still use quicktime pro, and else render from AE straight into AIM, without problems.

The AIM codec is provided as quicktime plugin (which still is a plugin standard for a number of video related software). However, Handbrake (which I didn't know before) seems not to accept such plugins, hence you cannot make Handbrake converting to AIM. But I think standard H.264 clips should play in Ai as well. Maybe not at the highest performance, but they should play.

Does your Ai installation play other contents, e.g. the stock clips, without problems?