General Information
Is there any difference between the App Store and Shedworx versions?
What level of support is offered?
Where is the Smart Converter Pro log file?

Video Conversions
My conversion failed, what can I do?
What happened to VOB support?
My video converted fine but it won't play in iTunes
I'm having trouble with AVCHD conversions

Is there any difference between the App Store and Shedworx versions?

The App Store version of Smart Converter has to fit in with Apple's rules for App Store apps. This means that things like converting copy-protected files are not allowed.

So far, the two versions are identical except for VOB file support. The Shedworx version will convert non copy-protected VOB files, while the App Store version will not.

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What level of support is offered?

Shedworx offers email support 9am to 5pm weekdays (Perth, Australia timezone, which is GMT+8). We are a regular business and work 9-5, like most people. We respond to almost all support requests within 24hrs on weekdays.

Our systems all run 24x7, but we only provide support while we are at work.

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Where is the Smart Converter Pro log file?

The Smart Converter Pro log file is kept at /Library/Application Support/Smart Converter Pro/Smart Converter Pro.log

On OSX Lion, the Library folder is hidden by default. To display the Library folder, open a Terminal session and paste in the following text:
chflags nohidden ~/Library

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My conversion failed, what can I do?

Conversions failures are generally caused by the same thing - corrupt files. Downloads from torrents and the like contain corruptions now and then, so your best bet is to try another download source.

It is also common for a corrupt file to actually still be playable, since a video player is more forgiving than a converter. Just because a video will play does not mean it will convert.

If you do want us to take a look at a failed conversion, we need the file. Most times we will just tell you that the file is corrupt. In this case it is also very unlikely that any converter will be able to handle the file.

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What happened to VOB support?

The initial version of Smart Converter Free included VOB support. We thought that this was OK as we were not allowing the conversion of copy-protected VOB files.

When we submitted version 1.1 of Smart Converter to the App Store it got rejected because it allowed VOB file conversion.

We had to remove VOB conversion support from Smart Converter and Smart Converter Pro in order to get them listed on the App Store. We have retained VOB support in the Shedworx versions of Smart Converter and Smart Converter Pro.

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My video converted fine but it won't play in iTunes

This problem is caused by iTunes not being able to play the audio in a movie. You will see the first frame of the movie in iTunes, but it won't play.

iTunes won't be able to play a video containing an unsupported audio type. The most common cause of this is AC3 (Dolby Digital audio) in a QuickTime movie. AC3 will playback on an AppleTV, but not on a Mac running iTunes.

To fix this, make sure you don't have the 'AC3 Passthrough' option set in Advanced Preferences.

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I'm having trouble with AVCHD conversions

The default conversion method for AVCHD video is 'Fast' which means that the video is rewrapped from AVCHD to QuickTime without conversion.

Sometimes this doesn't work correctly for a number of reasons, so there is an option under Advanced Preferences to force conversion of AVCHD video. This will ensure that a full conversion happens, which is a much more reliable approach than rewrapping.

Note that the AVCHD conversions carried out by Smart Converter are not suitable for editing.

If all else fails, there is always VoltaicHD, our professional grade AVCHD converter, aimed at video editing requirements.

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ShedWorx Complete Product Listing

ShedWorx Utilities

Welcome to the ShedWorx Utility products. We have developed the products on this page solve the small problems that we have come across over the years. We think these products will help you too!

HD Quick Look

AVCHD previewing for the Mac! This is a Quick Look plug-in that works with the Finder to display thumbnail images from your AVCHD (MTS) movie files, rather than the default black rectangle.

Find out more about HD Quick Look...

mkvWatch

Have you ever downloaded a .mkv movie file and struggled to find an easy way to watch it? Struggle no more! mkvWatch is a simple conversion utility that converts a mkv movie into something that will play on an AppleTV, PlayStation3, or any other popular viewing device.

Find out more about mkvWatch...

VoltaicHD (Mac only) now includes a Timecode overlay function.

The settings for this function are able to be manipulated by modifying the text files TimeCodeFormat.txt which can be found under Voltaic->Show Package Contents->Resources.

Lines in TimeCodeFormat.txt can be commented out by putting a # as the first character of a line.

You can manipulate the following settings:

• FONTNAME: the name of the Font to use. It must be a font installed on your machine
• FONTSIZE: Size in points of the text
• DATEFMT: Date mask
• TIMEFMT: Time format mask
• HALIGN: Horizontal offset of the Timecode box, in pixels, from the bottom left corner
• VALIGN: Vertical offset of the Timecode box, in pixels, from the bottom left corner. Note than negative values are required
• TIMEFIRST: When set to true Time goes on top line, when false, Date goes on top line
• BOXMARGIN: X and Y width in pixels of the border between the edge of the text and outside of the box. Comment out this setting to have no box around the text.
• TRANSPARENCY_PERC: Transparency of the box. 0 is very transparent, 100 is not transparent.