New to Mac, Convert .AVI to .MOV

[The Sloth]

Hey guys, Hope this isn't a dumb question.... I recently purchased a macbook and am transferring some movies/tv shows via a flash drive that I want to add to my iTunes library.I saved the tv shows to my movies folder and added the folder to iTunes but nothing is showing up and the videos are not playing on quicktime..... the movies/shows are in .avi format and i think quicktime needs .mov...online they have some conversion programs but they all cost money and aren't straight forward....any quick advice for someone not computer savvy?Thanks