General Purpose Video Files

[AndyPerry]

I work as a computer technician for a bank. I know plenty about computers, however I don't know much about audio/video! I enjoy watching movies and listening to music, and I can tell the difference in quality between the extremes, but sometimes I can't notice the difference in subtle things right away, it just "feels" different when I watch/listen.

Anyway, I have a collection of various video files, mostly anime and TV shows with a few movies and trailers and stuff in there. There are many, many different containers and codecs in all these various files, with some having multiple languages and/or subtitles. That being said, I mainly use VLC Media Player to watch them. However, I would like to convert them into one uniform, standard file type and codec. I am looking for one that will work on XBOX 360, PS3, and PSP. Also, I would like for it to work in Media Center as well, so I can use my 360 as a media extender and also make use of the Media Center that is built into Vista Ultimate. I have tried various codec programs and got things to work fine in Windows Media Player and most things worked okay with my 360 and PS3, however, Media Center was still unable to read the majority of them.

I have tried using various programs in the past and I can't seem to get anything to work very well. Some things work, but have to be custom tailored for each individual file, and I really do not want to do that for thousands of different files...Others convert and run, but the quality is seriously lacking or the file size triples. Others convert, but the file doesn't work....I'm just not an audio/video savvy type of person I guess. Fixing hardware and software issues is my thing, not detailed audio/video terms.

[Bjs]

have to be custom tailored for each individual file

Is a lot of work and no, there is no simple solution when dealing with a large collection of clips from various sources.

What works for some may not work for others so you have to research as to whats available which may get you to point b

Throw in the fact your including multiple devices and you have almost tripled the work load.

Convert all to "one" main format you can live with and store ... then process this for other devices later.

I prefer dv avi