Converting RM files

[raz1337]

I have a good amount of Real Video (.rm) files that I want to convert to AVI or MPEG, mainly so I can get them over to iPod format. I've been spending the last few days at least trying to figure out how to do this. I've downloaded a good handful of programs, that say they convert these type of files. I made sure I had the latest Real Player installed, just in case.

Everytime I try converting one of the files, it comes back with the same error. The codec is not supported, or some variation of that. These files play fine in Real Player. I ran GSpot, it comes back with:

File Type: RealMedia (.RM)
Mime Type: application/vnd.rn-realmedia

It says RV40 under format in Xilisoft Video Converter.

I've tried Xilisoft Video Converter, River Past Crazi Video, ImToo and Jodix iPod Video Converter.

I tried uninstalling RealPlayer and trying RealAlternative, same issue.

I've tried MediaCoder also, comes up with this:

Error loading dll
ERROR: Could not open required DirectShow codec drvc.so.
Error loading dll
ERROR: Could not open required DirectShow codec drvc.dll.
Error loading dll
ERROR: Could not open required DirectShow codec drv4.so.6.0.

I tried WinAVI, comes back saying I need the "RealMedia Decoder". Like I said, I've tried with either RealPlayer 10 or Real Alternative 1.52 installed. I'm just not understanding how I can't convert these files, but I can play them fine.

So, any help would be appreciated. I'll give any information needed.

[guns1inger]

SUPER might be worth a try as a one-stop solution

[raz1337]

Tried it, mencoder crashes while converting one of the files. It gave one of the generic "this program has generated errors and will be closed by windows". The list of reasons for an error that Super gives wasn't exactly helpful. Think I did something wrong though, going to try messing around with super again. I think the problem was I tried converting to ipod. I'll try a different file type with a different encoder. Trying MPEG-2 with ffmpeg right now.

[guns1inger]

Real always seems to be a bitch to convert, mainly because they keep it so closed and proprietary. I have never seen anything encoded in Real of high enough quality to warrant converting it, although people tell me good quality real media material does exist. They just can't seem to show me any . . .

Anyways, have a read of these, if you haven't already. They might help.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=289872
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=212204

[theewizard]

once in a while i come across a file in rm format, that i can't find in any other format, it is always hit & miss, some will convert with super, some won't, no other program has ever worked 'for me' for converting rm

like gunslinger said a real bitch to convert

I do my best to avoid rm & rmvb files

[raz1337]

With Super, I get that something has generated errors, and the program only encodes 10 minutes of the file, which is 22 minutes. I've tried encoding with MPEG-II, and AVI with XviD and the same thing happens with both.

I tried virtualdubmod, says that no combination of filters could be found to render the stream.

EO Video is the other one, it worked, sortof. It seems like the quality of the picture went down a bit. It's so slow, I'll have to leave it encoding while I go out today to try it.

[raz1337]

Well, EO video converted it fine. I'm not sure how long it took as I left it converting before I went to work. Though it looked like it was taking about 25% more time than the actual duration of the video. That's awfully slow.

The original file is 28 MB, the AVI with DivX and MP3 codecs used is 124 MB, is that right for a file size or can it get smaller without sacrificing video quality? It doesn't look like it lost any quality, ust the file size quadrupled and the time taken to convert was *really* long.

[theewizard]

thats the nature of rm files,
likely the program actually played the file, capturing and converting the stream on the fly, as it was decoded for display

but since you converted to mpeg yes the file size will get bigger, mpeg does not compress as much as rm or mpeg4 / xvid etc

[raz1337]

Yeah, I guess I'm stuck with EO Video. It's the same amount of time to encode each file as the length of the actual video. I added it up and it's going to be over 90 hours of waiting. Each video is 20 minutes and the files average 120MB in size. So, it's going to be over 30GB in space. My 100GB hdd that I thought was so big last summer is suddenly so small, haha. Then, the fun comes in converting all the AVI's to iPod format.

Oh well, I have no other choice, it seems. I'll definitely be deleting the original RM's and be replacing them with the AVI's, that's for sure. Time to go find out why I can't rip my star wars DVD's with the forced subtitles correctly.

Thanks for the help, anyways.

[jman98]

The original file is 28 MB, the AVI with DivX and MP3 codecs used is 124 MB, is that right for a file size or can it get smaller without sacrificing video quality? It doesn't look like it lost any quality, ust the file size quadrupled and the time taken to convert was *really* long.

Quick encodes don't result in quality encodes. You can either do it quickly or do it with a lot of quality, but you can't do both.

The higher the bit rate for Divx, the better the quality and the larger the file. If you have small resolutions, you can use a lower bit rate on them. You'll just have to figure out what works for you.

[45tripp]

You're probably roughly going from ~200kbps bitrate to ~1000.
I've never used EO video but you should be able to easily change that.
I do have some suspicions as to why that's the default though.

Nothing you can do about EO speed though.
If you try the methods mentioned in the first link Guns1inger gave, you should be able to do the conversion in less than half the time it's taking you now.

[EatMoreChickens]

tmpgenc 4.0 conversions to Divx have yielded the highest resolutions for me.