Converting .mpeg files to watch on DVD?

[prankstare]

Since I've been reading a lot about The FilmMachine program being one of the best when it comes to features & usability, I decided to install it as an attempt to convert compressed video files stored on my HDD to be played on my stand alone DVD player. It is cool with converting .AVI files but I have come to realise just now that it can't convert .MPEG files (only files with the extensions .AVI, .MP4, .MOV, .RMVB and .MKV that are supported by the program) which sucks because I have lots of music videos using this container.

So my question is are there any third-party plugins for FilmMachine to be able to convert also .MPEG files from my HDD? For this lacking of support I'm thinking of also giving ConvertXtoDVD a whirl.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried change to all files(*.*) in thefilmmachine and open the mpg and see if can convert it?

Or else have you several other free all-in-one converters to try like favc, dvdforger, dvdflick.

[prankstare]

I can't change options from the extensions dropdown list since it gives me only one available, which is the .AVI, .MP4, etc as I cited in my first post. Well, is this normal? Can you guys also convert .MPG/MPEG files using The FilmMachine?

I'm using version 1.6.0.10 beta with just one external installed codec -- CCE.

[FulciLives]

You do realize that an MPEG file may already be DVD compliant. This is not always the case though and even if it is DVD compliant you have to double check to see if it is NTSC or PAL etc.

You should load the MPEG file into GSpot as that will tell you some information about it. It may turn out that you do not have to convert.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[prankstare]

You do realize that an MPEG file may already be DVD compliant. This is not always the case though and even if it is DVD compliant you have to double check to see if it is NTSC or PAL etc.

I am newbie to video encoding in general so pardon my ignorance.

Most of my .MPG/.MPEG files are MPEG-1 so I'm assuming it is not compliant to DVD standard (which is MPEG-2). Am I right on this? And, well supposing they are not compliant, how should I proceed? I'm using Nero Burning Room DVD-Video to burn the videos to DVD-R and the burner will not let me add .AVI or .MPEG files (it says I can only add .VOB files).

Please would somebody give me a little help here.

[FulciLives]

Without getting into a TON of detail I can tell you that MPEG-1 VCD style MPEG files are DVD compatible so far as the video is concerned. The problem is the audio is almost always in 44.1khz and needs to be 48khz. There are guides that explain how to separate the audio and re-encode it so it is DVD compliant.

Doing that will give you the best quality in that you will not have to re-encode the video but it is a multi-step process and you will need to use a "real" DVD Video authoring program. You cannot use NERO for this. Not to mention that NERO makes a poor converter/authoring solution even under the best of circumstances.

All I can say is look in the guides for VCD to DVD stuff. All the information you need to do this is there and most if not all of the tools (programs) are freeware.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Baldrick]

Just type *.* in the file opening box and you can choose all files. But I haven't used thefilmmachine in several years so I can't be sure that it mpg sources. Go to the thefilmmachine forum and search!

And yes, mpeg1 can be dvd compliant. And if it's dvd compliant you need an authoring tool for that like tmpgenc dvd author or free ones like dvdauthorgui...but an all-in-one converter is much easier to use.

Easiest would be to use CONVERTXToDVD! as you say in your first post.

[prankstare]

Oh, OK. Thanks for the replies fellows.

@Baldrick: I tried *.* and it did show me the bloody "hidden" .MPEG files. Then double-clicked on one file but no candy this time -- the frontend surprises me with a very pleasant pop-up window alleging something related to unsupported audio streams and that if I still desire to open this type of file extension should a request email be sent to the author of the program.