What's the best software for going from AVI to MPEG2?

[Yucko the Clown]

I ask this because I've use TMPG and sometimes the come out fine and other times the audio goes out of synch from the video. I know there are several things that can convert avi's but what has worked best?

[Vejita-sama]

There is no 'best'(TM). Popular choices included TMPGenc, CCE, main concept, Ulead and Nero. Of those TMPGenc and CCE are the most popular. Personally I like TMPGenc for MPEG1 and CCE for MPEG2. As I mostly do DVDR stuff these days I really only use CCE.

CCE is much faster than TMPGenc, as is main concept. But they cost a lot more too

As for the audio sync. There are a lot of possible reasons for that (none of which are directly TMPGenc's fault). I would suspect that you are converted d/loaded DivX or xvid videos with VBR (variable bit rate) audio streams. You might want to demux the audio from the video (eg. w/ Virtual Dub), convert the audio to a wav file (a true wav file), and use that as your audio source.

[spidey]

Similar steps as to what Vejita-sama was referring to to give you an idea

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/91588.php

[macleod]

If you want an all in one solution, try DVD2SVCD as it will accept your AVI input. I have done at least 20 divx "files" this way and they have all worked just fine with no audio sync issues.

On another note, it may be the source divx file. It WILL play perfectly on your computer, however, when you convert it to VCD, SVCD, whatever, there may be a syncing issue. From what I understand it has to do with whoever made the divx in the first place. Sometimes "those" people take shortcuts with the file since it wont cause a problem when playing on their computer in divx format.

There are a few guides in the guides section that show you how to resolve sync issues. A question that may lead you in the right direction is when you "dump the audio and video into TMPGENC, does it give you a sync "error" or when you check the properties of the audio and video the lengths are off????

[mmmbeer]

IMHO I would personally steer way away from either Nero or Ulead. Both have the same pixelation and audio problems. TMP works good for me although slow at times but after extracting the wav w/virtualdub the quality os good.

[Pussylips]

Can't see the problem just frame serve!!

[Vejita-sama]

DVD2SVCD is a good choice. Despite the name what it really is is a frontend loader for several other programs (vstrip, DVD2AVI, BeSweet, TMPGenc/CCE, bbMPEG, VCDImager, etc). You can give it either DVD, avi or PVA (TIVO) source, and convert it to MPEG1 or MPEG2.

DVD2SVCD actually uses TMPGenc or CCE to encode. But it does all the settings for you (which is what I suspect is the problem with your audio sync, bad settings/setup).

You can d/load it from http://dvd2svcd.doom9.net Luck