Download to DVD question

[Airjrdn]

I've got misc old music videos that in all honesty, I can't find to purchase. Ones that look like they are from VH1 Classic and stuff like that.

I'd like to put these on DVD, but they are in tons of differing formats. Is there one app I can drag these to that will detect the source format and convert them automatically?

Thanks in advance.

[jdizzy40]

You kidding right. If that was the case there would be no need for all the guides to the left. Can I suggest you give up on this idea? No there is no one program to just drag and drop video files into that just burns then nicely on to a DVD. When someone develops it and I have the $5,000.00 to purchase it I'll let you know. Okay. Good luck!

[andydd]

So you mean that they are on your HD but in diff formats..(ie mpeg, avi, mov, etc) ?

Well Neros Vison Express will do a good job of converting formats , just drag n drop em in. It can do mpeg n avi ok dunno about mov (although tmpeg can). Ive used vision express a few times like this, although it was slow n used to crash a bit, but there have been lots of updates since. Go get Nero 6 n give it a try.

[theDruid]

Nero 6 may be an improvement over 5.5, but it's generally regarded as a terrible encoder - I wouldn't even think of using it.

TMPGEnc is pretty versatile - it can convert most flavours of avi (as long as you have the right codecs installed - which you will have if you can watch them on the PC), and it can do mov's and MPEG-2 sources too with the right plugins (see tools section).

About the only format(s) it might have trouble with are Real, and WMA/ASF.

You can get tools to sort these out into useable formats (avi most likely - where you get the choice, use a low compression codec like HuffyUV for the 'temp' avi), such as TINRA (for real), or ASFtools / VirtualDub 1.3c (for WMA/ASF).

In actual fact, I doubt Nero could automatically convert all these formats anyway.

The project will take a while - but if you use the tools above to get everything into MPEG/AVI/MOV format, TMPGEnc could be used to batch convert the whole lot to your desired target format.

I think that's about as close as you're going to get to a one tool does all solution.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[bugster]

The Druid is pretty much on the mark with TmpGenc. It is a slow process though and once completed you will still have to author and burn. I suggest you take a look at a few guides before starting, and experiment on a few short clips before commiting yourself to a long process.

[Hardcoreruss]

What are the file extensions.

[Airjrdn]

Thanks for the help.

I'm just starting to try again. I attempted a lot of this a few months back, and some ended up going to DVD ok, while others either only took up half the screen vertically, or some other wierd thing would happen.

Most of the files are .mpg, or .asf. There are a handful of .avi files in there as well.

None of them are movies, they are all older music videos, so trial and error isn't too bad, as they convert fairly quickly.

I played around with the trial version of tmpgenc dvd author last night, but at one point it locked up on me.

I'd be open to purchasing a new dvd player that would just play mpg's and avi's if I knew of a decent progressive scan model. Any suggestions?

[Airjrdn]

What are the chances that a LiteON LVD-2001 would play what I have?