Weird AVI to DVD Problems.

[oOGoldenSunOo]

Hi, these problems are weird and I've never encountered them before, and I'd really appreciate it if you can help me. Basically, I have a couple .avi files that I need to convert to mpeg2, and I usually convert my .avi's using tmpgenc plus. However, this time when I select the avi source using the wizard it says "File clip.avi cannot open, or is unsupported". Is it because the .avi files are weird? the summary for the clips go like this. Width: 640, Height: 368. Bitrate: 128kbps, Audio: MPEG Layer 3. Frame rate = 23 fps, Data rate 135. Any help will be greatly appreciated as I am converting this to a dvd as a favor to a friend, and I've never had problem's with .avi and tmpgenc before. Thanks!

[Tommyknocker]

Click here.

[oOGoldenSunOo]

wow, thank you so much for your help! that worked. Ok another problem though (hehe sorry...). The files I'm converting are widescreen, so when I convert using tmpgenc the aspect ratios are being readjusted so the movie looks shrunk, can you please teach me what options to select so that my movie ratio doesn't get all messed up? My width and height is specified above. Also, when I tried converting with the original settings just to see how big the file would become, it said at the lowest bitrate (4000) that it would take up 30% of the dvd. Is there anyway I can lower this so that I can maybe fit more of these files on a dvd? cuz 3 files on a dvd seems kinda wasteful. thanks!

[Tommyknocker]

I believe under the Settings-->Advanced tab, under Video Arrange option, select one of the "keep aspect ratio" settings to keep it from readjusting itself. You may want to try this with a short sample of your video, to avoid having to encode the entire video before realizing you need to do it again.

[oOGoldenSunOo]

awesome thank you again. do you know of anyway though or what I can do to fit more video clips onto one dvd? because you can't make the bitrate go under 4000 and at 4000 it takes up 30% of the dvd disc. I'm basiclaly wondering how I can fit mroe clips onto a dvd like you do when you buy the dvd's for a tv show or something, those can usually fit at least 6 per dvd. thanks!

[Tommyknocker]

You may want to join them using the Merge & Cut tool, under File-->MPEG Tools.... I am told the vidoe does not get re-encoded in this function so there is no quality loss.

[oOGoldenSunOo]

how would joining them make the file sizes smaller though? doesn't it just join two clips together ? sorry I can't really test right now its in the middle of encoding hehe...

[Tommyknocker]

Once you have them joined, go to the Wizard and have it adjust the bit rate down to a size that can fit on one disk. As far as limits to bit rates go, I believe it goes down as low as 2000, but the quality really suffers at that range.