How can I convert this avi file??

[dfisher]

I have a 2 part avi file video that a friend sent me of a 50 year old film that is not available in this country (USA). This is the information that it says about this file.
Microsoft avi file.
NTSC
Video-
Compression: Not Accessible
Attributes: 24 bits, 352x240

Audio-
Compression: MPEG Layer-3
Attributes: 64 Kbit/s, 44,100 hz mono

It will open in Windows Media Player but only the audio plays, no video. I have tried to open it in both Movie Factory 2 & Video Studio 7 but the message I get is (name of movie part 1.avi) is not accessible. Same with part 2.
Now here is my question, what is it that I have & how do I convert it to something that will allow me to make a DVD?
I have read most of the quides on this site & to tell you the truth I think I'm more confused then ever (being a relative newbie). I guess what I'm really looking for is a rather simple method to get this to dvd without spending the rest of my life doing it. I'm already in my 70's & would just like to see this great old film that I haven't seen since it first came out.
I have the following on my computer: Ulead's Movie Factory 2 & Video Studio 7, plus DVDDcrypter & DVDShrink. I also have a copy of Pinnacle Studio 7 (not loaded). Being retired & on a fixed income I would rather not invest in a lot of software if I don't have to.
I would appreciate any help anyone can give me & will try & answer any questions I can. Thanks!

Don

[Tommyknocker]

Does the video play in any program? Also, see if you can get Virtual Dub to open the video. If it does you can then frameserve it to TMPGEnc.

[dfisher]

The only programs that I tried it in (the only ones i have) were The 2 Ulead programs & Windows Media Player. I have not loaded the Pinnacle yet because I really don't think it will play in that. I figured it would more likely play in the Ulead's than the Pinnacle. Am I wrong?
I just downloaded Virtual Dub & will play around with that for a while & see how it goes. I must say though that the last time I tried V.D. it would not work. But that was when I was trying to get it to work with something that I had captured with a Pinnacle DC10+ card. What a pain in the butt that thing turned out to be. And that was quite some time ago. Since then I have upgraded my motherboard & cpu & taken out the DC10 card & not reinstalled the Pinnacle software.

Don

[lenti_75]

do you have ALL codecs intalled ? it did happen to me, installed the codecs, xvid, divx, huff.....and then worked.
if you don't have the codecs installed, don't matter what soft you use, will not work.

[dfisher]

OK, here's what's happened. I did install Virtual Dub & tried to open the avi file & got this error message (the one with the red dot with the white X), "couldn't locate decompressor for format 'DX50' (unknown)". It also said that it requires a VFW compatible codec to decompress video. Which leads me believe that I need a VFW codec. Where do I get that?

Don

[redwudz]

Have you tried AVIcodec on this file? It will usally tell you what codec it needs to open. You didn't say what program you used to get the attributes. Sometimes you need more than one program to get all the info. As stated, if you can get Virtualdub to open it, you usually can convert it. I wouldn't recommend adding codecs you dont need.
EDIT: It looks like Virtualdub told you some info. It's apparently a DIVX file. Go to the 'Tools' section on the left, then to 'Codecs' and you should find what you need.

[dfisher]

You are right, it is a divx file. But I didn't get that info from Virtual Dub. It was another program that I don't remember now. But I did just download AVIcodec & it gave this info:
V. Codec Name
DivxnetworksDivx v5
unsupported

A. 1 Codec Name
MPEG Layer-3
supported

I did go to the tools section to the left & then to the codecs section but did not find the VFW codec listed.

BTW, when I looked in AVIcodec under codecs & filters I did not find a VFW codec listed under the video codecs.
What now?

[mmasw]

You are right, it is a divx file. But I didn't get that info from Virtual Dub. It was another program that I don't remember now. But I did just download AVIcodec & it gave this info:
V. Codec Name
DivxnetworksDivx v5
unsupported

A. 1 Codec Name
MPEG Layer-3
supported

I did go to the tools section to the left & then to the codecs section but did not find the VFW codec listed.

BTW, when I looked in AVIcodec under codecs & filters I did not find a VFW codec listed under the video codecs.
What now?

you need to spend more time reading about this stuff....if you did you would soon realize you answered your own question:

from your post: "DivxnetworksDivx v5 "......you have an avi encoded in in 'DivX v5' (v = version)

go to google.com and type in 'Divx v5 download' in search parameters and it will yield about 70,000 results.

of course you could always go to the page here: https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=189#comments

it took me about 5 seconds to find that page by the way......
search tools>Divx>presto!

also...I believe VfW is not a specific codec but rather a generic label of 'Video for Windows'

[teegee420]

If you haven't installed Divx yet, use the Divx Light Codec. It's adware/bloatware free.

[redwudz]

Well, you are getting there. Download the DIVX 5 codec from the 'Tools>Codec" and you should be able to open the video file. You then should be able to run the video through TMPGEnc encoder to convert to MPG. The audio would have to be changed to AC3 or MPG-1 Layer 2 for DVD compatibility. (I'll let someone else give you the particulars on that.) After all that, you feed the audio and video files into an authoring program, such as TMPGEnc DVD Author and burn it to DVD, with either TDA or something like Nero. All this is never easy the first time, that's why this is a hobby. It's a learning experience. Just take it one step at a time and you should be able to find the help you need on this forum.

EDIT: teegee420: That link seems to be dead, legal problems. Too bad, I hate the 'Gator added' version. May be other links to the 'lite' version out there somewhere.

[teegee420]

teegee420: That link seems to be dead, legal problems. Too bad, I hate the 'Gator added' version. May be other links to the 'lite' version out there somewhere.

Found one here.

[redwudz]

THX, teegee420. I already have the full version, but I DL'ed that one (From the second site there) for future use.

[dfisher]

You guys are great. I did download DIVX v5 & it does work. I can now at least see the movie. It works in the DIVX program & both of the Ulead programs. I haven't had a chance to try it in Virtual Dub yet. Now I just have to stumble thru figuring out how to get it to a dvd burnable state. Thanks all.

Don

[dfisher]

Just as a follow up, which might be of some help to others, here is how I finally got to the final DVD.
After installing DIVX I could open the avi's in Ulead Movie Maker 2. That let me convert it to Video-TS which then let me burn a DVD with CopyToDVD. It was so easy that I was sure I did something wrong, but no. It actually all worked & I now have a DVD that plays on my player. Thanks all for your help. It was the DIVX lead that opened the door.

Don