Trying to make DVD watchable in WMP 9 on PCs with no DVD-rom. Help?

[JesterPoet]

I have a training video on DVD that I want to distribute to a number of users who don't have DVD software on their PC's.

I have converted it into a working avi, but unfortunately they don't have the codecs needed to play it. I'd rather not run to each machine and install Divx on each one, or have them do it themselves.

I've tried to convert the dvd directly from the disc to WMV, hoping that might help, but have been unable to get a usable WMV (using AutoMKV)... either the sound is off, or the colors go all wonky.

Does anyone have an idea of what I can do? The video is less than 15 minutes long, so I wouldn't think anything would be too much of a hassle. I'd prefer to use freeware if possible.

Also, if anyone knows of a quick and easy way I can distribute DivX instead, in order to get the avi working on their machines, that's a fine solution too!

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

[Baldrick]

Have you tried VOB2MPG and then Windows Movie Maker? Or Tmpgenc expres, open the dvd and output directly to wmv.

[JesterPoet]

I will give those a try and report back! Thank you very much!

[JesterPoet]

So, I tried it in TMPEG, and I got the same issue. I might just be doing something wrong. Maybe you can help me.

When the video is encoded in WMV, it comes out with the colors all weird, as though it were an infra-red camera (it's like the predator is watching my video on how to use a defibrulator).

Any thoughts as to what I might be doing wrong?

[JesterPoet]

So... no ideas then?

[Baldrick]

Does other wmvs that you have not encoded work fine?

And try windows movie maker or windows media encoder.

Or try convert to avi then to wmv, could be some mpeg decoding problems.

[Scorpion King]

I have no idea what could be wrong making the colors go off like that. You need to do a few simple tests and maybe even change your approach a little. Might fix the problem.

First is to get the the DVD video onto the hard drive in good working order. There are many ways to do this. The idea is to get the main movie vob file onto your hdd in one piece in working (playable) order.

Handling a vob file is a little different than handling MPEG2 files because vob is a container. You can demultiplex the audio and the video into individual streams and work them separately or demux then mux them into a new MPEG2 file. You need a program to do these and there are several to choose from. Or you can just work the vob in vob format. Doing so can be a smooth operation of a nightmare. That will depend on several factors.

Install VirtualDubMod. VDM can load the vob file directly if that is what you want to 'try'. It is nice here if the main movie is only 1 big vob file. With your video being only 15 minutes long I assume it is already only 1 vob file (maybe not???). If you demux the streams then you load them in VirtualDubMod individually. If the audio is AC3 then you will need to also install AC3 ACM Decompressor so VDM can work with AC3. If there are multiple audio streams then you can disable the ones you don't want, etc.

Once the video is in VDM then test play it. If the colors appears correct and you like what you see you have 2 choices. You can either close VDM and try converting to WMV with another program, or you can uncompress the video and the audio and output that to a file then convert that uncompressed file to WMV. I would probably try the easiest method first but since you already have then you will probably need to go the uncompressed route.

If you have plenty of HDD space to spare (i'm guessing about 19GB needed) then do nothing to the video because it will already be setup to output in umcompressed form. Click Streams - then Stream List then right click your audio stream and select "Full Processing Mode", then OK. Click File - Save AVI then put in a new name then save it out. If your original file has a flaw (error) that has been causing the audio to go out of sync then full processing the audio to PCM might fix it..... Again you have several options and it all depends on how you want to do it. You can install Huffyuv codec and output in that if you like (again i'll guess - about 7GB needed).

Test play the uncompressed file with a player that will give you a true representation of what you have like Media Player Classic. If the file is out of sync it will be out of sync in MPC also. I have had Windows Media Player lie to me so many times I don't use it anymore. If all is well then on to WMV.

Again you have several options. I like Ulead VideoStudio v10. Windows Movie Maker or Windows Media Encoder also work very well. Whatever you end up using just remember to test play everything along the way. Make sure every step is correct before attempting to continue. That way you might be able to figure out what went wrong and where. Install GSpot and AviCodec and examine your files as you go to make sure they are what you intended them to be.

Good luck.