a good wmv to avi program.

[Jorge]

Hey all
I need a good wmv to to anything software that supports batch encoding.

The video codec for the vids are in WMV3, so pocketdivxencoder wont accept it. And I have about 60 episodes of a show, so batch encoding is a must.

[Soopafresh]

I'd try Winmenc - it does batch transcoding and is incredibly easy to use -


Download Link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?33mosjlqyt9

[Jorge]

wow, looks pretty good, I'll post my results when I'm done.

[Jorge]

This is how all the videos were in encoded. Now I'm not sure on frame rate, I tried gspot to see it but it doesn't seem to tell me. Ive noticed I've been getting some sinc issues, the video is ahead of the audio.

Windows Media Video (*.wmv) format. Video size is 640X480, video codec- Windows Media Video 9, audio - 128 kbps, 48 kHz, 2 channel 24, total bit rate 838Kbps

[Soopafresh]

Hmmm. I've never experienced that problem with my source files and Winmenc, then again I avoid WMV files.

The audio is probably VBR and you're seeing consequent issues.

Make sure you choose 48000hz for audio sample rate

[Jorge]

Yeah, I encoded it with all the settings you have on there. Could it be the frame rate?

[guns1inger]

WMV can have variable framerates, which can make keeping sync tricky. They can also have pretty much any framerate you like - 12.5, 15 etc. I don't know WinMenc treats these if you specify an different framerate when you encode.

[Jorge]

hmmm, So what should I do? I got the video to play fine and in sync when I rendered it with vegas 7. But I don't want to render one by one, inputing all the settings for each one will take way too long, and my hands will cramp up lol.

[Soopafresh]

It uses Mencoder as the encoder, so perhaps it needs additional settings to fix that.


You can try AutoMKV , but it isn't as easy to use and the batch encoding is more work. But, better quality results can be had (if you choose the right settings).

[Jorge]

Do you think it will solve the sync issues?

[Soopafresh]

Give me a minute, I'm trying to figure out a method to pre-process your files so the sync issue won't happen (hopefully)

[DarrellS]

I always use TMPGEnc to convert my WMV files and I always convert them to MPEG since AVI seems to have a lot of sync problems. The problem with WMV is it is usually Varible Frame Rate and AVI doesn't handle Variable anything very well.

You'll need to drag and drop the files onto the program and it does have a batch encode feature.

[Jorge]

I happen to have tmpgenc, all I do is dray and drop them to the program, and it will encode all my files to the settings Ive put?

[Soopafresh]

Actually, I can't find a method to ensure good a/v sync with WMV files, so I defer to others

[DarrellS]

I'm not sure. I always encode one file at a time and let it encode at the settings that the program chooses from the WMV that it is converting. It seems to always choose the right settings since the files are always in sync (I am doing a test batch encode right now).

The resolution stays the same. The framerate varies depending on the original file and the audio always ends up 44100Hz 192 MPEG-1 Layer 2 (stereo or mono depending on the source).

I assume that you could make your own settings and they would work but I don't know what the outcome would be. I trust TMPGEnc to pick the right settings. The first file that I just converted is 640x480 29.970fps 7499 kbps with 44100Hz 192 MPEG-1 Layer 2 stereo. It's from a high quality WMV file. The average WMV file I convert has a bitrate of 2000 kbps.

[DarrellS]

Under file, you'll need to click on "add current file to batch list" and drag another file and do the same until you have all the files you want to convert.

Low quality files will convert pretty quick. High quality files will take a while.

[Jorge]

Oh I see, let me give it a try on tmpgenc, maybe it does do batch encodes by dragging them all on there.

[Jorge]

Well I dragged like 4 vids to see if it would encode them all, but it didn't. I guess I'll have to encode them the other way. Can I save my settings to a profile, like there are in other programs, like the video/audio settings.

[DarrellS]

Sure, if all the source files are the same I don't see where there would be a problem but if the source files are different then you might run into the sync problems that you were having before.

I haven't saved any profiles with this program but it can be done.

Obviously, saving a WMV to MPEG is going to be huge. You may want to recode the MPEG files to DivX/XviD which can either be done with TMPGEnc or Virtualdub.

[Jorge]

yeah, thank goodness all the wmv'v are the same. Yeah I just figured out how to save the profile, its great, and it saves me allot of time. I'll probably use virtualdub to recode them to divx. Thanks for all the help you guys. You both were a great help.

[Jorge]

Oh I was wondering, the original video bitrate for the video is 708, should I put that for the bitrate in tmpgenc?

[Jorge]

I'm asking since mpeg is a different compression method.

[DarrellS]

I would probably use a high bitrate since your WMV is supercompressed. I would make my final AVI compression around 1500 to 2000 since it's full resolution. It will be a lot bigger than the WMV but way smaller than the MPG. You can experiment with the final compression till you find what is accepable to you.

[Jorge]

Well its at 708kbps 640x480. What Should I put the bitrate too?

[Jorge]

I made an .mpg with a bitrate of 1500 kbps it turned out to be 278mb from the original which was 140mb.

[DarrellS]

It's your call. I'd say 4000 minimum and 8000 maximum. You're going to recompress to DivX/XviD later anyway, right? If you don't set the bitrate high enough then you might not be happy when you convert to AVI. Every time you recode you lose quality and the more you compress the file the more quality you lose.

[DarrellS]

I made an .mpg with a bitrate of 1500 kbps it turned out to be 278mb from the original which was 140mb.

How does it look? It is acceptable to you? That is what matters.

[Jorge]

Yeah it looks pretty good, I'll try the 4000 bitrate tomorrow, and see how better it is.

[Jorge]

I tried 4000, and its about the same. I'll just keep there I guess, it looks real good. I'll use virtualdub mpeg2 for the batch conversion, its never let me down.