How do I know which videos are compatible with my DVD player?

[taznlilgreezy]

[b
HI ALL! I'M A NEWBIE TO THE WHOLE DOWNLOADING WORLD. I'VE DOWNLOADED AND BURNED QUITE A FEW MUSIC CDS BUT AM NOW ATTEMPTING TO DO THE SAME WITH VIDEO. UNFORTUNATELY, ITS NOT QUITE AS EASY (AT LEAST NOT TO ME)! COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EITHER ANSWER A FEW ?S OR GUIDE ME IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION TO FIND THE ANSWERS?
FIRST OFF, I'M WORKING WITH LIMEWIRE. I WANT TO DOWNLOAD VIDEOS TO PLAY ON MY STAND ALONE DVD PLAYER. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH SELECTIONS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH MY DVD PLAYER? ALSO, I'VE BEEN SEARCHING THIS FOR HOURS, GOING TO SEVERAL DIFFERENT SUGGESTED SITES, AND KEEP READING ABOUT HAVING TO CONVERT THE DOWNLOADED SELECTION. WHAT EXACTLY DOES THIS ENTAIL? I HAVE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER AND WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER, ARE EITHER OF THOSE USEFUL OR NECESSARY FOR THAT? ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! [/b]

[Midzuki]

Start by turning off the "CAPS LOCK" key.

[powerpc123]

It would be helpful to know what are the names of your downloaded Limewire video files?

[taznlilgreezy]

this is y i hate trying to use forums - u can never get just a straight answer without someone being a smart***! Thanks Midzuki, really appreciate the help! And to u, powerpc123, how exactly would knowing the titles of my files be helpful? are u asking for the actual video titles or am i really now even more lost than i though i was? (

[kimco52]

As Midzuki stated, turn off your caps lock key. Are you a newbie to computers and forums, also? The number one rule is do not use upper case constantly. That means you are yelling at us. We can read and hear just fine when you use lower case. We are not deaf.

Now on to your problem. You are definitely a newbie. You first need to know what you are doing before you can ask the right questions. Let me help you.

I will put your question in a simple term which you may (??) understand. "How do you prepare the food you buy at Safeway (grocery store)?" What does that have to do with making DVD's? Nothing but it is the same type of question you asked.

Limewire has nothing to do with video other than being able to exchange files... music and video and graphics..... peer to peer. You get files from Limewire...in many different formats. Guess what!!! you do not prepare Safeway and you would be dumb to ask the question "How do I prepare Safeway?" Even asking how to prepare the food you get at Safeway is not a good question because the answer depends on what you got at Safeway.

It is the same with what you are asking. You need to know the type of file you are getting from Limewire. We all know (probably) what type you are getting but that does us no good. YOU have to know what you are downloading.

When you know what type you are downloading, you can click on the left of the screen here the under the heading "HOW TO" - Convert. There are umpteen jillion (well almost) articles and guides on how to convert anything to anything. The answer to your question is in there.

Also, a must read for newbies is here: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic78182.html

[powerpc123]

Having more information may assist in getting you going in the proper direction.
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic124514.html

[guns1inger]

So far you have come into this forum shouting (typing in all CAPS is considered shouting, and rather rude), then started complaining when this is pointed out to you. An attitude like that will get you ignored.

I suggest you start by reading the forum rules and some of the stickies. These include helpful hints on how to get the best help. Top of that list, after not being rude, is to supply as much information as you can. Different types of video require different programs or techniques. What you downloaded could be anything - avi, mkv, compressed archives. These formats are just containers - what's in them could be anything. We can take a guess, but that may not help you. Or you could try giving us more details so we don't have to guess.

Start by downloading a program called g-spot. Open you video files with it, and post a screenshot of the content. We then know what you have.

Also, do some more reading. Start with What is DVD (top left corner) so you know what's legal and what ain't for DVD Video. Try searching the Tools section and the Guides for AVI to DVD. You will find pages of information, and all the answers you need.

[kimco52]

And, please use real words and spelling, not chatroom and texting abbreviations. It makes it easier to read. As gunslinger mentioned and pointed to stickys, how you present your questions determines what kind of help you will get.

[kimco52]

"how exactly would knowing the titles of my files be helpful?"
Because it will tell you what kind of file it is, which, in turn, generally tells you the format, which I mentioned earlier is what you need to know.

"are u asking for the actual video titles"
Generally, no. Just the extension...... avi, mpg, mpeg, wmv,mov, etc. Knowing that will get you started on correctly looking for the answers you seek. The full title may tell us something that we don't like to see in these forums, particularly if you are getting them from Limewire as you say you are getting music and burning CD's. As Gunslinger stated, "so you know what's legal and what ain't for DVD Video."

"or am i really now even more lost than i though i was?"
If you don't understand the previous answer, obviously yes.

Oh, you can capitalize words where appropriate, like the first word in a sentence or proper names. "I" is always capitalized.

[Sparehead01]

I'd like to add something here. Don't download anything from Limewire. If it's a .mov file then it'll probaly take you to a porn website when you try and play it through Media Player. If that doesn't happen it'll probably contain a virus trojan or spyware. I downloaded a project recently which contained a file called PCI32b.exe. What a mistake to make. I didn't realise that even .exe files in excess of 150MB could contain trojans. What a plonker I am. . AVG dealt with it after it had wreaked havoc. I couldn't delete the downloaded file cos windows locked it down every time it booted saying the file was in use by another program. Anyway I've learned my lesson!!!!!!

Finally if you get around these problems the downloaded files are highly compressed and if you have a large screen TV the quality of the downloaded movie will no doubt be so poor as to render it unwatchable (is that a word?). Your probably better off going out and buying the movies that you want. At least then you have the right to back them up and probably to edit them if you want and then you can come here and ask us all again for our help which we will gladly give.

[classfour]

When I did use LimeWire: It was likely 10 percent or more of the files that I downloaded had some form of malware in them. Luckily, my antivirus programs caught them. I stopped using peer to peer when the reports of people being arrested for downloading protected content (using LimeWire) started picking up.

Make certain the file you download is not copyrighted - unless you live somewhere the ESA or RIAA etc is not going to bust you.

[Supreme2k]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that what this guy is doing completely illegal.

Limewire + unknown files = not legit

If the files were completely legal, there would be instructions on how to open them. And they sure as HELL wouldn't be distributed via Limewire.

Limewire: the crack whore of P2P

[kimco52]

Well, Sparehead01, classfour, and Supreme2k,
I was just trying to be nice and non direct in what I said. You summed it up probably more direct than me. AND, Supreme2k, your first sentence is probably the most direct answer to what I meant when I said "omething that we don't like to see in these forums, particularly if you are getting them from Limewire as you say you are getting music and burning CD's." We don't give advice or information on illegal things in the forum.

But, maybe he is just wanting to download a video of his aunt's birthday party that his cousin put out there so the other relatives could get it and see it and that is the only way they knew how to do it........ p2p via Limewire.....

[redwudz]

What type of DVD player? Brand and model? DVD or Divx? Some Xvid/Divx formats off the net are compatible with Divx players. Gspot 2.70 will tell you what format your video is.

Try ConvertXToDVD or FAVC to convert your videos to a compliant MPEG DVD. Do some reading also. There are plenty of guides available to the left for about any type of conversion. And please read our rules before posting.


taznlilgreezy, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz