Complete newbie question: Converting everything to AVI

[mariognome]

Hi. I've been trying to figure this out for years, but still with no success.

I want to try and convert all my videos into the same kind of thing you'd see on a good quality anime fan-sub. I think they're usually in Divx or Xvid. Basically the excellent video quality with a fairly small filesize.

At the same time, I'm still totally new to most forms of video editing, and all attempts in the past have failed (usually because of some stupid error on the part of the software) or the fact that the guides are so techinical that it's hard for a newbie like me to understand.

I want to give it another try, but I need to know where I should start. I'm hoping to avoid having to use like 5-10 programs to get a final decent video that's good quality without a huge filesize (like most fansubs). Instead just use some program or method to get a final avi.

If someone can point me in the direction of a simple guide or give some suggestions, that would be awesome.

Thanks.

PS: I use the CCCP codec pack if that makes any difference.

[guns1inger]

What is your source ?
What type of computer and OS do you have ? (it helps if you fill in your details)
What do you want to play them back on ?

[mariognome]

Source is pretty much anything, but mostly Mpgs and Avis
I have a pretty good pc with Xp pro on it.
I just want to play them back on my pc. Nothing with DVDs or anything else. Just PC.

[mats.hogberg]

If PC playback is your goal - why convert at all? I guess they should play as they are?

I want to try and convert all my videos into the same kind of thing you'd see on a good quality anime fan-sub

I think you have to elaborate on that a bit. What are your source files lacking, that you see in these anime videos?

/Mats

[guns1inger]

The only reasons for re-encoding are

1. To make the files smaller
2. To play them back in a standalone player
3. To filter and restore them in some way

Simply re-encoding the files will not address any quality issues that they have. You can only make them better with a lot of work, and even then it will be incremental. I can see a benefit, perhaps, to re-encoding DVD source to avi for space reasons, but re-encoding avi files, unless they are DV avi source, won't gain you much.

That said, programs to consider include AutoGK (for DVD to avi) and AlltoAVI for most other conversions.

[Soopafresh]

Winmenc is also really good and very easy to use. Front end to Mencoder

[mariognome]

Well, now that you mention it, I also do have some videos that I got from my DV camcorder (sony handycam) and the videos are avi's that have these .modd files that seem to have to be in the same directory in order to play the file properly. I thought if I converted them, it would make it into one single file that would play back perfectly. Without the modd file, it's jerky.


The other reason I want to convert the files is because I like to have a single format that I can keep for archival use. For instance, if I find a bunch of videos that are in asf,wmv,mpg,ogm, etc, I want to convert them all to avi if at all possible.

I know for pc playback it's not a big deal but for me it's like the same reason I change almost all my picture files to jpg, it's just a matter of taste.

Aside from that too, I hate such files as rm, asf, wmv, etc. because when trying to watch them, sometimes if I try to change the position of the slider, the video will freeze and have to be restarted. Would converting take care of this?

[mats.hogberg]

You are aware that every conversion takes its toll on video/audio quality?
And every file you're having trouble to play properly, will also be hard to convert.
DV camcorders transfer the video as DV AVI over Firewire. No .modd file needed. Something fishy here...

/Mats

[mariognome]

yeah, over firewire and it makes an avi and a modd file. The modds are only 1 kb. What a modds supposed to be used for?

[mats.hogberg]

It's a Sony peculiarity, it seems. "Picture Motion Browser information file" No idea what's it good for, but obviously it's used by some Sony software.

/Mats