Quick .avi Conversion to MPEG-2 ?

[christopheramos]

Hey! Does anyone know of a quick way to convert .avi to MPEG-2 for play on standalone DVD players?

I use Total Video Converter. It has a lot of nice options, but when converting from .avi to MPEG-2, it's slower than dirt on molasses. An .avi that's about 1 hr and 30 min, takes about 1 hr and 30 min to convert (pretty much real time conversion). Plus the time to burn, so about 2 hours.

I've tried some other conversion programs, and they are aren't any faster.

Maybe I'm missing a problem that's out there that is good and fast? Any ideas?

Thanks!!!!

[yoda313]

I think if you want to go any faster than real time (aside from going dual or quad core cpus) is to get a avi compatible dvd player. They are dirt cheap these days and you can just burn as data so no conversion needed as long as the player handles the codec.

[Krispy Kritter]

I second the standalone player route. It will save you time, money, and prevent further quality loss.

[jman98]

Agree with just getting another player, BUT you need to realize that any of the following may or may not prevent playback of AVI files on DVD players that support Divx/Xvid:

1) GMC (Global Motion Compensation) - best to avoid it, but if you have only 1 warp point it MIGHT work. It will surely fail with 3 warp points.
2) QPel (Quarter pixel)
3) Resolutions greater than 720x576
4) Packed bitstream
5) Video bit rates above 2000 Kbps
6) Use of any audio other than CBR MP3. Use of VBR MP3, DTS and even AC3 may cause playback problems unless the video bitrate is reduced, perhaps even as low as 1400 Kbps.

Fast conversion = bad quality
Slow conversion = good quality

Either get a faster PC or let your encodes run while you sleep so you don't care how long they take.

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, around real time AVI to DVD here too, on my single core 3.2 GHz. Not that I do them any more, as my player plays AVI fine.

/Mats

[dfisher052]

I agree that a dvd player that plays avi's is the best solution. But if you must convert than try convertx2dvd. It's faster than Total. Winavi is even faster. The Philips player will play almost all avi variations, plus they now have a usb port that can be used to play avi's (divx, etc.). I use it all the time. Works great.

[Soopafresh]

With the new V3 of ConvertXtoDVD, I got between 190 and 210fps encoding speed! Of course, that was on an 8 Core 3.0Ghz machine.

[theewizard]

mpeg2 or DVD ready output, not quite the same thing

avidemux will give an mpeg2 or other output fairly quick