Converting WMV to AVI using SmartDVD Creator Pro

[w6rlf]

A question from a newbie:

I had read that AVI was a compressed format suitable for ipod and ipod-like devices. Just as an experiment, I took a WMV file (seven minute slide show with music) and converted it to AVI: It was 3 gb! That compares to 300 mb as a highest quality MPEG.

Even saving it at lowest quality, it would have been hundreds of megs.

Did I misunderstand? What am I missing here?

Thanks,

Paul

[Baldrick]

avi is just a video container and can contain different video and audio codecs. So what video and audio codec did you use? It sounds like uncompressed video and that is HUGE. If you use a compression like xvid you can get a small size and you can also set the bitrate and you can get whatever file size you like.

But for ipod is probably mp4 with h264 video and aac audio the best solution. Use for example handbrake,xvid4psp or iPodME to convert(ALL FREE TOOLS).

[w6rlf]

Thanks very much! As I said, I'm a newbie.

I had gone into the advanced window and saw a variety of codecs, but didn't know which to change it to. Come to think of it, when I got my classic ipod 60gb 2 1/2 years ago, I downloaded a program to convert videos. But I never used the ipod for videos, given the small b&w screen. I'll go back and look for that program, and check out the programs you mention. I'll also play around with SmartDVD to see if what codecs it has.

Question: What bitrate would you recommend for an current gen ipod? I'm interested in all this now because I'm getting one.

Thanks again,

Paul

[w6rlf]

Last evening, downloaded the xvid codec, and obviously was able to convert at any size (quality) I wanted. I'm going to try your suggested programs you mention.

Thanks again,

Paul