New and need help with video conversion

[Alwayswannalearn]

Before I start please don't state just to look through the forums, because I would have but I don't have a lot of time right now.

Okay, so I put some movies that I'm downloaded onto my external hard drive so I could connect it too my xbox 360. Some of the movies (.avi) will play and the others wont (.mkv or mp4). There are two .avi's that wont play either. I'm read up that xbox's play .avi and .wmv but if it does play .avi, why doesn't it play the two??

I've found several converters and did convert two .mkv to .avi but now the .avi is 4 gbs and my external hard drive is saying that the file is too big. (I have only uses about 40 GB on my hard drive. So space isn't the problem.

I'm just trying to figure out a good video converter that will covert my movies so I can put them on the xbox without it taking hours and hours and still a small amount of space. Also, I need it to still work on my dvd authoring program as well. I've been trying to do this all day and now all it is doing is pissing me off.

Can someone please help me!

[redwudz]

AVI is just a container name. It covers a lot of formats (Codecs) Use MediaInfo on one of your problem files and compare that with the requirements of the Xbox.

The 4GB problem is usually because the external drives uses FAT32 formating for the drive. It has a 4GB file size limitation. Many set top players and maybe the Xbox require that formatting. Internal PC hard drives normally use NTFS that doesn't have that limitation. Just make your files smaller than 4GB if you use FAT32. Most converters should have somewhere to set the output size.

DVD authoring is a whole different problem. DVD discs are normally 4.37GB and 7.95GB and most converters are set for one of those two sizes. DVDs are also MPEG-2 most times. You can read the DVD specifications, format and structure to the upper left in 'WHAT IS' DVD.

And welcome to our forums.

[yoda313]

uses FAT32 formating for the drive. It has a 4GB file size limitation. Many set top players and maybe the Xbox require that formatting.

Generally speaking yes but a workaround is to use the hfs+ mac format for the drive. That is the mac equivalent to ntfs without the 4gb limitation.

In order to do this on a pc you need to buy the program macdrive. It will let you format a usb drive to the mac system and load files to it like you would if it was a windows drive. It is payware not freeware.

I don't use it anymore since I got a wdtv media player that automatically uses ntfs drives so I don't need that feature and don't use the 360 for videos much anymore (except for rented or paid videos off zune on xbox live or dvd discs).

The rest of redwudz discussion is important to consider too. And unfortunately learning about digital video takes time. We can only point you in the right direction but you still have to do the work yourself and find out what works for your particular circumstance.

[Bjs]

A: As per Redwudz instructions for using mediainfo to help find what the problem is ... also look for broken frames in downloaded files as these can cause similar problems or encoders to choke and garbage the output.

B: Bigger outputs depend on what the "converter" has to do ... check the output settings before committing to the conversion ... and use a bitrate calculator ... it'll give you an idea as to the size of the output that will be produced ... not accurate but should be a good guide if the input settings are right to perform the calculation ... if the size of output is too big then return to encoders output settings and make appropriate changes.

C: Converting what ? ... to xbox360

If your talking about dvd's then dvdfab dvd ripper with it's media encoder and avi output is pretty straight forward ... the issue is you'll most likely have some titles which need the output settings modified to best preserve the quality.

In those cases your looking for another encoding method which will best preserve what is there without much change.

To dvd ... is another bag full ... especially as what is downloaded could be using any frame rate ... a pc will play any fp ... dvd specs only supports a few.

E:

Working and living with HFS+

1: Boot windows system with a live ubuntu distro
2: Mount external and format to hfs+ using gparted

Note : You need to make the whole drive a single partition as xbox360 dose not support multiple partitions on a single drive

3: Transfer files from windows partition to new external hfs+ partition

Be happy

[lacywest]

Lots of good programs to check out and learn how to use them ... here are my favorites.

ConvertX 2 DVD 4
DivX Plus ... latest version ... version 8
Vegas Pro 9.0 x64 ... or 32bit version
Sound Forge Pro 10.0
VideoReDo TVSuite V4 ...
TMPGEnc Xpress v4.6.2.266
TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4.0.7.32
PowerDirector "8" or ........ "9" x64 ... 64bit version

Sound Forge Pro 10 ... can be used to convert videos too ... not just for music files.

For you ... I would convert to mpg ... and then use Virtual Dub ... which is free ... to convert to AVI with the XVID codec or to DIVX.


In case you dont know it ........... XVID ... is DIVX .... spelled backwards.