avi to mpeg troubles...

[FSV1975]

Hello all, glad to see there are people here with similar questions...

I just bought a new computer with a cd/dvd burner so I can burn dvd's. With Kazaa, I downloaded 2 avi files for a movie I wanted to burn. I used "Simple DVD Maker" program to burn avi files right to DVD...and it gave me the following message..."These files cannot be handled by Simple DVD Maker". So, I tried using "DVDit! for VAIO", which is another program for burning DVD's that came on my new SONY Desktop. However, to use this program, I need the files in mpeg format. So I got TMPGEnc 2.53, and when I try to import the avi file for video source into the TMPGEnc program...it won't allow me to enter them, stating, "Cannot open or unsupported file", however, it will let me enter this file under the audio source box. Is there something that I need to do, perhaps get a certain Divx??? Or are there just certain avi files that won't work based on certain attributes they have? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Marbles_00]

Right click on the file and look at its properties, if it is unsupported then you don't have a codec (yet) that will read it. I suggest you download the following types:
Divx
SMR
3ivx
You can get a sense of the codec type by the file size (from what I've seen but I could be wrong). If the movie is one file usually from 500 to 700Megs then good chance that it is a Divx file. If it is two files from 100 to 400 Megs then a good chance that it is an SMR AVI. 3ivx is not so common but it is another highly compressed AVI type some people use.
Now just because you have an AVI doesn't mean that you can just throw it on a DVD and expect to play it in your DVD player (as you have already experienced). You need to convert that AVI to a standard that a DVD player can accept such as MPEG1 (VCD) or MPEG2 (SVCD).

Considering it is a Divx, I would stick with MPEG1 or VCD standard as you will never get the quality of a SVCD or DVD. So then once you have the proper codec installed, encode the AVI to VCD MPEG standard, then you should be able to use one of your authoring software to make a proper VCD cd out it. Don't waste your DVD's on a Divx, you'll never be happy with the results.

Hope this was helpful.

Marlbes

[FSV1975]

Yes, Marbles, that was really cool and very educational for me, and I'm not being a smart ass, I really mean it. I will get the proper codecs I need...you mentioned Divx and SMR...acutally, in the files names...both of them start with "(SMR)"...I am almost 100% positive it was for the same reason we're having this discussion.

I have a follow up question now, and maybe this is the wrong forum for this...but if I downloaded and installed both the SMR codec and Divx codec, can they both be installed on my PC simultaneously??? Or would I have to install one, and then when the time comes, I would have to uninstall it, and install the other (if that's what it called for)??? Let me know. And again, thanks for everything

[Marbles_00]

Hey, no smartass comments here.....
Yes you can install both codecs at the same time. Reason being...the file requiring the codec will only call on what is needed at that time. All others aren't used then.

Now I'm not sure as to what you are running....but since you have a new system I'm going to say either a Mac or Windows XP. If it is XP then you should be able to see the complete list of codecs installed on the machine. Now in Win98 this could be found here:
Start/Control Panel/Multimedia then click on the Devices tab and you will see a pulldown list of video compression codecs. I'm not sure where to look in XP.

Hope this was helpful

Marbles

[FSV1975]

Just to keep you posted...I did download the SMR codec, and sure enough...TMPGEnc was able to accept the video source along with the audio source...and everything coverted to MPEG-2 very nicely, now I just need to try to burn them to DVD+RW; the files were 150MB and were some odd fps rate (20.00 - maybe), so I converted them to PAL. Thanks for all your help.