Converting .avi to DVD/CD

[oceans11]

Several videos I currently have on file are .avi's. I'm buying a Phillips DRU642 DVD player that has the following capabilities:

"This DVD Player can play DivX, MPEG-4,
MP3, JPEG, VCD & SVCD on a
personally recorded CD-R/CD-RW disc
or commercial CD."

What software can be recommended that would convert an AVI to any of the above formats (MP3 & JPEG excluded, of course) & which format would produce the most desirable results?

I will be burning this on a Plextor 716A (which hasn't come yet). Perhaps that comes w/ conversion software?

[jmet]

Quoted By: "setarip"

1) Use "TMPGEnc" (or "TMPGEncPlus") to convert the .AVI (DivX-compressed or otherwise) to compliant MPEG2-for-DVD format - Use "TMPGEnc's" DVD wizard/template to accomplish this

2) Use "TMPGEnc DVD Author" (a different program than "TMPGEnc") to easily create the required additional DVD files and structure (and chapters and a menu, if you wish)


**If the combined file size of the DVD "package" written to your hard drive is greater than 4.37Gb, use DVD Shrink (or similar) to compress


If your O/S is either Win2000 or WinXP, TMPGEnc DVD Author can also burn your DVD. Otherwise, use NERO to burn in "DVD-Video" mode - Tutorial Located here on how to do this: http://forum.digital-digest.com/show...453#post221453

TMPGEnc- <A HREF="http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_download.html"><FONT COLOR="00CC99"> Click Here To Download TMPGEnc</A></FONT>

TMPGEnc DVD Author- <A HREF="http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html"><FONT COLOR="3399FF"> Click Here To Download A Trial Version of TMPGEnc DVD Author</A></FONT>

[reboot]

This DVD Player can play DivX

Why encode?
Use Gspot to make sure your avi's are divx, and burn directly to CDR as data. That player will play them.

[oceans11]

Thanks, but I'm still a bit confused. reboot, you're saying that GSpot can "make sure my .avi's are divX"? What if they're not divX, just plain AVI's? I downloaded the app from here: GSpot
& will install if it does convert straight .avi's. If not I'll follow jmet's instructions.

[reboot]

Gspot doesn't convert, it just gives you info.
Read the manual for your player, to find out EXACTLY what it means by "DivX".
Use Gspot to see if your files are DivX.
If so, just burn them to dvd as data, and your player will play them.
If they are not, get Virtualdub, and the DivX codec, load your avi, select Video, Compression, DivX, and save. This will make your avi's into DivX avi's.
Burn as data.
The player will give you a very basic menu to choose which DivX avi you want to play.
You can fit a TON of DivX avi movies onto one dvdr, whereas you can only fit one mpeg-2 movie (maybe 2).

Alternatively, you could re-encode them all to mpeg-4 using Nero Recode, but you won't fit as many per disk.

Recheck the specs on that player. It may NOT play dvdr, only CDR.

Above, I meant to say, "...burn directly to dvdr..." not CDR.

[setarip]

To oceans11

DivX and XviD are compression formats/codecs used to create .AVI files.

Therefore, you will typically have DivX-compressed .AVI files and/or XviD-compressed .AVI files (or, possibly 3IVX-compressed .AVIs or, on VERY rare occasions, UNcompressed .AVIs).

The Philips player should be able to handle most, if not all, of your .AVI files in their PRESENT formats.

(You may have "jerky" playback of some XviD-compressed .AVIs, due to QPEL usage, etc.)

[reboot]

Check the specs on that player, as I mentioned above.

http://www.videohlep.com/players

Search for Phillips DRU642

[oceans11]

I checked that link on the suggestion of someone else before. That model isn't reviewed. But, that "cut & paste" on my topic starter is from the manual which I have in .pdf. Haven't got the damn player yet, it's sold out everywhere I look. A CompUSA further away says they've got 3, so I'm gonna check tonight. Regarding my original questions I guess what I'll do is when the burner is setup (just came today) I'll burn some of my .avi's to a DVD as data & try it. If it don't work I'll come whining back here!

Edit: Entered 2/16 11 PM

I downloaded & ran an app called "AviCodec". I had it analyze 1 file. This was what it reported:

File : 544 MB (544 MB), duration: 0:57:53, type: AVI, 1 audio stream(s), quality: 41 %
Video : 491 MB, 1187 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 352*288 (4:3), DX50 = DivXNetworks Divx v5, Supported
Audio : 52 MB, 128 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = MPEG Layer-3, Supported

I see it says that the video is in fact DivX even though the file extension is .avi. I guess this means this particular file & any others that show same results should be viewable in my player if they were burned to a CD-R/RW. Correct?

[reboot]

Avi is just a container. In this case, it holds a DivX encoded video, with mp3 audio. Your player (if you ever get it) will play this.
Don't waste dvd blanks on DivX, you can just as easily use CDR blanks, and get multiple movies on one disk. Using DVDR is gonna be overkill.
I'm also not sure your player will play DivX on DVDR. Read the fine print.
You can also re-encode ANY avi/mpg to DivX if you have the DivX encoder, by using Virtualdubmod. If done right, with the right bitrate selection, and a bit of filtering, you could get about 4 hours per CDR.

[VoodooChild777]

I have a JVC DVD player that plays DivX. When I burn AVI files to CD data about half the movies play great. about a fourth look like cartoons and about another fourth the player says it does not recognize codec. I've looked at all the files with Gspot and the ones with problems are always Xvid, But some Xvid do work. It's still a mystery to me why. What I do is burn the thing onto CD. If it doesn't work I lable it Data Disk and keep it as a back-up. Then convert it to DivX with TMPGEnc. But when converting sometimes the quality goes down when making it under 700MB.

[reboot]

Xvid has so many versions, they're not all supported properly by the "standard" DivX codec(s).
Just re-encode to DivX in virtualdub. Yes, you will lose some quality, but at least they'll all play properly.
When you say, "convert to divx with tmpgenc", WTF?
Tmpgenc encodes mpeg, not DivX avi. You're just making the files huge for no reason.

[setarip]

To reboot

"Tmpgenc encodes mpeg, not DivX avi."

The second part of your statement is incorrect. Although not well-known, TMPGEnc is fully capable of outputting in .AVI format (DivX-compressed or otherwise):

TMPGEnc>>File>>Output to file

You'll see several options - including .AVI...

[reboot]

Again, I apologise. Never did use it for that, never knew that, and now don't use it for anything anyhow (too slow).

[VoodooChild777]

Sorry I meant to say "convert to DivX with VirtualDub" not "convert to DivX with TMPGEnc"