oscar0308

i recently bought an apex DVD player after reading how they will play different file formats that i could burn onto a CD. the first burned movie i put in worked superbly, but found others didnt. it seems that i couldnt get avi's to work, but vcd's and mpg's were ok. no problem, i thought, i'll just convert the avi's to mpg's.

i did so but a 150 meg avi ended up being a 500 meg mpg.

am i doing anything wrong in the conversion? i mean i figured it would be larger, but by over 300%?? is there better file format to convert it to and, if there is, what program would be best for converting it?

the second issue regards the player. am i doing something wrong there or will it actually not play avi's?

The_Dude

yeah, especially if the file is divx, the mpeg is going to be HUGE (especially mpeg1's which are used for vcd's)

and some avi's use video codec's and you NEED the codec to play that file. no way you can get a codec on a dvd.

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AxByC

try www.vcdhelp.com Look in the guides section.

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Sion

"it seems that i couldnt get avi's to work"

do you get an error message?
if so, what is it?

I have a sony dvd player and it will play anything I put in it. What dvd software are you using? Are you trying to play the .avi files through the dvd software? if so, that is probably your problem. just use the dvd player like a cdrom drive. use windows media player (or whatever you use) to read the file.

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Vanquish

If you want the file to be smaller then you could do a few things.

1) Get a program that will compress your audio into a Smaller file. Using a program called Ligos you are able to convert AVIs to MPEG-1, or MPEG-2 along with the audio going directly into the MPG (WAV) or you can compress it to MPA which will make it much smaller.

2) Encode in MPEG-1 format if quality isn't very important or if the source is not good to begin with.

3) Encode in MPEG-2 at a lower bitrate. Heres a small chart with basic lengths / rate for a 650mb CD

Time (Mins) ---------- Mbits / sec --------- Constant / Variable Rate

0 - 11 7 Constant
11-22 4 Variable
22-33 2 Variable
33 + 1> Variable


This is all assuming no audio so it might not be the best representation but I hardly ever have audio on anything not recorded on DVD.

Using a variable bitrate is probably going to be best if you want to have a good looking end result.

Anyway I believe that you converted the files fine normal VCD Videos are spanned across 2 - 4 disks depending on the quality. Therefore your end result should be fine. You can still try a few of the things I said to see if you can get the file smaller.

The dude is right about the player, I doubt you could get a Apex to play files which need a Codec. There are newer players available / soon to be available, that have the DIVX and a few other Codec's built into there fermware but there either VERY expensive, only in Japan or not available.

Hope that helped.

oscar0308

thanks guys.

The_Dude: i had read up previous to buying the player that there were some codecs and/or programs that people were applying to their standalones. never read into it much cause i wasnt interested in it then. now i wish i paid more attention.

AxByC: i had visited that site before, but hadnt bookmarked it. i have now. thanks.

Sion: ummm.. its not a 'puter mounted DVD player.. but thanks.

Vanquish: i'll try to convert using some of the methods you've mentioned.

bbbbbb555

use nero to burn the avi and it will convert the movie to a mpg for you. you will lose some quality, but it is not that bad. if it is a full movie you will need to split it with a program like easy video splitter. if you use nero it should play on any dvd player.

oscar0308

hmmmmm.. even better. i'm gonna have to try that one bbbbbb555. thanks much.

VeXteR

Dont know if you considered this. It costs more, but is much easier.

Build a small PC for the TV room. Doing this could be an entirly new thread. Start one and Ill tell ya what to look for. Prolly others that are interested too.

You put this PC on the network and just start the movies on it.

Not to mention your wife/kids can play some Bejeweled on the big screen.

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shalafi

cool thanks guys id been meaning to learn how to do avi's to vcd as well but hadnt gotten around to researching it