Old Man Trying To Learn

[Big Cliff]

Ok so I have finally managed to down load my first movie. I've figured out how to play it on my PC. Now I want to burn it to a cd so I can play it on my DVD player. Could someone help me here, do I have to convert the file or can I just burn the .avi directly to the cd. My DVD player will play MR3's.

Would someone be kind enough to help me with this.

Thanks!

Big Cliff

[Bass]

You need to convert it to mpeg1 m8 for VCD, or mpeg2 for SVCD.
You can download a tool called EOVideo, it`s free off their website.That has vcd option so it`s really easy.Then use nero to burn it to cd.
cheers,
Bass

[dgmortal]

also visit http://www.dvdrhelp.com . they have alot of how-to guides for burning those movies onto discs. B)

[harrycary]

It seems this is a popular question. And the answers are abundant.

As stated above there are sites and there is encoding software. But the fundamental process is never mentioned. The average PC user doesn't know this.

When doing this you must first extract the audio and decompress it. Encoding software usually won't work with compressed audio.
(most downloaded .avi files will have audio in the mp3 format while the video is compressed using the XVID, DIVX, etc. codecs)

BTW, codec: compression + decompression

The encoding process than joins the uncompressed audio file and video file and creates the mpeg 1(or mpeg 2) format file. The DVDRhelp site mentioned above has links for software.

Finally you can create the VCD(or SVCD). This is best done with 3rd piece of software. Most quality CD burning software will include this feature.

Those 3 steps, that's it.
1. extract/uncompress the audio.
2. encode/create the mpeg1(or mpeg 2) file.
3. create/burn the VCD(or SVCD).

Surprisingly, there isn't a single piece of software that will do it all(effectively anyways).

This does use up your PCs resources. It's best to have a fast computer(1GHz or better), a good amount of memory(256Mb or more) and some room on your hardrive(approx 7-800Mb for 1.5 hours of video).
Expect it to take anywhere from 3-30 hours from start to finish. Shutting down all other programs will help ensure a proper encoding and speed up the process.

I just had to mention this 'cause no one else has. I hope it helps.

[jay973]

That about sums it up harrycarry.Nice post. B)

[zapjb]

Bravo harrycary.

[harrycary]

thnx guys

[TIDE-HSV]

What? No mention of "CUE" and "BIN" files?

[m8t]

hi there !
on top of all the good posts for your project, the better the Video editing programme, the easier it is to do. for arguements sake i have Adobe Premiere 6.5 and Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 4+DVD. for an avi file, you simply drag and drop your project into the timeline window and you click onto export to(svcd-dvd-vcd etc) from here these programmes do the rest. as already stated, be prepared to wait for your project 24 hours is not unusual. once encoded to hard drive just drop it into Nero and burn.
regards
m8t

[Big Cliff]

Thank you so much for all your help! I really appreciate it! Good thing I just retired cause it looks like I'm going to be too busy learning to work for a while LOL.