Playing AVI files on a DVD player

[CliffyG]

I've never seemed to have much luck with this. The last few times i user Ultra DVD Creator to create an VCD disc on a bank CD (not dvd). It worked ok'ish, quality not so great but it was definately watchable as long as the source AVI was good quality. It seems to be struggling with the last few AVI's i've tried, always crashes out during the creation. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to do this better?

[Burble]

I use Nero to make (S)VCD's and it seems to do the job quite nicely.

[CliffyG]

I did try nero when i first started looking into it but i i stopped using it for some reason, cant even remember now. Will give it another go anyway :).

[CliffyG]

After about an hour Nero created a VCD which was just under 1gig in size. Not too handy as it will only write to CDR/RW.

[leowyatt]

So am I right in thinking you want to create convert an AVI to a VCD?

EDIT: If you do give me a shout, got a great app that can do what you need :) It's the app Nismo just suggested.

[Nismo]

I'd give a copy of WinAVi a go, does all you need and very simple.

[CliffyG]

K thanks, i'll try and get hold of it.

[leowyatt]

if you have any trouble let me know ;)

[Stan_Lite]

Bit of a coincidence this. I was going to start a thread asking how to get Mpeg files to play on DVD.

I downloaded WinAVI and it seems to have converted the files fine (useful batch conversion facility) and I'm now burning the DVDs.

Will let you know how it works tomorrow.

Stan :)

[CliffyG]

I've downloaded version 7 and will give it a try in a min.

[Fayshun]

I know it;s a bit late bit I'd vote for WinAvi too.

[CliffyG]

WinAvi seems to be fairly decent actually. I like the fact i'm not tied down to VCD / SVCD. Created a pretty decent copy of an AVI file i had onto a DVD. The letterbox seems a bit too black though and there is very very small amounts of blurring at the bottom. Considering it's a film for the kids i'm not too bothered.

[Davey_Pitch]

I personally use TMPGEnc to convert the Avi file to MP2 and M2V files, then use a hacked copy of DVD Lab Pro to make a proper DVD with menus and chapters. It takes a bit longer but if the Avi file is pretty good quality the results can be outstanding.

[Fayshun]

Or buy a dvd player that plays AVIs.

[CliffyG]

The problem with that is the huge amounts of codecs floating about.

[Mark]

Yup - getting one that'll play DivX 5 isn't so hard though (note - don't use 6 if you want a hope of other devices playing it).

[rich99]

Or buy a dvd player that plays AVIs.

Indeed - I bought one for £20 from the market over the road a while back now - it's not too great as a DVD player (seems a little jumpy from time to time) but for playing divx/xvid etc it's great :)

Amstrad DX3092 - I believe Curry's/Dixons had them ages ago and were also selling them for £20, another good thing is that it's a small form player so will fit in whatever gap you can find for it

[leowyatt]

I got a tosh one from PCworld a few months back and so far it's played everything I've thrown at it :) oh and it cost £40

[Priest]

For DVD's I normally use ConvertXtoDVD from VSO. It's very basic when creating the menu's but it's pretty quick and the quality is pretty good.