Chapter 4.2 : MPEG ENCODER

Converting AVI files

Ok, you have already been briefed on how this process is done using MPG files. This process is pretty much the same as what you read in Chapter 4.1 with MPG files. The difference is that there is a good chance that the video and/or audio files will not be able to be decoded by MPEG Encoder and thus some other program will be needed to help it out.

I will give you a brief overview of the steps needed for basic AVI files in this Chapter and point out where extra steps may be needed for more complex files.

Start up the program and you will get this opening screen.

Again, just like in Chapter 4.1, you will need to specify the locations of the video and audio portions of the movie are on the hard drive.

You will now click on OPEN on the top right. Then a menu appears with browser to find your files.

Now just like the MPG example, MOST of the time, it should come up with the video and audio. If that happens, you are good to go.

But you will find that this is so only about 60% or 70% of the time. You will often get those stupid idiots out there getting too fancy and encoding their videos in the strangest and weirdest formats. So lets look into what happens if that happens.

Now as you see in this example of the Top Gear, the audio didn’t show up. This means that MPEG Encoder can’t figure out how to play back the audio. It basically means that you need another program to extract out the audio from the AVI. One of the easiest programs for this is Virtualdub. I won’t show you in this file how to do that, please refer to the other chapter to see how that is exactly done. Ok, I will assume that you will do that, and return to this point with a working *.WAV file. By the way, the WAV files that this program takes are the same that standard Windows takes, ie. 44.1Khz, 16 bit, stereo, in Windows PCM format.

I will also add that if the program doesn’t know how to decode the video, then you will have to do a similar thing. You will have to find another program or codec to decode the video to something more normal. Then try it again.

So, we will hit the second OPEN button which is the one for audio. Again, another window opens up and allows you to browse to where you have the *.WAV file. Select the WAV that you just made from VirtualDub or WinAmp or even CoolEdit.

Ok, last step, specify where you want to save the file, by clicking browse. The default is in the same directory as your source video file.

Don’t forget to check that you are recording the right kinds of file, in this case it will be a VCD. You also want to check that NTSC is also checked off because you don’t want it in the wrong play back format.

If you are burning VCD or SVCD, like this the example, I will just show you how to drag and drop in Nero to make the VCD or SVCD. If you made a DVD MPEG then you will have to read a bit about how to use the DVD authoring programs to break the MPG file into VOB, IFO, BUP files, which I have later in this tutorial.