Need help converting Flip Video Ultra files - sample vid included

[jeff_8]

Hi all, I just bought a Flip Video Ultra and would like some help converting it to a standard XVid/MP3 AVI (it currently doesn't play in XBMC - Xbox media center). It looks like the format is XVid (reported by GSpot) but i'm not sure, and audio in the file is ADPCM. I'd like to use free tools like MeGUI and VirtualDub.

Test file, 2MB, of my cat:
http://www.mediafire.com/?m99gxg29xn5

How would YOU convert it? What format/settings would you use? I'm relatively new to the video conversion stuff, played around some, so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Jeff

[unskinnyboy]

Yes, the video is Xvid and the audio is ADPCM.

Here is the outline of what you need to do:

Load the file into VirtualDubMoD.
Go to Streams -> Stream list. Select the audio track, press Save WAV and save as a WAV file (e.g. test.wav).
Now press Disable to disable the stream and just save the video-only file as a new AVI.
Convert the WAV file to MP3 using LAME or BeSweet.
Open VirtualDubMoD again, and mux the video-only AVI and the MP3 file together to get your Xvid/MP3 AVI.

[scharfis_brain]

also ensure to set the video to "Direct Stream copy" mode

[jeff_8]

Cool, thanks for the replies!

Another quick question, would you guys bother re-encoding the video? For a 1min video (640x480 30fps) it's 18MB, and I wasn't sure if the video was larger than it has to be... Thoughts?

[unskinnyboy]

That's up to you, but if you want to reduce the file size, yes, you'd have to reencode. I looked at the specs (http://www.theflip.com/products_flip_ultra_specs.II.shtml) of the product, and the average bitrate they use is 4.5Mbps. This is really overkill, IMO, and they aren't really utilizing the compression advantages of Xvid. At 4.5Mbps, they might as well be using MPEG-2 instead. Try reencoding - then you'd know if you like it or not. I am not impressed by the product anyway.

As a side note, I am not sure if they have licensed Xvid to be used in their product. Their website says "Advanced Profile MPEG4 AVI" and nothing about Xvid. Hmmm...