video file format conversion

[dogbreath]

I've got a number of video files on my p.c. in various formats. These are .mpeg(1), .avi and .mov. To burn these to dvd to enable them to be played on a standalone dvd player, I understand that they must first be converted to .mpeg(2) files. Can someone please confirm this. Also does this have to be a multi stage process or is there a package available which simultaneously rips, re-encodes and burns as with some audio packages? Are there any free, worth having, packages which do all or part of the above. Any help welcome, ta.

[killingspree]

hi,
yes you're pretty much right... mov and avi files definitely have to be converted, for mpg1 files it migh be easier to burn them as a VCD and therefore avoid the reencoding - which again spares you of loosing even more quality!

anyway, concerning the package. there are a couple of commercial packages that claim they can do just about any conversion you want them too, but i would be really careful while considering those.

for other packages i'd really recommend dvd2svcd for the avi2dvd conversions. in general for those tasks you might want to check out the doom9 format conversions guides: http://www.doom9.org/conversionguides.htm

cheers
steVe

[ObiKenobi]

If your standalone player can play mpeg-4 files you can just convert them to either DivX or XviD and just burn them to either a CD or DVD and play them as they are. If it can't then you have a number of choices. You can either burn them as a VCD, SVCD or DVD. In which case you may want to check out the guides on the main page about doing this and checking out the boards about MPEG-1/2 encoding and DVD authoring.

[dogbreath]

Thanks for that guys, I'll check it out.:)