I'm so confused!!! WMV to DVD?? How??

[mwlahn]

Okay, I've browsed all over the Internet and through Doom9 but I can't seem to find what I need to get me started/going.

What I'm trying to do is first of all take a bunch of WMV files created with Microsoft Movie Maker 2.0 and put them onto a DVD for easy viewing and storage. If I look at Microsoft's website they recommend MyDVD, but based on the comments I've seen about MyDVD, and my experiences so far I'm looking to do it with other tools. (My next step is to convert all my VHS and Hi8 home video over to DVD, but that's the next step)

To be honest, MyDVD 5.2 LE (came with my drive) does exactly all I need it to do (nice and easy way to create DVD's and menus, and is compatible with WMV files), however it hasn't worked yet on the two (so far) -- the first one created the DVD just great, but some of the videos actually played very slow, although the audio was running at the correct speed. Other video's were perfect!! The second time the thing just hung overnight. No idea why. I'm going to try again tonight, but I still have my doubts.

I've downloaded the trial version of the TMPG software (Enc, Enc Plus 2.5, and XPress, and DVD Author), but I'm still trying to understand what the heck I need to do with them all.

Can anyone give me a SIMPLE solution to my problem, or direct me to documents that give me kind of step-by-step directions for how to do this? I'm willing to buy some software, but I want to be SURE it does work.

Please help to console a confused soul!! :confused:

[Schumache]

I haven't worked with that format at all so there might be a simpler way... but what I would do is use AVIsynth as I describe below.

I don't think TMPGEnc lets you choose wmv as input, and that's where avisynth will help you with. After you install it you should create a file with .avs extension containing this line:

DirectShowSource("c:\path\to\yourfile.wmv")

You can then select this avs script in TMPGEnc and encode it. There are a lot more things you can do in that script, I suggest you read avisynth's documentation for starters.

[Crazyjoe]

You could use "ASF Converter" from Boilsoft. It even reads WMV 9. It's able to convert the video to AVI (each codec installed supported), MPEG1/2 (CBR) and to WMV 7 and the audio to PCM, MP3 and various other formats.

But it isn't freeware.

There's only one thing. It seems to have problems with WMV 9 files which inlcude Multichannel WMA 9.