Video Conversion Tools

[Mutt]

ok i'm at my wit's end, nothing I do will get Windows Media Encoder 7 to work on my computer which is a pretty new machine with plenty of horsepower. The Windows Media newsgroups are a ghost town and the Microsoft serfs ignored my questions.
Nobody on any of the boards on the good digital video sites has been much help either. So I have given up, I can't convert avi's or mpeg's into 256kbps streams on this computer using Microsoft's own encoder.


So the question is what other video conversion tool software should i try to convert to Windows Media format streams?

Also, what is the 'size difference' between a good quality WMV file
and a good quality MPEG file ......might as well add a DivX file too.

So if a decent looking 320x240 300kbps file in WMV format is 2-3
MB per minute of video...............what is the size in MB's of a similar quality stream in MPEG and DivX.

People seem to think MPEG is superior to anything, which it is but
you can also save streams in MPEG format that are horrible looking in much the same way that a JPEG with almost no compression looks great but a JPEG with 20% comression looks like shit.

Thank you

[Pornwolf]

Lotta good questions you have there. I can help you with a couple. For most of my encoding I use Vegas Video or Premiere direct after editing. It's pretty simple this way. If I go outside of those two programs I use Cleaner 5 or Windows Encoding Utility. The stand alone encoder is bullshit. The utility runs in the command prompt and is faster and you have complete control over all settings.

Of all of the options Cleaner 5 is the most thorough. You can encode Real,WMV,MPEG 1,2,3, & 4, and Quicktime.

WMV is my favorite. WM8 is the smallest and best and of course most computers can use it because Bill Gates said so, therefore it is.

Seriously though, some people can make Mpegs super small and some people can make quicktime look incredible. It's all in those extra little seemingly simple settings that most people just trust the defaults instead of tinkering with that makes the difference.

Divx is great but most people can't play them and won't be able to without downloading extra stuff for a while.

Real sucks ass. Down with Realplayer!

[Mutt]

thanks for the speedy reply. i will try Vegas Video and Cleaner. If both fail I will know it has something to do with Windows XP on my machine.

When you import miniDV format video into a PC what format is best to import it as, raw avi with no compression? mpeg? is it possible to encode into WMV format at the same time I am importing the DV camera or DV playback machine? I mean is it necessary first to create a huge uncompressed avi or mpeg?
I'd like to skip that step if possible, just go straight from the DV into WMV.

thank you

[Pornwolf]

I always import raw AVI's and manipulate them from the hard drive. It is possible to skit that step (seemingly) but it still has to route through your cpu and memory which would work out even worse for you without a TON of ram. Just stick with the capturing to disk method. If you have hard drive space concerns I would suggest getting an Iomega 20 gig HDD Firewire drive for around $200 bucks.