WMV to AVI or MPG: doesn't work.

T

Terry Pinnell

I'm trialing the 'WMV to AVI MPEG DVD WMV Converter' V1.2.2 from Allok
Soft. But so far I have not been able to succeed with it.

I'm trying to convert a 3.9 MB WMV file. It's accessible here, for a
few days anyway (I'm at the limit of my free web space!):
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/LED-Sequencer4MB.wmv

It's one of my first I've made with MS Windows Movie Maker 2.0.
(Content is irrelevant; it's for discussion in one of the specialist
electronics newsgroups.) The WMV plays fine in WMP, IrfanView, Nero
ShowTime, Real Player, and PowerDVD.

The reason I'm trying to convert it anyway is that one person in the
electronics group said the WMV wouldn't play in his WMP. No idea why
(surely that's the 'native' format for WMP?), but I thought I'd offer
him an AVI and MPG as well.

But after conversion to either AVI or MPG there are a variety of
errors.

For example, converting to MPG, I open the WMV, then:
For Output Format I select MPEG-II. I leave other settings at their
defaults.

After clicking Convert, I get a file led-sequencer4mb_tompeg2.mpg

If I play this (it's associated with WMP9 here) the 'spinning' text
effect is 'frozen'. If I choose MPEG-I instead, I get some of the
spinning back, but it's still not faithful to the original. Not sure
if the proportions are right either.

For AVI, leaving the settings at their defaults, it's much worse.
Using the defaults, the conversion plainly doesn't work because it's
too fast and the file is a mere 127 KB. Clicking it to play it in WMP
fails to run it, and I get I get a message about an unexpected error.
In Quicktime, nothing at all happens.

I repeated that with various different settings for the AVI. But
frankly I don't have a clue about choosing from those long lists of
codecs. So far I haven't found one, but I'm hoping that there is a
combination there that will work that someone here can suggest please?

BTW, is this program intended only for those who are deep into the
technicalities of video? Is there an alternative (ideally freeware!)
that a mere end-user can get results with?
 
C

Cari \(MS-MVP\)

I never got it to work correctly. I use TEMPEnc, WinDVD Creator or
PowerDirector... or even VideoWave (Roxio) if everything else fails!

Hang on, I'll go get it, re-encode it and post a link for you.
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Cari \(MS-MVP\) said:

Very kind of you, Cari, thank you. Duly downloaded. And I'll
investigate those alternative converters.

To get that large MPG back down close to the WMV size of 4MB
presumably I have to go through a resizing step somewhere? As you
probably saw, it's for web upload, and is only a casual one-off. It
was viewable for the purpose intended at 4MB (after trimming I have it
to 3.7 MB), so I don't need a large version. And it's to occupy my
stretched free web space <g>.
 
C

Cari \(MS-MVP\)

It's not going to be much smaller if it's an MPEG.

The www.yousendit.com service is up to 25 downloads and 7 days (whichever
comes first).... I use them very frequently, for all sorts of files.

I'd personally leave the website hosting the WMV and if they need a larger
version or something not WMV, then use the yousendit service since it's
free.
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Cari \(MS-MVP\) said:
It's not going to be much smaller if it's an MPEG.

The www.yousendit.com service is up to 25 downloads and 7 days (whichever
comes first).... I use them very frequently, for all sorts of files.

I'd personally leave the website hosting the WMV and if they need a larger
version or something not WMV, then use the yousendit service since it's
free.

Thanks, good idea, will do. But how do you use it the way *you* did,
namely post me a link? It seems to be asking me for the recipient's
email address?
 
C

Cari \(MS-MVP\)

Hint: Send the email to yourself!!!

Then you can send an email with the link to more than one person when it's
emailed you with the link.
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Cari \(MS-MVP\) said:
Hint: Send the email to yourself!!!

Then you can send an email with the link to more than one person when it's
emailed you with the link.

Great, thanks a lot! Just sent first 7MB file that way, and seems to
have gone OK. Takes the pressure off my 50MB free web space from
Pipex.
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Cari \(MS-MVP\) said:

Which of the converters that you mentioned did you use to make that
one please?

I started with this rather smaller WMV
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2B4ZCTXWWQS952PV5EKGKPQ563
and then used 'WMV to AVI MPEG DVD WMV Converter' (!)
to convert it to this MPG
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3JAP5RZMCVI4D3HORP4GH3S29U

(I had to cheat, as the trial version of that clumsily-titled program
only converts 50% of the source; so I simply first 'doubled it up' in
Moviemaker.)

However, I get some strange behaviour when I play the MPG here. Mainly
in WMP9, but also in various other players like IrfanView
Nero ShowTime, RealPlayer, and QuickTime. It has odd corruptions,
jumps and jerks; and on one occasion seemed to lose the video-to-audio
sync. Apart from not being faithful to the original WMV, I'm baffled
as to why it should display *different* flaws, not only in different
players but also on different occasions in the *same* player! How can
that be possible? (And I swear I've had nothing stronger than an Earl
Grey tea with my lunch <g>.)
 
T

Terry Pinnell

Terry Pinnell said:
Which of the converters that you mentioned did you use to make that
one please?

I started with this rather smaller WMV
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2B4ZCTXWWQS952PV5EKGKPQ563
and then used 'WMV to AVI MPEG DVD WMV Converter' (!)
to convert it to this MPG
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3JAP5RZMCVI4D3HORP4GH3S29U

(I had to cheat, as the trial version of that clumsily-titled program
only converts 50% of the source; so I simply first 'doubled it up' in
Moviemaker.)

However, I get some strange behaviour when I play the MPG here. Mainly
in WMP9, but also in various other players like IrfanView
Nero ShowTime, RealPlayer, and QuickTime. It has odd corruptions,
jumps and jerks; and on one occasion seemed to lose the video-to-audio
sync. Apart from not being faithful to the original WMV, I'm baffled
as to why it should display *different* flaws, not only in different
players but also on different occasions in the *same* player! How can
that be possible? (And I swear I've had nothing stronger than an Earl
Grey tea with my lunch <g>.)

I made a new conversion using a different program, Xilisoft Converter,
and this one seems OK.
http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=12AT21A7DXNFK3TUG4UIHQ310T

So presumably the flaws were down to WMV...Converter, and/or my
failure to choose the 'right' settings? I left them at the values
already present Width/Height:default, Frame rate: default; Audio
bitrate 377 kbs; video bitrate 311 kbs. The only one of those that
looks odd to me is the audio bitrate. According to AVIcodec, the WMV
source audio bitrate is 722 KB. But after trying another conversion
with that figure entered, if anything the MPG was worse.

I think I'll simply forget about WMV...Converter!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top