Hi not to sure if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't please say. Anyway I'm slightly confused about the formats of video files. I have downloaded an episode of a TV series which is an avi file now im not to sure which format i should convert it to. I'm guessing i need to convert it to DVD files but the DVD authoring program im using, TMPG only accepts MPEG files, why is this? I'm using this particular program because its the only one that i can find that has a good DVD creation menu process, if you know of any other programs that are good please tell me. Ok so whats the difference between all the video formats that i have mentioned in the title and which is the best one to convert to so i can watch them on my DVD Player. If you could reply thank you so much, any links to websites or programs that would help me that would be very much appreciated. Thanks
Alright.. When you say TMPEG in this case I assume you mean TMPEG DVD-Author. It will only accept DVD-Compliant MPEG (specifically MPEG-2 and the other details depend on whether your dvds are going to be NTSC or PAL). You need to encode to either MPEG or VOB to use as a video dvd.
Hi yes i did mean TMPG DVD Author sorry should of put that. Yes i do want my DVDs to be in PAL Format. Im a little confused becuase is MPEG2, Vob files or is it diffrent. So if i was going to make a DVD, PAL format from AVI files which format should i convert them to? Thanks again
Best I've used is TMPEGEnc, it is slow however it will work and has wizards to walk you through the steps if you need it, and then you can use TMPEG DVD-Author or whatever author program you'd like to Author the disc, there are some people who prefer to encode directly to VOB, however I prefer to encode to MPEG, then add to the DVD author program after encoding.
Is it TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress is that the right tool you use to convert the files, and which output file should i choose to convert it to, MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4 or DVD. Thanks Again
I haven't used that particular version of TMPGEnc, but from the names of the settings it sounds like the DVD setting is the best one to pick so it will make the output DVD compliant without requiring you to know the settings to use.
Ok thanks One more thing, whats the actual difference between MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4 and DVD, im presuming DVD are VOB files or am i wrong?
MPEG is a generic name generally used to describe MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files. In reality it just stands for Motion Pictures Experts Group, the organization that sets standards for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and any future MPEG-x formats. MPEG-1 is the oldest MPEG format. MPEG-2 is an expansion of MPEG-1. It has more advanced features and is the format generally used for DVD MPEG-4 is a format originally designed for network transmission of video, so it uses smaller file sizes. The DVD-Video format doesn't use MPEG-4 at all, but some DVD players can play it as an additional feature. VOB files are MPEG files used by DVDs. They can contain MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video. They contain information that's not part of standard MPEGs (which the MPEG-2 standard allows for) so some programs that read MPEGs can't read VOBs.
So when i convert the avi files i should convert them to MPEG2, sorry im asking so many questions just want to be clear on it. thank you
Yes. You'll be encoding to MPEG-2. The DVD setting on the encoder should encode to MPEG-2 and set the options required to be DVD Compliant. There's a FAQ at the top of this forum with more information on what that means. And don't worry about the questions. That's what we're here for.
