Need help converting asf, wmv files for VCD

I'm hoping someone can help me with the problem I'm having. I've tried TMPGEnc Plus as well as XVideoConverter, Nero and Video Edit Magic 3 but and can't get these asf and wmv files to convert (mpeg-1) so that I can make a VCD. With TMPGenc, when I try to convert them, it gets an error and closes. With XVideoConverter, Nero and Video Edit Magic 3, it will get so far along converting and then freeze up. Is this a problem with the files or is there something else I can do to make them work? I can watch them just fine with Windows media player as well as burn them on a data cd and then view them fine. I've looked at all the info here that I could find before asking for help but can't seem to find anything that answers it. Thanks in advance to any and everyone that can offer any help. I've been trying to get this to work for almost two weeks and I'm about at the end of my rope.

 

i've always used videopak from stoik

http://www.stoik.com/downloads/downloads_frm.htm

it can convert (asf/wmv/avi) to (avi/mpg)
sometimes it can even fix some problematic avi by converting avi to avi

 

I downloaded it and tried it but had the same problem. It froze up and wouldn't convert. Any other suggestions? Thanks very much.

 

you can also try the 30-day trial eo-video from here

http://www.eo-video.com/

it can do wmv->mpg (vcd) conversion

 

Thanks very much for your continued help. I tried eo video and it starts converting and then crashes (illigal operation). Don't know what else to do.

 

it looks like there's a portion of your movie that's bad. i suggest the following (i've done this before) - use WMP to find the spot where the pixels start to degrade and the spot where it picks up again (WMP is forgiving and can recover) and note those points; use tmpgen source range editing to create 2 segments which do not include the bad-clip (hopefully, just a few seconds worth). encode avi to mpg separately and rejoin later.

 

Manyone,
That's a good idea. I will try it and let you know how it works. Thanks very much.

 

Tried and still haveing the same problem. Is there any software that you know of that will let you record as a video is playing? What I mean is to be able to load the asf, wmv etc. file, hit record, and then have it record as it plays all the way through. I'm thinking maybe the files are corrupted in some way but maybe if I could do this and then save it as an mpeg-1 that might work. Thanks again for all your help.

 

sorry to hear it didn't work. one last thing you might try is to the windows media encoder from microsoft, which is normally used for encoding mpg,avi to wmv but i believe it can also re-encode wmv to wmv.
what you need for realtime capture of streaming video are called video capture software (duh) - the only one i've used successfully has been r7c - which i used to capture a music video (rm, rmv, ram, etc, realplayer only), as it played - from the internet, and saved it as avi. good luck.