Hi All I tried searching for this first so if it's covered somewhere, I apologize but I couldn't find it. A friend of mine is a anime nut, she's asked me to put some "fan subs" onto dvd for her so she can watch them (her computer is old and can't handle the download or dvd playback). The problem I'm running into is that while windows recognizes them as .avi files and plays them perfectly with media player, every time I try to load them into software such as mydvd 6 or even windows movie maker I get some kind of cryptic message about not having the appropriate decoder installed??? I thought AVI was AVI, am I wrong? Could these be copyguarded somehow? Kind of defeats the purpose of putting them out for everyone if they've done something to them. The fact that neither movie maker or mydvd can seem to read them makes me discard any ideas that it's a hardware issue, it's got to do with the files themselves. Any and all suggestions are greatfully appreciated. I thought perhaps if I could find something that would translate them into another format that might solve the issue but I'm not sure on that. I'm ignorent about whether the whole NTSC or PAL TV thing may have any bearing when we're talking about something in computerized format. If it does then these are probably in PAL since they come from Japan.
Do they playback fine on your PC? Not all AVI are considered the same. Some use Xvid codecs, others are using DivX, and others are even more generic. If they playback fine on the same PC you are trying to encode, then use TMPGenc to encode the files to mpeg2 (Make sure to install the VFAPI as well). TMPGenc can make use of the proper codecs. Ulead and Pinnacle always gave me trouble trying to re-encode for mpeg2. (tip: use the 'load' button at the bottom to use a preset made for DVD standards)
an avi is just a container , whats inside the container has no bearings to the avi type itself. you probably need a codec like divx or 'ac3' which is a audio codec
Yes, they play perfectly on the same pc I'm trying to create the DVD with. A couple of the files say "xvid" in the file name. So I take it that it may not make a difference PAL v NTSC with these? I found that codec you were talking about haven't tried it yet. Thanks for the reply.
Duh, I feel dumb now. If I just took a minute to watch the beginning of one I would have seen the Divx badge in the lower right corner--duh. Anyhow, installing the divx codec for xp solved the matter. Thanks so much for the hints.
Ok, the initial problem is solved. Actually managed to burn a cd with a couple of episodes on it, now the problem is that you can't read the subtitles at the bottom of the screen, at least on my tv. Is there any way to adjust the size of the video? I.e. is there some way to convert to letterbox or make it slightly smaller so the translations are readable and not mostly cut off at the bottom of the screen?
If you are using TMPGenc, you can make a custom size video, which will fill any space left behind with black bars. Just go to 'settings', and click on the 'advanced' (second tab). At the bottom is 'clip film'. You can resize and clip (if necessary) to suite your needs. Run a couple short tests to make sure it's what you want before running an entire film. Sukie- you're right, avi is just a container. My bad. I knew what I was trying to say, but it didn't come out right.
download a program called [bold] AVICODEC [/bold] for future reference: 1.Load your file into avicodec and post the results for all to see. 2.From there we should be able to get you to complete your projects andmerr
I've been playing with the TMPGenc, cool little program but I'm so new at this stuff it's got a lot of stuff in it that I don't know what to do with. Something I read said Divx are generally letterbox 16:9 (?) so I used tmpgenc to make it 16:9 size, which solves the issue with the unreadable subtitles, but the perfectionist in me wants more. I know I've seen what size tv is somewhere but I don't have that info at my finger tips. I'd kind of like to fill up the screen and not have the black bars if I can avoid that (it's also a slight bit too wide when I play them on my standalone player on the tv but nothing like the unprocessed videos were coming out). What's a good custom size selection that will squeeze it just a touch vertically but change nothing horizontally? The TMPGenc has that screen with all the number selections on it for setting custom size but I'm not sure I understand how to use that section completely. If anyone's been through a project like this I'd like to hear what you did. I will try that other piece of software that was mentioned and see if I can figure out how to post the result.
i take it you have tried the tutorials .Both basic and advanced are in the guides section of AD. Just follow the links: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/advanced_tmpgenc_guide.cfm http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/advanced_tmpgenc_xpress_guide.cfm http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/advanced_tmpgenc_dvd_author_guide.cfm
