[stonking]

Hi, Brother in law is send me a DVD of the Christmas holiday but says he can only get it onto a DVD in WMV format which can only be read on a PC but does not play on a DVD player attached to the TV. I have a DVD burner on my PC so I was thinking I should be able to copy his WMV format into a folder then burn another DVD but in a format that our old DVD players support. Can anyone point me in the direction of a program (hopefully free) that will do this?

Regards and thanks for the help.

[senu]

While there may be free file conveters, any bog standard \video editing ( or DVD authoring) program should do it
Getting free programs ( which there may well be) may mean using 2 or 3 ..!
Also why wmv.?
Im not sure what the recording format was but unlikely yo be wmv.
You will have a significant quality loss doing it this way IMHO
Surely he can burn 1 hrs worth of mpeg2 onto a 4.7Gb DVD disc

[jaymac]

Hi dvd flick is free and wil convert author and burn to dvd using Imgburn which it also installs Just add your file and select burn to disc under birning in project settings
DVD Flick

[senu]

Originally Posted by jaymac

Hi dvd flick is free and wil convert author and burn to dvd using Imgburn which it also installs Just add your file and select burn to disc under birning in project settings
DVD Flick

Thanks for the suggestion
Still doesnt address the quality issue I raised though, does it?
Recording in Any format converting to wmv ( compressed ) then back to mpeg2 ( for DVD) is very likely to be a video quality killer IMHO
There is wmv-hd but its filesize tends to be similar to mpeg2

[nvingo]

The .WMV format can be very good quality if done right, just check out BBC iPlayer downloads.

[jaymac]

Originally Posted by senu

Thanks for the suggestion
Still doesnt address the quality issue I raised though, does it?
Recording in Any format converting to wmv ( compressed ) then back to mpeg2 ( for DVD) is very likely to be a video quality killer IMHO
There is wmv-hd but its filesize tends to be similar to mpeg2

Quite agree but Its irrevelant if the deed is done

[jaymac]

Originally Posted by nvingo

The .WMV format can be very good quality if done right, just check out BBC iPlayer downloads.

Its not bad but not as good when burned to dvd Proper but then thats illegal

[BlueCatPro]

Originally Posted by senu

Thanks for the suggestion
Still doesnt address the quality issue I raised though, does it?
Recording in Any format converting to wmv ( compressed ) then back to mpeg2 ( for DVD) is very likely to be a video quality killer IMHO
There is wmv-hd but its filesize tends to be similar to mpeg2

As it was posted later if the WMV is of a good quality, then you can convert it to DVD format (VOB) without great quality loss. You can use any free DVD burning software (just do the search) and convert it. What happens is: for example software like Nero (not free) will convert that WMV file to mpeg / VOB and burn it so it can be played in stand alone DVD player. Alternatively you can always FTP that file to me and I can send you back the encoded Video_TS folder to burn Good luck!

Denis

[stonking]

As you say, the deed has been done and at this stage I do not want to upset the brother in law and tell him he has done it all wrong. So this will be my plan, get File , convert it, send him back a working DVD. He falls on his back, amazed at my DVD formatting prowess, I will point him towards some software that maybe he should have used from the beginning and then maybe he can re-do the DVD in a higher quality format.

Dennis, Thanks for the offer of help but I am struggling with this easy stuff, FTP sounds real clever stuff. My brother in law tried to email it to be but as it was 160meg, he did not get too far. Maybe to really impress him I should show him how to FTP? Can you suggest a place that there is an easy set by set guide to how to do that?

Thanks to all.

[BlueCatPro]

Originally Posted by stonking

As you say, the deed has been done and at this stage I do not want to upset the brother in law and tell him he has done it all wrong. So this will be my plan, get File , convert it, send him back a working DVD. He falls on his back, amazed at my DVD formatting prowess, I will point him towards some software that maybe he should have used from the beginning and then maybe he can re-do the DVD in a higher quality format.

Dennis, Thanks for the offer of help but I am struggling with this easy stuff, FTP sounds real clever stuff. My brother in law tried to email it to be but as it was 160meg, he did not get too far. Maybe to really impress him I should show him how to FTP? Can you suggest a place that there is an easy set by set guide to how to do that?

Thanks to all.

Hello, first what I meant by FTP File Transfer Protocol - used to transfer files via FTP server... in your case what you can do is: Find any free file sharing website (Search google for free file sharing, free online storage, etc) some of them might give you up to 50-100 GB and use that to send larger files to someone.

Email won't work!!! its normally capped at about 4-8mb.

Any way your task is simple:
1) If you are using Windows and PC you must have Windows Movie Maker!
2) Import that footage in Windows Movie Make
3) Edit it as you pleased
4) Export it to DVD Burner
5) Software will encode it as DVD and will burn it for you.

That should really all work to play it back on a regular DVD.

Good luck!

Denis

[senu]

Originally Posted by jaymac

Quite agree but Its irrevelant if the deed is done

I agree but the initial post did not really specify if he was sending it or had already sent it

Moot point now
The Op has enough info to get going now including Nero ( whihch he may have)
in addition to your kind suggestion of DVD flick ( which ive heard of but never actually used before.. must give it a go

[stonking]

Hi all. Just a quick report back that Windows Movie Maker worked perfectly and I can now see the films on my DVD player in the lounge. I did not even know that I had it on my machine.

Thanks all for the great help.