AVI to MPEG-4 file conversion

I recently indulged in a Mobile Personal Video Recorder, the Archos AV700. I think this "little" player is fantastic but I am having a few problems with .avi files I have on my pc. They are not directly playable by the player (I think they must have been created using DivX, newer versins of which are not supported. The technical specs say that Avi files ARE supported but not later DivX files). No problem, i think to myself. I use the Sync functin of Windows Media Player to convert and transfer the files to the AV700. All is well, i believe, as the files can successfully be viewed. Except that Media Player seems to cut off the last 30 seconds (at least) of each recording, meaning i miss the end of each programme i want to watch. This is extremely annoying.

Can anyone suggest:

a ) any settings and / or other work-arounds in Media player to stop it cutting off the end of the file

or

b ) a FREE file converter so i can convert the files to a media player file (mpeg-4 i think is the one i need)

or

c ) any other suggestion?

Thanks in advance for help!

Well, AVI is just a container, you can put almost any type of audio or video format inside. And DivX is just an encoder for mpeg4. Whether you encode something with divx3 4 or 5, or xvid, any mpeg4 decoder should be able to play it back.

On windows I use a program called bsplayer as a windows media player replacement, but more important is the codec pack, I tried heaps that didnt work properly, until I tried out ffmpeg or ffdshow I think, which has good decoders and encoders for mpeg 4. For your player that plays divx avis, I recommend the xvid encoder. (Website says it works with "MPEG-4 SP with B-Frames (compatible with DivX 4/5), AVI, WMV9 SP (including protected WMVs)"). So divx5 should be a good option too if you have a version that doesnt leave a watermark.

And as far as format conversion, I do a lot of it on linux but not windows so cant help you there.

As I suggested to don_riina, give iRiverter a shot. It converts DVDs & AVIs to mp4 while formatting the image to the size of your screen and syncing the audio. It was made for iRiver PMPs initially but I don't see why it shouldn't work with other devices.

For device select PMP, pic the resolution you'd like, click to sync the audio, and let it run.

thanks guys!

I use iRiverter for my iriver H320 as well its brill and really easy to use.

P.S. Thanks to Drivin West and all you other techies who helped me in the linux thread (didn't want to clutter the board by resurecting)
I finally got my hard drive partitioned and am trying to work out how to use the linux live cd (it will load now )
Thanks heaps

What do you think, is it worth the purchase? Did you buy it as a gadget or because you travel a lot? How's the battery life?

@ Iceberg Slim

I spend enough time on planes, trains and automobiles that for me it is very much worth it. 10 hour flights (easy to do when extra batteries cost only US$20) fly by when watching a whole season of your fave show.

Maybe when I learn to read I'll get into those book things.

@NMH,
Ouch, that colour of font kills me eyeballs

I used Dr DivX for my Archos. I thought Archos had its own MP4 converter software?

Sorry Timmeh
I couldn't get it to make the writing small and it was kind of off topic so I just put in a paler colour

try Virtualdub at www.virtualdub.org. Free

I actually checked the Archos web site, and they do indeed have a free tool available to do all this MP4 conversion stuff, and it is I beleive based on virtualdub.

funny, i checked the website as well and couldn't find anyting. oh well, means i am either blind or stupid, so time to check again.

http://www.archos.com/download/software.ht...sbysojkobccyc22

thanks, nmh. the old Don has kindly already pmed me the link as well. I shall do some playing around with this software tonight.

btw, already tried out DW's suggested software. It worked and even reduced the file size to about half with only very minimal loss of quality and didn't cut off the end of the file either. Only trouble was, it is mighty slow (unless that was jus my laptop being slow).

No, if you mean iRiverter, it is very slow. But the quality (at least amongst the iRiver community) is always said to be superior to virtual dub.
I am not techie so I am, not the best person to say.

Thanks for all your suggestions, guys but as it turns out I don't need to convert any of my files. Doh!

It seems that Windows Media Player version 10 is an F*ing virus and should deleted from every computer! (I already hated the damned thing anyway cos it keeps freezing and won't let you change programs by clicking on the minimised tabs, you have to minimise WMP10 before you can switch). So anyone got any suggestions for a replacement for WMP10, cos i really hate it now!

The factory settings for the AV700 mean it is set up for WMP10 and autosync. For some reason WMP10 (and the device?) don't recognise the files as playble. So what to do? Just go to the settings, select HDD instead of autoync and voilá! The AV700 can then be recongnised as a simple USB drive. You can then simply copy and delete files as required using the windows explorer. about 95% of the files I have can be played by the device (despite what WMP10 was telling me) and not cut-offs either. Yey! (The only ones it seems not to recognise are those with dolby 5.1 sound, but so what, the device couldn't play dolby anyways).

Depends for video or music or both?
Winamp http://www.winamp.com/
or
Mediaplayer classic (NOT Windows software despite the name)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
>Scroll halfway down the downloads section to find it<

On the topic of converting AVI to mpeg-4, is there any converter out there that doesn't take a long time? or that has settings that you can see how long it will take before committing?

To revise this thread:

I am in the process of digitalizing a large number of VHS tapes. I use a new Mac with ADS PYRO A/V Link with Premiere Elements 3.0 and have the choice (with the new Mac) of bringing the data into windows (resulting in a AVI file) or Mac's Imovie (resulting in a MOV file). My problem is that a 110 minute video produces a 12 GB file. Good quality, but too large. I would like to burn these tapes (1 hour to 2 hours each) onto DVDs and need the files to be small, but the quality to be good. I bought the DivX program which made the 12GB file a 777MB file, but the quality suffered. Also, all conversions seem to take 'real time: 1-1' . What should I do?

If you convert the .mov/.avi file to an ISO (DVD image), then you can use the free and excellent DVD Shrink to reduce the file size to that of a blank DVD. Google for some conversion programmes (e.g. here).

Try visualhub to set the target file size and aspect ratio and convert your DVD's from their captured from VHS settings to settings and quality of your choice.

FYI, this is Windoze only

Actually, try this first it is a free opensource ripper/converter I think. It may do what you need but for a better price than VisualHub

I feel like the three wisemen made a visit today .

The conversions possibilities are many, but still a bit slow. But quality for size problem is somewhat solved.

Conversions can run quicker if you only do a 1 pass conversion using drdivx, but I only do it for handheld media, because you do lose quality. Speaking of quality, get a copy of a prog called gspot codec information appliance. It will tell you the bitrates of a video file, so you can see whats happened to audio and video.