What is a really good wmv and avi to dvd converter?

**vilian9** · **11-14-08, 12:07 AM**

hello,
i have many movies in avi format and some small clips in wmv format which i would like to convert to dvd format.

can anyone please comment on what is a really good converter i can get for free? thanks a bunch

Also, can you guys also tell me what are the best dvd formats that are supported by nero and or nero express?
thank you

**tonyvdb** · **11-14-08, 10:20 AM**

Quote:

vilian9 wrote:

hello,
i have many movies in avi format and some small clips in wmv format which i would like to convert to dvd format.

can anyone please comment on what is a really good converter i can get for free? thanks a bunch

Also, can you guys also tell me what are the best dvd formats that are supported by nero and or nero express?
thank you

First of all Welcome to the shack!

I can not answer your first question but the best DVD format (there is only one) is use the highest bit rate you can under the capture settings. Sometimes they just call it "High Quality" and dont allow the program to compress the video so it will "fit to disc"

**Harpmaker** · **11-14-08, 04:16 PM**

Hi vilian9,

I second the welcome!

May I ask why you need to convert your files to DVD format? Many DVD players will also play .MPG files; if the players you want to use can do so it's a little bit easier to do it that way.

Also keep in mind that converting from AVI and such to MPG or DVD format will NOT increase picture quality from what is native to the AVI (or other format) file.

If your files are of low quality it might be a better idea to convert them to VCD format; most DVD players will play VCD's as well (it's a popular format in Asia).

My current favorite free audio/video transcoder is MediaCoder.
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

**eugovector** · **11-18-08, 08:07 PM**

Media encoder is great. Thanks for that one.

**Harpmaker** · **11-19-08, 05:47 PM**

Quote:

eugovector wrote:

Media encoder is great. Thanks for that one.

Glad you like it!

It's been awhile since I messed around with it and while I was revisiting it after mentioning it above I found that it does a great job of converting a DVD soundtrack so it can be made into an audio CD. It won't do this by itself, but that's not a problem; 'Audacity' and 'Burn4Free' will do the rest. As you can tell, I like free software.

I need this feature because I record some of our church services directly to DVD and some people only want CD's.

MediaCoder also has a version that is geared toward audio use only. I will be trying that out soon as I upgrade my PC to a new machine using XP; until then, MediaCoder works just fine!

**eugovector** · **11-20-08, 05:23 PM**

I've been using it to load videos onto my Zune (work better than anything else I've found so far, even if it's not as user friendly).

**Harpmaker** · **11-21-08, 01:09 AM**

Yeah, the user-interface isn't as good as it could be, but considering how versatile MediaCoder is, it's not bad.

I keep finding things this program will do that are simply amazing for a free program. It will even let you take clips out of a video either by timecode or visually. It will let you change color, contrast, brightness and more. It will also let you permanently change settings for a device (such as an iPod) after you find the settings that work best for you.

**Harpmaker** · **11-21-08, 07:47 AM**

Hey Marshall,

Here is a version of MediaCoder that might be more to your liking for use with the Zune.

http://www.mediacoderhq.com/device/mpx.htm

MediaCoder just continues to impress the daylights out of me. The more I find out about it, the more I like it. It's one of the few transcoders that will use all 4 cores of the quad-core CPU's. And it's still free!

**eugovector** · **11-28-08, 11:32 PM**

I'm pretty savvy on video transcoding settings, so I already made my own preset, but thank you.

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