I was at a wedding reception at the weekend and filmed the usual speeches and cake cutting etc in my Flip Ultra video camera.
I downloaded the video files onto my computer and transferred them onto a CD-RW which will quite happily play on the computer viaWindows Media Player but it will not play on either of my TV DVD players.
I want to send copies of the film to the groom and his sister
What do I have to do to get the files into a format which will play on the TV?
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you will need a TV dvd player that plays pc format videos on CD Like AVI or DivX.
A lot of older players dont, so you will have to burn them to regular DVD, not cd.
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... also some DVD players are fussy about whether you use DVD+ or DVD- blank discs. And I had one that was really picky about which brands of DVD it would play.
If you have something like Nero you can "author" a DVD and do a fancy job with menus, titles etc. That would convert your file to regular DVD format which all players know and love. (vob files). ISTR using a free piece of authoring software once but have no idea what it was. In fact, I think Window 7 has it build it - Windows Movie Maker - never used it but I think that's what it does.
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You could use one of the many freeware video converters such as:
www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
or the K-Lite offering:
www.codecguide.com/video_conversion_pack.htm
to convert your files to MPEG-2.
A modern DVD player should be able to display them on a TV.
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Just discovered my Windows7 system includes Windows DVD Maker and that some versions of Vista had it as well - if you have got it see:
windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Burn-a-DVD-Video-disc
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Thanks for all the advice Stuart and others.
I am on Windows XP at home . I had no trouble whatsoever burning the disc so it plays on the PC.
So to help me if I use one of the free file converter softwares , forgive my ignorance on this but I do not know and need to know what format I am converting from (on the Flip video) and what format I have to convert it to so that it plays on the TV.
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If you make a Video CD or DVD one thing you will lose is image quality. You no doubt filmed in 720p and the best you'll get on DVD is a lot worse than that. Depends on the footage I guess if it matters.
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Don't forget to "finalise" what ever you burn if you want it to play on anything other than the machine which made it..
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To play on a regular DVD player, then you should author a DVD with one of the software packages mentioned above. Forget VideoCDs because the quality will be poor.
The Flip video will have recorded in MP4 format. This needs converting to MPEG2 in the process and the file and folder structure of the DVD created. MPEG2 files on DVDs are stored in files with a .VOB extension and are no larger than one 1Gb so there will probably be multiple files.
Creating a DVD with the right software is straight forward because you'll import your video file and the software will do the rest. It will take a long time if the video is of any length.
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Thanks rtj70 -
I am grateful for the advice given freely by all ( if a little confused ) .
So basically I have to convert my existing Flip wedding video files to
MPEG 2 from MP4 using one of the free software conversion packages and then burn the new format files onto a disc which should play on a normal DVD player to the televison ( or can I convert files via the software straight to DVD? )
I will download the software tonight and give it a try (if I have time) .......
If my understanding of your advice is wrong please let me know.
There is about 20 / 25 minutes of video so how long would you would expect the conversion to take?
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This particular Help section page on the Flip website may help:
tinyurl.com/26kv6zn
Flip website and Support link:
www.theflip.com/en-gb/
Also:
www.ehow.com/how_5662256_edit-flip-ultra-hd-camcorders.html
Keying "Flip video converters" into Google will bring a wide selection of links to help you if necessary.
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EDIT - the above link to "theflip" no longer works.
Details here
voolex.com/blogs/news/what-happened-to-theflip-com
=============
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 20 Mar 21 at 21:15
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DVD authoring software should convert the source video and create the DVD files for burning. Take a look at a DVD and you will see the VIDEO_TS folder with the content. The software should create all of this for you.
How long it takes to transcode an MP4 file to the MPEG2 format that DVDs use depends on how fast your computer is. It can take a fairly long time.
On mine, ironically, I can convert from MPEG2 DVDs to MPEG4 faster than the other way. No doubt because of optimisation in the programme I use for this.
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>> Thanks rtj70 -
>>
>> I am grateful for the advice given freely by all ( if a little confused
>> ) .
>>
Lets simplify it.
If you want to give this to friends etc.
You need to make a DVD, so you will need a DVD blank disk.
Then use any movie maker type programe (plenty of those around mostly free, - see MS movie maker) to make a DVD,
YOu dont need to bother with file conversions or understand about vob files or any of that crap, the movie maker prog will do it for you. Even if you buy one you are going to get lots of use out it now.
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::Thumbs up:: for Zero. Keep it simple.
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How do you do this?? - Zero
