WMV Files

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:07 am

Hey guys, I desperately need your help! I just made a pgsm video at the last minute for the music video contest at Animethon this year. The deadline is June 7. I made the video in Windows Movie Maker and the program always saves videos in WMV (Windows Media) format. I was wondering, can someone please explain to me how to convert WMV files into avi or mpeg files (so that I can get Nero to burn it onto a VCD)? Thanks!

Sailorasteroid · Post by **Sailorasteroid** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:25 am

Tricky. I believe Microsoft swung its weight around a while back and told the makers of every video converter to remove .wmv support from their products on pain of lawsuit. So your best options are to find a really old converter or, if you have the right kind of video card, output it to a video tape, then re-record it. I might be able to give help with either of these, if you need it.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:31 am

Sailorasteroid wrote:Tricky. I believe Microsoft swung its weight around a while back and told the makers of every video converter to remove .wmv support from their products on pain of lawsuit. So your best options are to find a really old converter or, if you have the right kind of video card, output it to a video tape, then re-record it. I might be able to give help with either of these, if you need it.

hmm. All I've got is a VCR and I don't know how to output it onto a tape. Initially, I wanted to make a VCD so that I could pop it into my DVD player, and then record on a tape. Is there a way to hook up your VCR to your computer?

Sailorasteroid · Post by **Sailorasteroid** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:57 am

Oh, you *want* it on a tape. Well, you need the right kind of video card, one that has an output to TV, which will either be through RCA cables (the yellow/white/red things you should have on your VCR) or coaxial (where the signal goes in from your cable or satellite). Any computer store will have one, and depending how much you spend you'll probably get TV input as well.

I don't think putting it on a DVD or VCD and then going to a tape will work; DVD players are set to dim the picture and the audio if run through a VCR, to prevent people from taping the DVDs they borrow or rent.

More bad news: I went and looked up the Animethon contest rules to see if they wouldn't just accept it in .wmv format--they won't. And there's another problem: you said it was a PGSM video. From the rules:"4) Videos must use at least 75% of anime content. Anime content is defined as any animated (ed. my emphasis) TV, OVA or movie originally produced and created in Japan. This includes the use of anime computer-generated animation in TV, OVAs, movies and anime related video games. The other 25% may be any combination of anime/animation, live action, original computer animation or special effects." I don't think they'd accept PGSM. Sorry.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:02 pm

Oh geez, you're right. I completely overlooked that part of the rules. It was still fun making the video though, even if I can't use it to enter the contest.

That's part of the reason why I wanted to convert the file, since they don't accept WMV format. Regardless, I still would like to try to convert the video into an avi or mpeg.

shansen · Post by **shansen** » Tue May 25, 2004 12:37 am

I just did a quick search, and came across this site:

http://fxvideoconverter.com/

It seems to do the job you want - I've never tried it, so I have no idea how good or bad it is.

There are probably others - just type in something like "convert wmv avi" in Google (without the quotes), and you'll probably come across more stuff.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Tue May 25, 2004 4:14 pm

thanks again for your help guys!

Sakuya · Post by **Sakuya** » Wed May 26, 2004 11:50 pm

There's a freebie called TMPGEnc that mainly converts AVI to MPEG for making VCDs and DVDs. I heard it can convert WMV to MPEG too.

http://www.tmpgenc.net

There is a free version. Download that and go to the Environmental Settings option. Go to VFAPI plug-in and right-click on where it says "DirectShow Multimedia File Reader" and select "Higher PRiority." Select that again and again the entire row is at the top of the entire list. Then it should work fine. I also heard from their forums that since WMV is so compressed, it's prone to errors. But it can't hurt to try right? Also, no spyware, viruses, adware, malware of any kind. It's my favorite converter program and it produces the highest quality stuff! Best of all it's free as long as you are not making DVDs.

RoastedTwinkies · Post by **RoastedTwinkies** » Thu May 27, 2004 3:51 pm

Sakuya wrote:There's a freebie called TMPGEnc that mainly converts AVI to MPEG for making VCDs and DVDs. I heard it can convert WMV to MPEG too.

http://www.tmpgenc.net

There is a free version. Download that and go to the Environmental Settings option. Go to VFAPI plug-in and right-click on where it says "DirectShow Multimedia File Reader" and select "Higher PRiority." Select that again and again the entire row is at the top of the entire list. Then it should work fine. I also heard from their forums that since WMV is so compressed, it's prone to errors. But it can't hurt to try right? Also, no spyware, viruses, adware, malware of any kind. It's my favorite converter program and it produces the highest quality stuff! Best of all it's free as long as you are not making DVDs.

I'll definately look into that. I already downloaded the fx converter and it works wonderfully. I burned my music video and it looks lovely on the TV screen. However, the fx converter is a trial version or paid version only, so I'll definately look into that once my fx converter expires.