How to convert DivX to wmv, perfect conversion

04-07-04, 01:33 AM

While I was experimenting a bit with converting videos for play on Pocket PCs, I came across a method for quickly and easily converting DivX movies to wmv format without any synchronization issues. What's even better is that you can get a decent quality of movie into about 70 MB.

All you need is your DivX movie and Windows Movie Maker (the one that comes with Windows XP).

Just drag and drop the DivX movie into Movie Maker's main window (you can click cancel when it starts to make clips) and then drag it from there onto the film strip at the bottom. Once the movie loads into the film strip, goto File and Save Movie. Choose medium quality and click ok. It will take about 15 minutes to convert depending on your computer's speed.

Once the video is converted, just copy it over to the Axim and it will run perfectly in Windows Media Player.

This method is much better than using Windows media encoder which almost always un-sync's video and audio, not to mention the smaller filesize is much more practical for a pocket pc device

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated and welcomed.

HighTymes · 04-07-04, 04:19 AM

Coo man, i will try that when i get a chance.

Thankz

Odie2004 · 04-07-04, 07:41 AM

Took about an hour for me (P4 1.7 Ghz)

The medium setting is only 15fps, and there is a huge sync problem.

It's a shame, but it did sound a bit too good to be true. (2 hour movie into ~80 MB)

Just now for vids for my X3i I'm using DivX files which are pretty high quality and are just under 2 MB per minute. I'm going to try and experiment with some settings and see if I can make them smaller without sacrificing quality too much.

- Odie

dr_bob · 04-07-04, 08:30 AM

I had exactly the same problem , everything seems to work ok , but the movie file seems to go out of sync very quickly when you play it ...

04-07-04, 11:22 AM

That's really strange...i've had no problems with sync whatsoever...maybe you could try giving the movie maker process high priority to make sure it isn't interupted? I'm running a 3.06 ghz machine, so that might be the difference, but it's strange that people are experiencing sync problems...maybe certain divx codecs don't work as well as others...?

Odie2004 · 04-07-04, 11:54 AM

I think the sync problem might be related to the fact that the setting is fixed at 15fps while the divx might be 25/30 fps.

Also, the quality doesn't look very good at all, lots of artifacting.

- Odie

04-07-04, 01:57 PM

I still can't figure out why the problem is happening with the sound, all my DivX files work perfect...i will try converting files that use differnent codecs and see what that brings. It doesn't have to do with framerate, because the wmv file format compensates with the artifacting...

As for the low quality, it is a side effect of the lower framerate but it still is a great option if you're going on a long trip and want to fit 4-5 movies on one 256 meg mem card.

04-08-04, 02:22 AM

Ok, after trying a few different DivX movies, I finally found the problem *i think*. It seems that this method only works with files that use variable bitrate mp3s. Meaning, when you right click on the original .avi file, choose properties and then goto summary, the audio bitrate must be 127kbps. It has worked with 4 movies with this setting, and none with any other settings. I'm not sure if there's an easy way to change this, but it will stop you from wasting time on movies that won't turn out in the end.

dr_bob · 04-08-04, 06:48 AM

cheers for the info , will check that out tonight, by testing a few movies ..;

slapshot52 · 04-08-04, 05:45 PM

Ok, tried this over night and had horrible sync problems! We need to find a way to make this consistently work, because the picture and sound qualities are good (and great for the file size!), we just need to get them together. I did go back and check my DIVX files and they all had an audio bit rate 160 kbps. I own the content and have original .vob files. What tools do you guys suggest to reencode them at 127kbpse audio bit rate?

bigds63 · 04-09-04, 05:36 AM

Why not keep the video in divx format and play them with PocketMVP on your PocketPC? Go here to see how to do this BigDs Video Guides

Odie2004 · 04-09-04, 06:39 AM

Big D, I think the reason Mike007 posted this is because of the exceptionally small file sizes.

I've not yet experimented, but what sort of DivX re-encoding settings will give a similar filesize ?

- Odie

bigds63 · 04-09-04, 10:31 PM

Odie,Its pretty much like you posted above, you can expect the video to be between 1.5 - 2.0 mb per. min. of video at the settings with in my guide, but you can take that size down by adjusting the video bitrate from 224Kbps to say as low as 150Kbps, just depending on the quality/size that you want. Its just something you will have to play with until you get the outcome you want....Also as you probaly already know, taking the audio bitrate down as low as you can will make the file size much smaller to .I have some sample video that you can download and play to see how they play on your PPC using the settings I suggest.

04-10-04, 11:19 PM

I took a look through Big D's guide and it really is a good guide for converting to DivX. The 1.5-2 meg per minute file size is also nothing to scoff at, but I think I've found a method to combine the two techniques and end up with a properly synched .wmv file that is only about 0.7MB/min.

I will do a few more tests tomorrow and give the instructions when I'm sure that it all works.

04-12-04, 02:10 AM

Ok, i've found a single program that will both sync the video properly and keep the same small filesize. http://www.simtel.net/product.php?ur...uct_page=58950 The software allows you to import DivX movies and export them to wma or avi. For the output file, don't choose pocket pc, but instead choose "Video for email and dual-channel ISDN(128kbps). This gives the same small filesizes but takes quite a bit longer than the other encoding. Hope everyone has better luck with this one :)