Converting Videos (MP4) - nothing so far...
Non .Net content to follow. Normal proramming will resume after this post.
In a previous post, I lamented about the fact I cannot convert my MP4 video files created on my PDA (XDA IIs) into anything useable (tjhat includes sound!) that I can burn to VCD/DVD. Well I still have not had any success, and it seems neither have many other people, but I have learnt a lot about making VCD's/DVD's so I thought I'd share.
Using free software requires a bunch of software to put it all together. I have listed most of them below.
1. When making a DVD, use DVD-R discs, instead of DVD+R. Dont know why, but only a few players would play DVD's I made with DVD+R discs. My XBox wasn't one of them. When I burnt the same ISO images with DVD-R discs, both my XBox and all the DVD's I previously tested on worked.
2. To make the video, I used either Windows Movie Maker or Photo Story. Both are great apps and did what I wanted. There are many better commercial offerings but these apps are great value and produce some great clips.
3. Get yourself a copy of CDBurnerXP Pro. Its free and is worth it just for the help file. Its simple and gets you up and running easily.
4. Get yourself a copy of DVDStyler. Again its free, allows you to create DVD menus but more importantly, seems to re-process/sample the MPG/video file that is created and basically makes it work. I had many difficulties playing the completed DVD when I didn't use this program to re-process the MPG/Video file so now I put some menu on regardless.
5. Get a copy of TMPGenc. You can convert to/from many different formats, and has preset templates to convert to VCD/SVCD/DVD in various formats.
6. If you dont use the CDBurnerXP Pro I mentioned above to burn the actual CD/DVD, get a copy of DVD Decrypter. This does a great job of DVD burning, and for the more DVD/VCD technicaly savvy, has about 1 million options you can fiddle with. For me, I load the ISO file, press the button to burn the disk. Done.
So my initial quest of converting some of my videos from my PDA is still unsuccessful, however I have taken a sidetrack and will be porting some of my large digital photo collection to viewable DVD. I am still hopeful on finding something and will post any success I have here.