I have Vista x64 and I'm trying to burn .avi files to DVD-R so we can watch them on our DVD player.  Every time I try to burn a movie from my video library, I receive an "unsupported file format" error.  I've updated Media Center via Windows Update, I have what it seems to be a bazillion codecs/decoders, etc...  all to no avail. 

Any help on this would be MUCH appreciated!

demented.darling:

 I have Vista x64 and I'm trying to burn .avi files to DVD-R so we can watch them on our DVD player.  Every time I try to burn a movie from my video library, I receive an "unsupported file format" error.  I've updated Media Center via Windows Update, I have what it seems to be a bazillion codecs/decoders, etc...  all to no avail. 

 

Any help on this would be MUCH appreciated!

Dear Demented,

If what you want to do is make a disc that will play in a stand alone DVD player, then the files have to be in DVD format. To do that you need DVD Authoring software such as Roxio, Nerovision, etc. What that does is change the AVI file to MPG and put them into VOBs and then insert them into a VIDEO_TS folder. There are also many files that are built by the software (IFO, etc) which carry the instructions to the DVD player as to aspect ratio, sound, etc. Also the program will build menus, etc although you can set it up to by pass all that have have it play when inserted--but you can add lots of stuff and make DVDs that are just as good as professionally produced.

But you can't just copy an .avi file to a DVD and play it in a set-top player. You can do that and play it in a computer just as you could a dvr-ms file or other video formats such as mpg4 h.264 etc.

John

John,

Thank you SO MUCH!  I have a program that does the conversion with the option of converting .avi into either DVD or .mpg.  Can I choose either format or is one better than the other?

 Thanks again,

Carrie

If you want to play in stand alone players, then do DVD. There is a special file structure that the DVD player looks for before it'll play even though the files are mpeg 2. (VOB's have a specific layout and size and are called by the IFO files).

John

Sorry, but I have to pick your brain just a bit more. I looked further into the conversion program I had, and it was only a trial version, so a huge watermark would be placed right in the center of the movie.  I just don't want to go blow $$ on something that I may not need after all.

My husband has Vista and Windows Media Center and he's able to burn .avi files to DVD-R without a problem and play them on our standalone DVD player.  Could it be that I have Vista x64 and he doesn't (he really doesn't know if he has x64 or not)?  I looked at the properties of the videos he's already burned, and they are all .avi format, not DVD.  

I'm just getting frustrated...

I think if the DVD player is Divx compatible (some players require a firmware update, or that the DIVX features be unlocked) it will play Divx encoded AVI files. I remember my first ultra cheap Apex DVD player would play just about any video format you put in it.