Getting WMVs to play on a home DVD player for free?

I've been trying to work out how to do this.


Apparently, you need to convert to an mpeg-2 video file, and then use a DVD authoring program to create the specific files that a home dvd player uses (apparently these are a slew of files, like ifo and vob or whatever).

I've found some programs on download.com that claim to make mp2 files, and some free dvd authoring programs, but none of the authoring programs will accept the converted mpeg video files, I tried mp2, mp4, and a generic 'mpeg video', but nothing seems to work, they all want an 'mp2 video format' to be put into them.

Anyone have any luck with this kinda stuff? I don't want to purchase a program that does this, I want to use freeware for it.


I am on Windows XP btw.

I have never tried it that way because my DVD player reads my MPEGs.

In any case, a site that I use when I need something related to video is this one.

Try it, it has always been my salvation when dealing with video problems.

Funnily enough Armap, I came across that website previously, its definitely helpful.

It looks like the big issue is finding a combinatin of programs that actually works for your system, most of them say that they can do everything, but I found that they just don't produce good products, the audio gets screwed up on playback, or the dvd doesn't burn properly, or it just does, but then doesn't play, etc.

A DVD player that plays mpeg2 video would be great, BUT, I don't think that mine does, and I need to send copies (these are basically home video) to other people, and who knows if there's will properly read a DVD-r disc with an mpeg2 video on it.

So I wanted one that re-creates the format of a DVD that you'd rent at a video-store. Apparently these are 'vob' and 'ifo' files and the like.

I was able to have success eventually, to get a DVD that would play properly on my home DVD player.

I should add that I wasn't able to get a DVD menu at this point. The program says it can make them, but I didn't want to mess around with that, I just wanted something that would work.


Let me just breifly outline what I think needs to be done (and anyone that sees any glaring errors, please chime in), because I found the process a little confusing, and I think it will be helpful to anyone else trying this to have a basic outline.

So to do this, I will say we are starting off with a computer video file, in my case it was a .wmv file. Other types may be .avi and the like.

So you need to:

1. Convert, with many programs wanting you to convert to a mpeg2 video, and then working with that to make the .vob and .ifo and other files for the DVD video
   
2. Create an ISO image, which as far as I understand it is sort of like an virtual 'image' of the 'grooves' or picks in the phsyical dvd, as opposed to the files being stored as their own seperate data files
   
3. "Burn/Author", many of the programs that take the .wmv and process it, resulting in the .vob and IFO files don't actually write the DVD, so you use a seperate program to burn the ISO image and generally set up the DVD to be readable

So I was able to get a program called DVD Flick. With this program, I 'add' my .wmv to it, and then I can set some parameters. The program claims it can burn the DVD, but I didn't have any success using it to burn it. You can set it so that it creates an ISO image, and then burns it, or not, and other settings, so I had success by just having it create the ISO image.
DVD flick you can get from here:
www.dvdflick.net...

To burn, just dragging and dropping the ISO image into the DVD writer drive didnt' work. So I used a program called "ImgBurn" to select the ISO and burn it.
Imgburn you can get from here:
www.imgburn.com...




If it wasn't clear, this had all started because what I had are DV tapes. The tapes were sent to the computer via a 'fire wire' (which requires a special card), and thats where they are set as the wmv format (from a selection of formats).


The long and the short of it is perhaps that, if you are buying a new movie camera, best perhaps to get one that writes directly to DVD. Seems it would be easier to play that DVD in your computer or on your home player, than to muck around with all this other crap.

Of course, on the other hand, if you wanted to make copies of your direct to dvd home movies, you'd have to do this anyway I think.

So there it is, for anyone else struggling with this.

[edit on 27-2-2007 by Nygdan]

I use winAvi Video Converter.

www.winavi.com...

With this program you can convert a WMV file to AVI. Then Convert the AVI to dvd structures and then burn them with Nero.

Then pop in dvd player and voila.

I may be missing something, but I have several programs, but use "Windows Movie Maker" most often.

It's simple and efficient.

It reads most files and makes decent DVD's

Semper