I have downloaded a movie and burned it to DVD. I can play the dvd on my computer but it won't play on my DVD player so I can watch it on my TV. I have just discovered that I need to convert the files to mpg2 in order to play it on my stand alone dvd player. Can someone please advice me on how to convert the files before burning? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Some burner apps will do the conversion for you. eg: Roxio or the latest Nero versions. If you have an avi or mpeg1 file, they will do the necessary conversion before they begin the actual burning process.

As for other converters, well you can check these places out: 1. http://www.videohelp.com/
2. http://www.videohelp.com/tools 3. http://forum.dvd-guides.com/

The info you gave me is great - thank you so much. However, for someone like myself who is new to converting and burning, the info in the links you provided is a little overwhelming. The roxio and nero you mentioned - do they have a free trial version that you know of? I live in Thailand so programs like you these are cheaply and easily acquired. What do you think of programs like windows movie maker or DVD architect version 2? Will they convert and burn? Sorry about all the questions.

It is an avi file - I don't know if I need to convert it to mgeg2...just something I've read. Any help would be appreciative - Quite simply, I just want to convert the file so I can play it on my DVD player which is attached to my TV...as indicated above. I can play it on my computer without any problems.

I don't know about windows apps. Converters vary in their quality & may depend upon the users skills. For apps such as I mentioned their converters are reasonable (not the best but acceptable/reasonable & have preset control so there's no user mistakability.)

Are you trying to create a vcd, svcd or dvd? My impression from somebody I know is that svcd is not always recognised in all players in Thailand & that dvd's not yet highly available or popular. The question is also then is what the particular dvd player brand or model capable of!? Some players can play dvd-r's but not rw's or +'s but not -'s or don't like particular brands of dvd or don't like the way some comp. softw's format some dvds.

If your player is capable of playing rw's then it's usually best to 1st do many trials until you can find the best of all your steps of pre-formatting & burning & media, etc.


I forgot to mention, only the 'full' versions will give you the luxury of video conversions! I hope that answers your question. Just make sure your version is as recent as possible!