Hey guys, everytime I ask a tech question around here I usually get great advice so here goes again.

I'm just looking for a simple, free, user friendly program to convert various type video files so that I can burn them to a DVD for viewing on my DVD player/TV/stereo system. Any help would be great. I have DVD burning software but it doens't convert the video files first.

That's in advance to the ever helpful org.

Yeah, with every program i use. It's always bitching about a missing plug in in order to burn it!

funkycat00 said:

Yeah, with every program i use. It's always bitching about a missing plug in in order to burn it!

Lol.

I can burn them, I just can't convert the files to be able to burn to dvd.

What DVD burning software do you have? I have Nero. Mine version has an option to convert most files to DVD-Video files. I've used "Any Video Converter" as a stand-alone converter but it does not burn DVDs. I first need to convert the file to an .mpg (mpeg) and then I can make a DVD from it with my burning software. Whatever program you use the conversion process from beginning to end is very long; conceivably 3-4 hours. Because of the time factor, it's not something I do often. If viewing PC videos on your TV is your ultimate goal, you may want to get a DivX certified DVD player, which allows you to play, mainly, .avi and .wmv data discs. Data discs don't take nearly as long to burn because you're not converting files. Another plus with data discs is you can put something like 12 hours of .avi files on a standard DVD without any loss in quality. Also, some DivX DVD players even have a USB slot enabling you to play files directly from a portable hard drive.

Thanks for all the info.

I have a basic Nero version but it does not convert video files so that you can burn to a dvd. That's the problem I'm having. I also have DVDfab8 but I don't think that will do what I need it too as well. It's great for backing up dvd's though. So I guess I just need a stand alone dvd converter program?

My end goal is to burn video files I have to a dvd to watch on my home theater sytem.

[Edited 2/24/11 16:14pm]

http://www.videohelp.com/convert#4;62

I haven't converted anything in awhile, but I used to use TMPGEnc and Cucusoft. Most of these software is not free though, but you maybe able to find them somewhere on the net.