ASF Help

[Lord Leviathan]

I have a file that is a .mpg that I would like to burn on to a vcd but it is giving me problem after problem . The fist thing that happened was when I tried to use VirtualDub to extract the wav file I got an error about the file being an ASF file format and could not be ripped . I then decided to use a wav recorder and just recorded the whole thing by hand.(that worked just fine .) Then I tried to recompile the video into a vcd format with TMPGE and it started ok but then after the thing was finished I previewed it and found that after about 25 minutes the video stops on one frame but the audio keeps going . The original file plays fine. Any help or ideas would be appreciated .

[dap OLD werewolf]

OK, I need more information. In the beginning you say that you have an .mpg, so why are you trying to convert it in the first place? Or is it that you are trying to convert an svcd to vcd, or dvd mpg to vcd. Because .mpg is already vcd (or svcd or dvd). I don't really understand what you are trying to do, because if it's already a vcd there's no reason for you to even put it in VDub or TMPGEnc, all you need to do is burn it as videocd if it's vcd or supervideocd if it's svcd. Of course you need to find out which it is, and instead of writing everything down here, I suggest you visit and read two pages, the first will give you information on how to find out what format your file actually is using GSpot:
http://www.rita.LT/video_tools/help/gspot.htm
If it really is an .mpg (and you confused me by saying that VirtualDub told you it was .asf, which is not .mpg, so perhaps the file you have is misnamed?) then before burning it you need to find out whether it meets the requirements of a standard vcd/svcd/dvdmpeg. If not, the file won't play on your standalone when burned. MPEGs have strict standards and must be of a certain frequency, bitrate, framerate etc. You will see the stats of the file you have when you get GSpot and check it (from the link above). The link below will give you a chart where you can check if your .mpg meets the standard specs for what it's supposed to be:
http://www.rita.LT/video_tools/help/mpeg.htm
Here you can find more info on burning and converting to mpg if you need it:
http://www.rita.LT/video_tools/help.htm

Aside from all that, when you say that the video stops and the audio keeps going, it sounds like a bad frame in the video. My gut feeling says that your original source may not be an .mpg but an .asf (perhaps misnamed?), and one that has problems. So it would really be good if you could give me more information about the source file that you have.

[Lord Leviathan]

First thing is that Nero will not let me burn the file as a vcd or svcd. After looking at it with GSpot and a number of other apps. I have found that is a .ASF file after all with a MPEG-4 video at 256kbps bitrate (I could not get the framerate) and WMA audio at 20kbps/20KHz. Now after reading the second link you gave me I know that the bitrate is rather low for the video and audio but is there a way for me to encode the file so that it will have the same bitrate, framerate, so on, as a svcd or vcd so I can try to burn it since VirtualDub will not do it for me. The last link you gave was informative but had nothing about .ASF files encoding. My roommate said that someone told him it could not be dun, but I know if there is a will there is a way. Thank you.

[KM]

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/asf2avi.htm

no doubt you can go from asf directly to mpeg, but i just did a quick google - that tutorial will convert to avi which you can then convert to mpeg

[dap OLD werewolf]

Yes, the link above that KM gave you will allow you to convert the asf to AVI and then you can convert to vcd or svcd with TMPGEnc (or Nero, but in my opinion TMPGEnc is better). asf is an old microsoft codec and is more or less obsolete now, and many programs aren't allowed to support it.

Just a suggestion, buy an mpeg4 (AVI) compatible stand-alone dvd player and you won't have to convert AVI to vcd or svcd anymore to watch on a standalone (well, 98% of them).

http://www.rita.LT/video_tools/help/standalones.htm

[Lord Leviathan]

Well that ASFtools got it to a avi file but I needed to install a MP43 codex to get it to convert with TMPGEnc. After doing so I did loose some video quality but it was not the best to begin with so no complaints there. All in all I have burned it and am vary happy with it all. I would like to thank you both for your help and information.

[dap OLD werewolf]

You will almost always lose quality converting, especially to vcd. Svcd would be a better bet, but the best would be, like i said, to keep everything as avi and just buy a stand-alone that supports avi (mpeg4) playback. You can get them for $60 USD these days...

And you're welcome