.avi's .mov's .mpeg's ?

[Pastis]

I'm sure someone will be up on this sort of stuff ... 

I recently edited a video that I'd taken on my old Canon compact, put a new soundtrack on it, exported it as an .avi file, burnt it to a DVD and sent to a mate ... He can't view it; he can only hear the soundtrack 

Aren't all these formats cross platform compatible? I've also got some .mov's that someone has sent me that I have to convert to .avi's before I can see them in full 

It's turning out to be a bit of a 'mare 

[Nick]

 

I blame Bill Gates

[tel]

Erm - it's a minefield.

Sound is usually ok unless someone uses same strange exotic format - v unusual.

Video - much more complicated - tis all about "codecs".

Codecs - code/decode - there are thousands of them. If you send something to somebody and they don't have the matching codec installed, it won't werk properly.

That's the explanation, not the answer. 

[Pastis]

Thanks Tel; at the very least you've confirmed it's not me 

[Darwins Selection]

I messed about with converting old camcorder film in the past to share round the family.

I found the only consistent format everyone could see and hear was WMV, but that may just have been luck

[Pastis]

You're in advance of me DS; we'd managed to put the old 8mm cine onto video but that's as far as we got. This, more recent reportage was taken using the compact camera's video / movie functionality. I shall have to persist 

[Just One More]

I had a similar problem a couple of years back, Divx worked for me, see here

[Grumpmeister]

The set up I use is the K-lite codec pack as it contains everything you will need and then some

http://www.codecguide.com/download_mega.htm

And GOM Player for media

http://www.gomlab.com/eng/

If you do want to convert movie file formats then I'd suggest either Super@ or Format Factory.

[tel]

If you have trouble playing video files then try VLC - plays just about anything.

[Darwins Selection]

If you have trouble playing video files then try VLC - plays just about anything.

I have that. 


 
JOM will like the little traffic-cone icon.

[Snoopy]

Oooo ! OOOO! I've got one of those on my desktop screen ~ I wondered what it was.


I shall go and play with it now!

[Snoopy]

That's COOOOOOOoooooooooool! 

[Pastis]

Thanks for the input 

VLC I have and yes, it works for all manner of things. I use AVCWare Mac Video Converter to change the format of audio and video but still perplexed as to why my pal couldn't see the .avi file. He said he's going to try a few different ways over the weekend so will wait.

[Grumpmeister]

Avi files are commonly encoded using DivX or XVid so he is best checking those first. 

[Pastis]

I think he just bunged it in the DVD player when he saw it was a DVD; he's going to try playing it on his PC which may work ...