Burning avi / mpeg to dvd or cd

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Level 1

9 points

Burning avi / mpeg to dvd or cd

Forgive my ignorance if this is the wrong forum, but I hope someone can help. I have an avi file that I want to play on a shinco portable dvd player. The player will apparently play avi and divx files. I have Toast but am unsure how to burn the file. Do I burn as a video file or a data file. If burning as a data file, it will burn, but won't read it. And if I try to drag as a movie file, it tells me it can't be imported because of a required codec could not be found. Both files will play in quicktime, but this is frustrating me. Can anyone help?

Imac G4 1.25 17inch, Mac OS X (10.4.8), Quicktime 7

Posted on Dec 15, 2006 12:37 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 15, 2006 1:20 PM in response to James Moss

Avi is a file format that is called a container since it can hold video or other media compressed in many different formats. You will have to read the DVD player manual again to determine just which compression type it will read and then determine if there is a codec for that type that works on a Mac. Not all avi codecs exist in a form for Mac but there is a chance that your DVD Player wants the avi to be encoded with the Divx codec and that is available for Mac.
Another alternative is to make a VCD CD disk. Many newer DVD Players will play those but again you need to consult the DVD Player manual. Toast Titanium is one CD application that can burn VCD or SVCD disks.

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Answer 2

Ricktoronto

Level 6

11,560 points

Dec 16, 2006 4:22 PM in response to James Moss

To use Toast you use the Video tab and select DVD video from the left menu and drag and drop the files in the big video window. If Toast will transcode them it will convert them to MPEG-2 and make a DVD for you. Keep in mind if you have a bunch of low bitrate 320X240 video clips they are going to look pretty crummy increased to 720X480 when written to MPEG-2 for DVD. Just a warning not to expect miracles.

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