I'm trying to send an avi movie file to a friend of mine in Japan so she can watch it on her computer. I would have just burned the file onto a DVD as an MPEG, but her home player will not play R or RW DVD's. So to do this,I need to do two things. One, I need to shrink the 975 MB avi file down to below 700 MB's so I can fit it onto a CD. Second, I need to edit in subtitles. I haven't had much luck with one piece of software I tried, CyberLink PowerDirector. It's a great program and I was able to load the subtitles, just fine. However when I went to click on "Produce or "Create Disk", everything crashed. I may not have had the right patch in it though, so I may try reinstalling it. I also have Ulead MovieFactory Plus which will also edit in subtitles, however, this program appears to just be geared for burning onto DVD. No editing or shrinking then saving onto the hard drive. I really think this can't be that hard to get completed. I think adding the subtitles is the hardest part, but I have already downloaded the srt file, so I just need a good install program first. Even nicer would be a program that installs the subtitle and then burns it onto a CD or allows me to save it to my hard drive as an avi file. I should mentioned, I've also tried some of the smaller third party subtitle utilities without much luck. But then all of this messing around with the subtitles will not do any good unless I can shrink this thing to fit on a cd! I'm very much looking forward to hearing some suggestions.
Try AGK. Select 'Input File' AVI source. Press 'Ctrl F8' to bring up the hidden menu to select external subtitles'. Choose the .srt file. Create an 'Output File' folder. Choose a Custom size for the output (700MB). Click 'Add Job' then 'Start' The subtitles will be burned into the video (non switchable). Burn the AVI file to disk with Imgburn http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/autogk.cfm http://www.afterdawn.com/software/cdr_software/cdr_tools/imgburn.cfm
You could just put the srt in the same folder and your friend would have switchable subtitles. If you are not on dial-up, and if your friend also has a broadband internet connection, I would just upload the file to a media storage site( MediaFire for example ).
Hey attar, cypresrom, Thanks for your replies. Well I knew there was a chance of this happening. You know how whenever you post a thread on a topic that you have very little experience on, you get either, no replies back or close to too many? Well, I'm close to that but I'm complaining! I'm just trying to digest all of this! You see, some folks over at www.videohelp.com also sent me some suggestions. One of them also was AGK, so I've downloaded that. I also downloaded ImgBurn, but I am concerned as to if it will work on Vista. It is not listed on the download page. I was also recommended to try VirtualDubMod. To get that to both shrink my file and add the subtitle though, I have to also install vobsub. Finally, someone else recommended AVI ReComp, which sounds the most promising solution so far, because it will supposedly do everything for me. So like I said, I'm grateful that I'm getting lot's of help, but at this point, I'm getting close to being overwhelmed! I mean, I've always just been an audio guy on my computer, up until about a month ago. Then I decided to dive into the whole world of movie downloading and many people were quite helpful in getting me started. In the process, I downloaded, but have actually only tried a few, of what must be about 20 different video programs! For example, like I mentioned, I have CyberLink PowerDirector and Ulead DVD MovieFactory, both fairly expensive programs, installed, but it's a shame to find out that neither one can do what I want in this little situation with the subtitle and the shrinking. I also have all kinds of video converting software that I haven't even used yet, and now all of these smaller programs that people have recommended to me from this site and videohelp over the last few days. So what I need to do now is just start trying some of these programs out, so that, in the future, I will know what program works best for me. But it would be nice just to have one or two of the same types of programs, that do everything except vacuum for you! Also, while this thought is still fresh in my mind, I need your thoughts on how I should best burn this avi file to a CD. What I mean is, once I get my subtitles on and shrink my file, should I save the edited file back to my hard drive, then burn that standalone .avi to a CD, so that my friend could just either execute play on WMP from the CD, or copy it to her hard drive and play it back from there. Or should I simply burn the whole "movie" to the CD, so it plays automatically when she inserts it into her computer, just like when a movie is burned onto a DVD. The reason I ask is that all I have been dealing with over the last month or so, is burning avi files onto blank DVD's where they turn into MPEGs for playback on a home DVD machine. I have not even gotten into burning video on a CD yet. I also have one other concern. If I go with AVI ReComp, it supposedly will compress the file to a smaller size using XVID, but will she be able to play that back on her computer or will she need a codec for it. I'm also concerned here, because many of the avi files that I have on my hard drive were already compressed using XVID, so by compressing them again, won't that mess things up? As you can see, I still have many, many questions about video, all due to my lack of experience in this area. But thanks again for your help.
Burning an AVI to a CD is the same as burning any other data file. Windows XP allows you to drag and drop onto a CD. Recompressing the file down to fit the CD using AGK will not lose much in the way of quality if it's being played back on a PC - in 'Custom', two passes are made (which is why it's best left to run overnight). If your pal can play AVI/DivX/ files with WMP then there must be a codec installed - if not, then install Media Player Classic. It doesn't need external codecs. The avi file can be dragged onto its Desktop shortcut and the program uninstalls from the Control Panel without leaving bits behind.
If you have Divx installed, it will play your Xvid encoded video. And vice-versa. If your friend doesn't want to install either, just have her get VLC as it doesn't need any outside codecs and plays a large variety of video types. Keep your problem in one thread, don't multi post.
