Software to convert AVI movie? What Formate?

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1

I have a number of AVI movies that do not play on my SMP.  I also a number that play but are “jerky”  or out of sync.  The movies play well with VLC or Media Player on my WinXP PC.

I am looking for a good software package to convert the AVI movies.  I am willing to pay a few $ for a good program.

 1.    What software do you suggest ???

2.   What format is best to convert the AVI file to ???

2

I’ve always used Handbrake.  It’s free.

If you’re just looking for playback on the SMP, then MKV is probably a good choice.

If you need device compatibility for mobiles, in particular, MP4 / M4V is a good choice.

3

I use Staxrip but apart from Tony’s suggestion there also is MeGUI, RipBot264, Hybrid, XMEdia Recode… all of which are free.

4

If you want to play the AVI videos on our computer smoothly, then MP4is the best format for you to choose. Get a third party program, like Brorsoft Video Converter to help you to do the conversion work. 

5

If your avi’s play well using VLC Media Player it might be worth converting them to MP4 using the ‘convert/save’ option in VLC’s file menu. VLC streams the media and records that stream, it’s not a straightforward conversion which is why I say if it plays well it will probably look good once converted.

If you haven’t tried using VLC for this purpose before there’s some quite good tutorials on the web which might help though it’s quite easy. Failing that I tried ‘handbrake’ myself the other day and was pleased with the results.

Best of luck! :smiley: