The Lighthouse - convert any video to .wmv format

	Convert any video to .wmv format

Hi...... This conversion can be done in many ways and this is one of them. The basics of this conversion can be applied to other input formats or outputs, so it's quite universal. We are going to use VirtualDub and its cousins depending on which format the video file have. The editing and applying of effects will be done in this program and the encoding will be done by an external encoder, in this case WMNicEnc. The output will be a video file in the .wmv format. Personally I don't like Microsoft at all but what can you do…. The final video file is nice to have as a streaming video in you site, the visitor can watch the video while its downloaded and they can decide weather they want to download the video clip or not. I have some html examples at the end of this guide. I mainly use Mozilla Firefox as a web browser so the html code is optimized for both IE and Firefox. Inside this guide there are some video clips to guide you thru the conversion process and they are marked by an icon. The video format is in 'Shockwave Flash Object' format and this requires a plug-in to work together with you browser. And finally all the programs we using are freeware.	The input can have many different formats and there for there are many different options in this guide. You don't have to install all programs but if they are needed do so. Here is the list of the programs, if you want more info about the programs choose the info icon. Program List VirtualDub V1.6.19 VirtualDubMod V1.5.10.2b2542 VirtualDub MPEG2 V1.16.15 Avisynth V2.57 AC3ACM v1.31 DivX V5.11 ffdshow b3 rev1324 20070701 clsid XviD V1.1.3 Panasonic VFW DV codec GSpot V2.70a Project X V0.90.4.00 ImagoMPEG Muxer V1.0.1.0 Nic's Windows Media Encoder V1.02b Avisynth Batch Scripter V0.5.2 Here we have some different scenarios. 1) I have a video file from my DV camera. Install Virtualdub ffdshow Panasonic VFW Codec Avisynth Nic's Windows Media Encoder V1.02b	2) I have recorded a video clip from DVB-T, DVB-S or I have ripped a DVD clip. The video file must be demuxed and this can be done with Project X. The input file can have the format .ts, Or other type of transport stream, it can also be a .vob file. The output will be a video file in .m2v format and the audiofile(s) can be mpa or .ac3. These files must be muxed together into a .mpg file and this is done by ImagoMPEG Muxer. Install VirtualdubMOD AC3ACM (If you have DD audio .ac3) ffdshow Avisynth Nic's Windows Media Encoder V1.02b 3) I have downloaded a .wmv file from the internt. If the file contains wma audio pro you must convert it to .wav format before encoding. There are certainly programs that converts this type of audio, but since Microsoft are very fund of nags and other un user friendly stuff, so I don't know of such a program.There is one way thou. Load the video clip with the program Windows Movie Maker and save it as a DV file. The audio will be converted to 2ch .wav 48kHz format. This requires a lot of hard disk space because the video is saved with a data rate of 25Mbits. After the conversion you must extract the audio from the DV file. This is done with VirtualDub.

Install VirtualDub MPEG2 AC3ACM (If you have DD audio .ac3) ffdshow Avisynth Nic's Windows Media Encoder V1.02b There can certainly be other combinations of different video formats but I think I have covered the main area of video formats. If not do a search at videohelp.com As I said in the beginning, this conversion method is quite universal because as long as the VirtualDub programs recognize the video and audio format, the video clip can be converted. The encoder must not be a WMV encoder it can be of an other type. The codec pack ffdshow can be a 'must' have, but only if the video file isn't recognized by the program. So always try to load the video clip and see if the Virtualdub program recognizes the video file before installing ffdshow. If you can't load the video file install GSpot and load the video file with the program. The program will tell you what type of video and audio you have. After you have installed all the softwares you must install the frame client that the Virtualdub programs will use. This installation is only done once, it works for all the other programs. Open the library where the VirtualDub program has been installed Now when the avi frame client is installed we can start the conversion process. Open a Virtualdub program that can load your video clip. Edit, modify or deinterlace and then start the frameserver.	Now we are going to create the .avs script which we will load into the encoder. There are many ways to create this script. You can use notepad or other text editor, but I prefer to use Avisynth Batch Scripter. It's quite easy to use and it can also be used in other situations. The script is created. Start Nic's Windows Media Encoder and open the .avs file. Now we have a video file in the .wmv format and we want to use it on our site. Here is an example of how it can be done. The video file will open in a small window on top of the website GUI. We are using java script and html code. If you want to view the video file using Mozilla Firefox V2.xx under XP & Vista you will need Windows Media Player plug-in. If you are using XP and have Windows Media Player V10 installed, you are lucky. If the program starts to ask you about upgrading to V11. DON'T UPGRADE. If you upgrade, the first time V11 is started you will be asked if you want to connect to Microsoft's server so they can check if you have a genuine copy of XP. Do you not verify, this question pop up every time you start WMP. There are some ways to get around this problem, but if you don't have a genuine copy beware.. Here are two html examples the first must be in the main html document and the second is called within the main html document. Here is an example how it can look like when its finished.