can i rename .avi to .mpg?

TheWart

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2000
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i have some taped episodes, some o which are in .avi form and some in .mpg form. my question is that when i rename the file extension back and forth, the movie still plays, and doesnt seem to change quality. is there any problem down the road if i change the file extension? i use wmp 8 in xp to play them either way.
 
 

Shudder

Platinum Member
May 5, 2000
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just because you change the extension, doesn't mean you change the codec it knows to use for it. You could change it to .xyz and associate that with WMP and it would still play.

Some players might fudge it simply because they know a certain codec/set of codecs is for just .avi, some just for .mpg, etc.

My question is, why're you changing the extensions?
 

TheWart

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2000
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thx for the tip. um just because i am an orginization freak and want them all to be the same when i view by file type :) .
 

kylef

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2000
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If you are following the specifications, I don't believe that the two file formats are compatible. If WMP 8 is able to play the file regardless of its file extension, then it's a "feature" of WMP 8 and not a result of the fact that the files are interchangeable.

.AVI files begin with a header that informs the player what decompressor to use; .MPG files are always assumed to use MPEG I or II encoding. Unfortunately, Mpeg-4 movies use an encoding that is not backwards-compatible with MPEG1/2 and therefore now use the .AVI extension with a header specifying the new MPEG4 codec.

I would leave the file extensions alone; many players use the extensions to determine the file type. Unless you plan on using WMP 8 forever, in which case...

 

MGMorden

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2000
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They're not the same thing. The program looks at the headers so it still plays but you're really messing up by renaming them. Certain programs can take AVI's as input but not MPG's (and vice versa). If you rename all of them to .mpg how do you know which ones are avi and which are mpg?