Media encoding/decoding/converting help

[ikickpigeons]

Well, i just bought an Archos av700, and in short its a portable digital video recorder, and it plays movies, music, and displays photos. Im really excited about this and im looking ofrward to using it. But this is my problem. All of my music has been ripped onto Itunes. So its in the acc format or whatever. My archos accepts mp3, wma, and wav. For video it accepts mpeg4, and avi.

1) So what programs should i use to to convert video files into mpeg4 and avi and what programs to convert Itunes music into wma, wav, and mp3?

2) Whats divix?

3) I have a large dvd collection and im looking forward into recording it into my archos player. How would i do this? Can I transfer dvds into my computer? If i can rip dvds onto my computer can i convert them into mpeg4 or avi files? Is this legal and am i going to get the motion pictures assoctiation crawling up my A$$.

4)Some of the features of the archos recorder/player is that i can record from tv. So when i record a movie or tv show, is there a way i can edit it so i can delete the scenes of commercials?

5) Is there anything else i need to know getting into this?


Thanks inadvance for the replies.

 

[MustISO]

Video Help

 

[ikickpigeons]

what about audio

 

[OCedHrt]

I've always wondered about these. If they play mpeg4, do they mean just divx/xvid? or do they support the mp4 container. I also find it weird that a lot of players play mpeg4 (i'm assuming mp4 container) but not support aac which seems to be the audio of choice for mp4 files anyways.

You're gonna have problems converting your itunes aac/m4p files to anything playable by your player. I think there is a software that can remove the protection and give you clean m4a files which you can then covert to mp3, but don't remember what it is called.

 

[Evander]

Luckily, everything can be done using free software.

For converting various video types (including dvd) to avi you should try Auto Gordian Knot (pretty easy to use) and/or Pocket Divx Encoder (i haven't used this one yet, but i will when I get a flashcard for my PDA). These programs use Divx or Xvid codecs, which are just different means of encoding mpeg-4 video.

I don't remember if these 2 will rip the dvd or not (a neccessary step to convert video- "ripping" removes the copy protection so that the files can be freely used). If not, the 2 hottest rippers are DVD Decryptor (recently discontinued, unfortunately) and DVD Fab Rebuilder (still going strong). Strictly speaking,In most countries ripping a DVD is illegal, but I've never heard of anyone getting busted for doing so if they own the DVD. Really, it's downloading/uploading on file sharing softwares or selling copies to others that can cause you legal problems, not so likely with making personal backups.

For converting audio files, my favorite software is DbPower Amp. I don't know much about ipod since i don't have one, but i think the software that removes the protection is called FairUse. But can't itunes be burned into audio cd format? If so, do that and convert the audio cd to whatever format you like. For cd converting, I like an app called CDEX.

Editing shows recorded by your device... Does not the device have some sort of feature to do that? Check the manual. Otherwise, you can cut commercials of an avi using a prog called Virtualdub.

here are some useful sites:
www.doom9.org (mostly concerning video converstion, good downloads section. may seem advanced for newbies but they have a newbies forum)
http://www.tv-cards.com/ (forums are very newbie friendly)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools (has already been mentioned, but this link puts you right in the tools section- LOTS of goodies can be found)

And by-the-way, it is possible to avoid ripping a dvd if you use on-the-fly decryptors. AnyDVD is popular for this (but costs money) and DVD43 (free) I think can sort of do it but I've never tried it. But if the conversion takes many hours, it's best to rip the dvd to your hard drive so you don't wear out your dvd drive).

 

[ikickpigeons]

ok thanks a lot fellows, and one last thing, when i meant my music on Itunes i meant the cds ive ripped onto itunes, I never bought anymusic from the online store. Does that make a difference interms of the protection thingy? If not, then i can just re-rip my music on windows media player.