Korean Job Discussion Forums

mytime · Joined: 15 Oct 2006

This is driving me crazy.
So I download a movie in say, .avi format.
How do I burn it onto a dvd so that it will play on my TV's dvd player.
My TV's dvd player can play .avi's but obviously just burning an .avi to a disc creates a data disc that doesnt play on tv dvd players.
So how do i burn it to make it playable WITHOUT transcoding the file?
Your help is greatly appreciated

Gatsby · Joined: 09 Feb 2007

Get another DVD player?

If it "can play" AVIs, but can't play AVIs, it can't actually play AVIs, right?

This assumes you know how to burn a DVD. And set it to close it after burning. Such a disk is just a data file type disk, nothing special.

Ummm, you aren't burning this as a video DVD disk, are you? That's only for stuff like on commercial DVDs.

Now, there is one other possibility. There are two types of DVDs, DVD-R and DVD+R. Perhaps your DVD player only plays one type. Or perhaps your burner isn't really designed to burn the type of disk you are using. So, just go to EMart or whatever, and buy one DVD of the other type and try it.

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

FWIW, another option that may be easier is to take a downloaded AVI movie file, transfer it to an MP3 player/ipod and plug the USB into your DVD player or TV. We do that. Works like a charm!!

wormholes101 · Joined: 11 Mar 2003

samd · Joined: 03 Jan 2007

If your TV really does play avi flies, then a data disc should be fine. It will show up with meuns and whatnot.

If not, Convertxtodvd works well, but is a bit slow. If you're lazy and have a spare 50,000won or so, just fork out for a cheap chinese dvd player from Gmarket or Yongsan that will play any disc ever burnt or made...

ed · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

as I recall, many years ago when I had a dvd player that played avi's I simply burned an avi movie to a regular cd and played it.

you don't need to burn it to a dvd

mytime · Joined: 15 Oct 2006

wormholes101 · Joined: 11 Mar 2003

Not all DVD players are able to play avi and mp4 files. But if the DVD player you have can play some avis but not ones of your own creation, then there problem is probably in the codec of the avi. (rather than the way you are burning the DVDs) You should be buring them as data files, which you are doing.

Do you know about codecs?

blackjack · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: anyang

Easter Clark · Joined: 18 Nov 2007 Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong

mytime · Joined: 15 Oct 2006

Thanks again for the help but the discs I buy on the street are in fact avi's, or dvd's with avi files on it anyway..
When I open the disc on my computer it shows the different avi files on it.
It looks exactly the same as if i take that files and burn them onto a disc using my normal windows program, except mine cant play on my dvd player.
So, yeah i obviously dont know know how to burn it to make it play on dvd players.
(Thanks for all the other advice btw but I like having it on discs.)

Gatsby · Joined: 09 Feb 2007

Blackjack has some good advice.

If you have a laptop, you might have an SVHS output. If your TV has SVHS in, you could buy an SVHS cable and play your stuff through your laptop.

However, it seems like any TV less than 27 inches in Korea only has minimal inputs.

You could get an external LCD monitor to hook up to your laptop and watch movies that way at a reasonable price. I don't own a TV, in part because there are no English language channels where I live. Aside from no CNN, I don't miss it. There's tons of stuff online.

For example, livestation, as a substitute for CNN.

http://www.livestation.com/

Back to the DVD player.

(Ummm, why are you buying DVDs with AVIs on them on the street?)

Perhaps you need a real CD/DVD burning program and learn how to use it.

Try this, burn4free:

http://download.cnet.com/Burn4Free-CD-and-DVD/3000-2646_4-10217894.html?tag=mncol

It looks complicated, but the key stuff is simple.

Add your AVI files to be burned, burn as a data disk, burn at less than full speed. Close disk.

When all else fails, burn to a CDRW, if it fits, close and play.

If you need a new DVD player, I suggest you look into one of those portable DVD players with screen. They cost a bit more, but you can take it with you when you move, and they play a lot of different types of files. The good ones have USB and hard drive inputs, and you can hook them up to a TV like a regular DVD player.

wormholes101 · Joined: 11 Mar 2003

mytime · Joined: 15 Oct 2006

Gatsby · Joined: 09 Feb 2007

My guess is you were trying to burn the avi files to DVD using the DVD-Video setting. You only use this when creating or copying video DVDs, which include VIDEO_TS and VTS files within a VIDEO_TS folder. Once you select this setting, Nero will create an empty VIDEO_TS folder, and you put the individual files in there. But if you put AVI files in there, I don't think your DVD player would find them.

There are some other options, including UDF. But you should stick to the DVD-ROM (ISO) setting.

If you do copy movie DVDs, you can read them by installing DVD43 on your laptop. This will bypass the region setting, which is important so it will not end up locking your drive on the Korean region setting.

But let me give you a little bit of advice. When I first got here, I burned a bunch of AVIs to DVDs. But I found that they could not always be played; sometimes one or two would not play out of several on the disk. The slightest error can screw up file retrieval for data stored on DVDs. And the problem can get worse as the DVDs age. The use of the wrong marking pen might cause errors, too. I have a bunch of DVDs with files I can't play, even on my laptop.

DVDs were not designed for data storage. One of the formats (DVD-R vs DVD+R) is supposed to be a little better, but I don't remember which.

Your best bet is to save your AVIs and MP3s on an external hard drive. When you want to play them on your DVD player, burn them to a DVD-RW or CD-RW. Then you can erase it and burn new AVIs later.