Convert .wmv to .mpeg
 

Does anybody know of software that will allow a .wmv file to be converted to an .mpg? I don't believe it can be done in Premiere.

Michael

It can be done in Vegas. Not sure it is necessarily a good idea, but it can be done.

Premiere 6.5 has its on MPEG encoder built in---Just save your project, go to Export and chose Adobe MPEG encoder.

David, the problem is that I can't import a .wmv onto the timeline to create a project.

This isn't for me, so I'm not sure what the purpose is, but somebody asked me if I had a way to do it, so I thought I'd ask the experts here. Thanks for the replies.

Sorry, I misunderstood---

VirtualDub might read it. If it does
you can convert it into an AVI and then to MPEG. The problem
with formats like WMV and RealPlayer etc. is that they are way
to much propriatary formats. I don't think any program reads it,
but VirtualDub might. There was once an old version of VirtualDub
which could read a format (WMV?) that it had no license for.
Therefor later versions can't read it anymore.

Just to be sure that it worked I converted a short .wmv file to mpeg1 using Vegas.

The output looks OK, not quite as good as the original, but OK. The problem is that Windows Media (wmv) is highly compressed to start with, so converting it into another compressed medium may or may not give you the results that you are looking for.

How large is the file that you need converted?

Rick

Sometimes Vegas wont read those files correctly.. I've used
"tmpgenc" and it works every time...

http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main2.html

/Andreas

Thanks guys, that should give him a starting point. According to his email...

"I'm interested in this because I'd like to offer videos on both formats so it's less likely that a person would have to install another app to view the video. I did learn that MS makes WIndows MEdia Player for Mac, however, so that kind of eliminates Mac ppl not being able to view wmv files."

I'm not sure that the editor he is using creates mpegs, so that may be why he's asking. It may be as simple as using an editor that has the appropriate codec. Thanks again for the replies.

Michael

The format wars get very tedious.

One recommendation - whatever your friend does have him convert from lower compression to higher compression formats, not between highly compressed formats. Going from avi to wmv or mov will look much better than going from wmv to mov or mpg.