Conversion of FLV file to MPEG or AVI format ?

[w3tno]

The web site http://www.texta.tv/texts/german/ANN..._fickdichF.htm contains a flash video presentation, which I want to convert to mpeg or avi format. I have copied the flv file from the IE temp file folder to a local folder on one of my drives. The file has the extension flv, and I can view the file by using Moyea FLV Player, and the quality (both video and audio) is excellent.

My TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress program, while it purports to be able to read flv files (presumeably files with extensions of flv1 and flv4), can not open the file. Can someone point me towards a solution, even if it does not involve the use of TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress.

[w3tno]

Earlier I had reported that TMPGEnc 4.0 did not read a flv file, but in my latest attempt TMPGEnc does indeed read a flash video file which has been down loaded from YouTube.

I use YouTube Downloader http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/ to download the flv file to a folder on my computer, and then encode the file to a preferred format with TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress.

[admin]

I actually went through a lengthier process, to create the highest quality version possible from the mediocre source FLV. I'll share the whole method here shortly. I've gone so far as to convert it to a menu-less DVD ISO image that you'll be able to download and burn to DVD-RW/+RW and view on television for visual inspection.

TMPGEnc Xpress 4 may work here, but it's probably not as high a quality as what I did. I mostly used freeware too.

[w3tno]

Well, I will be most interested in finding out about your technique. You are right - the final product produced by TMPGEnc was not that good quality, but the flv file may have been poor quality to begin with.

[admin]

I've still not had time to write out the guide, but I was able to upload the ISO files, both the PAL and the NTSC-converted one.

• You'll need to use WinRAR to "unzip" the RAR file, and an ISO will be extracted.
• Burn the ISO to a DVD-RW or DVD+RW using ImgBurn
• Watch on television. I viewed these on my 20" EDTV 4:3 LCD, and it looked pretty decent, all things considered. Youtube is sort of bottom-of-barrel source, so I would consider this conversion a success.

The files are at:

• PAL (73MB) @ http://www.digitalfaq.com/downloads/samples/FLV-PAL.rar
• NTSC (80MB) @ http://www.digitalfaq.com/downloads/...s/FLV-NTSC.rar

The motion on the NTSC one is quite good, but if I over-analyze it on the setup used, it was not as smooth and fluid, being 23.976 with pulldown. A progressive-scan player may do better than the older one I used. It was fine on the computer, watched in VLC or Gom Player.

The DVDs are about 4 minutes long, and will loop the video, with no menus. Just insert the disc, and it auto-plays.

[admin]

What language is she singing, by the way?

[w3tno]

I downloaded the RAR file, unpacked it with WinZip and used ImgBurn to burn a rewritable DVD-RW (2X) disc. ImgBurn took about 15 secs to format the disc and then wrote the ISO image. Perhaps it was because I had Verify checked, but after the write task, ImgBurn got hungup with a status bar message about sychonizing buffers. I could not open the drive door until I had rebooted my computer.

I used PowerDVD on my computer to view the presentation, and it was excellent. I then tried to view the DVD on my JVC DR-MH30 progressive-scan DVD Video Recorder, which is hooked to my TV set. The JVC device displayed a message telling me that the DVD should be formatted, so I could not view it on my TV.

In any case, I appreciate your taking the time to convert the FLV file, and I would like to see a brief description of the procedure, including software, you used to produce the ISO file.

[w3tno]

The language is German. The artist is Danish, and there are both Danish and English versions of her "presentation." For the English version of the lyrics see http://www.sweetslyrics.com/527928.A...%20You%20.html

[admin]

This sounds like a simple problem with your DVD-RW/DVD+RW, not the ISO, burner or ImgBurn. The burn failed. Very typical. Try again, maybe with another disc. If you can "waste" a DVD-R/DVD+R, it may be easier for a preview test.

[admin]

It's been a couple months since this post. I initially didn't post my guide because it was a round-about and semi-confusing mess that worked, but I knew there had to be an easier way -- one with less steps and less variables to potentially get in the way.

You need a few basic tools, and you'll be able to quickly and easily open an FLV (Flash Video file), edit or filter as desired, and then export and encode to a MPEG for DVD. Conversion from PAL to NTSC is also optional.

1. Download the FLV Input Plugin (also attached to this post, for your convenience). Inside this ZIP file is the file "FLVInputDriver.vdplugin" and the folder "FLVInputDriver", both of which need to be installed in your "C:\Program Files\VirtualDub\plugins" folder.
2. Download FFDSHOW and install it (also attached to this post, for your convenience). This is an codec engine that helps Windows open more video formats, be it VFW or DirectShow based. Once this software is installed, it should add a new folder to your Start menu Programs (or "All Programs") folders. Find it, and then start the "VFW Configuration" utility. This will launch a new program, where we need to make some settings changes.
   • Specifically, click on the DECODER tab, and then on the item labeled CODECS. See the image below.
   • Find FLV1 and VP6F, the Flash Video codecs, and be sure these are set to use the LIBAVCODEC. If they are disabled, double-click on the word "disabled" and a drop-down box will appear, allowing you to change it. Click APPLY and then OK.
3. Use VirtualDub version 1.8 for your video work. (As a convenience, I have attached my current install, which has the aforementioned VirtualDub plugin, plus many others, pre-installed.) Simply extract this file to "C:\Program Files\VirtualDub18" (or replace your current VirtualDub, by installing it in the "C:\Program Files\VirtualDub" folder -- either way).

ffdshow-vfw-config.gif

Notes:

• Some of the attached files are archived with ZIP (use WinZip) or RAR (use WinRAR) -- both have freeware "evaluation" editions available. Windows can natively open zip files.
• This method has only been tested with true FLV Flash Video files, not H.264 files wrapped in MP4 container and renamed "FLV" for play compatibility. To use H.264 may require some settings be tweaked in ffdshow -- or better yet, use SUPER to convert the H.264 to a HuffYUV file first, then open that inside VirtualDub.
• For PAL>NTSC conversion, follow this guide http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...t-pal-ntsc.htm -- note that you may need to export the audio separately from the FLV (full processing mode) in VirtualDub, and then convert the video with no audio.
• To encode to MPEG, you may either export to HuffYUV or uncompressed AVI first, and then re-open this file in an MPEG encoder --- or you can frameserve from VirtualDub to your favorite encode (such as TMPGEnc, Procoder or MainConcept), by installing AVISynth, and renaming the .VDR VirtualDub frameserve file to a .AVS before saving it. You'll then open this .AVS file in the encode, and it should frameserve okay. Ask questions in a new post, if any. It sounds more complicated than it really is.

Hope that help.

[w3tno]

Thanks for posting that excellent write-up. I followed the installation steps and things seemed to go smoothly. However, a few comments:
1. I am using 64-bit Vista, so in your instructions where "Program Files" was referenced, I instead used "Program Files (x86)".
2. The program VirtualDub's help file would not work correctly until I ran VirtualDub once as Administrator, and then the program was able to change the chm help file so that Help would work properly.
3. In step 3 of your instructions you tell the user to extract the VirtualDub version 1.8 files to "C:\Program Files\VirtualDub18", but on my browser (IE7) it appears as if there are embedded blanks between the characters 'b18'. I spent some time trying to figure out if these embedded blanks were meant to be there or not. Later, it became clear to me that their presence (or absence) was immaterial.

[admin]

Yes, good points...

• I really like the fonts used in this forum, but it appears IE7 does not always space the number "1" very well. I use Firefox 3, Goole Chrome, IE6 and IE8, so I actually never noticed it. Very weird. You are correct, it really does not matter what it is named, I just added "18" behind the folder name, so I could retain version 1.5 on my machine.
• I didn't even know VirtualDub came with a help file. I've always read the online documentation -- assuming I even needed it. Thanks for the notes.
• Correct, 64-bit OS needs the (x86) folder.

Vista can be a bit of a pest with installing the HuffYUV codec too, if you've not already crossed that bridge. I can make a post on its installation, if needed.

It sounds like you were able to follow the guide pretty well, install what was needed, and hopefully even process a FLV for yourself. Good job.