Articles - > AVI to (Xbox 360 compatible) WMV Conversion Guide

Title:	AVI to (Xbox 360 compatible) WMV Conversion Guide
Description:	This guides shows you how to convert your AVI/DivX/XviD file to a WMV file, with emphasis on Xbox 360 compatibility
Author/Publisher:	DVDGuy
Ease of use:	Beginners
Software Used:	K-Lite Codec Pack, Windows Media Encoder
Page Viewed:	342144 times

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Page 2 of 4: Installation

Step 1: Installation

Like TVersity, Windows Media Encoder (WME) is a bit fussy when it comes to loading DivX/XviD files. The steps below involving removing all your existing codecs and installing K-Lite Mega Codec Pack is one that I have tested and found to allow WME to load in DivX/XviD files, however your system may already allow this to happen without installing/uninstalling any codecs. So the general advice is to install WME, load a DivX/XviD file, try to encode it to WMV and if you get the "invalid or corrupt data was encountered" error, try the following steps involving K-Lite Mega Codec Pack.

If you haven't done so already, install Windows Media Player.

As mentioned above, to allow WME to load DivX/XviD files, you may need to uninstall all your existing codec packs and codecs and use K-Lite Mega Codecs Pack. This includes, but is not limited to, DivX, XviD, any codec pack, ffdshow ... everything. Don't worry about messing up playback, because the next step is to download and install the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack.

Start the installation process, and K-Lite will detect more codecs and filters on your system that it recommends you remove - do so and uninstall all the software it asks you (it will replace them with a set of codecs and filters that will be more compatible with WME).

K-Lite Codec Pack: Recommended Uninstall

When you get to the "Select Components" screen of the installation, select the "Default" profile.

Scroll down a bit to the "DirectShow video filter" section, and for both the "XviD" and "DivX options , select "ffdshow" to use it as the default decoder. Sometimes the DivX/XviD codec can get in the way of WME. You should probably check the "H.264" checkbox and also select "ffdshow" as the coder (see screenshot below), as this will allow you to convert H.264 files to WMV (although the Xbox 360 does have native support for H.264).

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack: XviD/DivX ffdshow

Scroll down to the "VFW video codecs" section and uncheck "XviD and "DivX" codec options.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack: Deselect DivX/XviD

You can leave the other options alone if you wish, since the default profile will cover most types of playback (mainly using ffdshow and Media Player Classic). Press "Next" on in the installer until you get to the "Select Additional Tasks" section, I would recommend not selecting the AVI or WMV formats under the "Make Media Player Classic the default player for" section - letting Windows Media Player handle these formats is better for testing purposes (to test if the source and output is at the very least playable in WMP).

As for the other options on this screen, if you don't know or don't care, then leave the other options as it is and continue with the installation process. Once it is done, you can test the playback of your DivX/XviD files, and they should play (in WMP or MPC).

For some extra checks, or if your DivX/XviD files no longer plays, do the following: From the start menu folder that the K-Lite installer created, select the "Configuration" -> "ffdshow" -> "video decoder configuration" program. Make sure your screen looks something like the screenshot below, specifically the "XviD" and "DivX 4/5/6" settings (set to "libavcodec"). Press the "Apply" button, close the configuration window and try playback again of your DivX/XviD file - it should play now.

Finally, download and install Windows Media Encoder version 9. The "Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile Update Beta" is also available, which adds VC-1 encoding support (VC-1 is used in HD DVD), but that's optional for this guide.

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Article Navigation:

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Installation <--
Page 3: Windows Media Encoder - New Session Wizard
Page 4: Windows Media Encoder - Encoder Setup

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User Comments:

i have followed the process, although on my klite mega codec pack, i dont have the "Decode the following video formats with ffdshow" option? continued with the process and once the file has been encoded, the new .wmv file is only 2 seconds long? have i missed something? and has anyone else had this problem? thanks

I was using Blaze Media Pro to convert avi files to wmv so I could stream them to my Xbox 360 but found that on most output files there was a two second audio/video sync problem. Very frustrating!.. This has solved the issue completely so I am delighted! Many thanks indeed!

This is Great, I knew nothing about decoding and haven't had any recent experience with video files. However, with this document, that I find my self refering to alot now, is a great, quick tourial for doing just that. Thank you to whom took the time to put this up. - Burnt Network Engineer kaorking

Great post, I have recently bought XBOX 360 and in the middle of giving it a try. I also played a little with the windows media encoder and found out that they have a command line tool, so if you have the entire season of let's say friends or 24, and you would like to convert it to wmv, you can do it in a batch mode. After you have exported your profile you should do something like: 1. open cmd.exe 2. Go to %programfiles%\Windows Media Components\Encoder 3. type 'cscript.exe wmcmd.vbs –input c:\friends_season1folderAVI -output c:\friends_season1folderWMV -loadprofile myprofile

I have followed this to the bone. However I keep getting an AUDIO CODEC error. what may I do to precent this?

faibs: You need to use gspot or mediainfo on your input file to see what kind of audio codec it uses, and then search google to download/install the audio codec

i have a movie in 2 parts ie 2 avi files, there are also 2 .srt files with the english subtitles. can i still use this method?

i was able to get this to work about 3 weeks ago. i reinstalled windows xp though and now there is a syncing problem with the audio and video after the second pass. with the final wmv file, the audio will start playing from the beginning, but the first 8 minutes of the video doesn't show up. my wmv file ends up 8 minutes shorter than what it should be. does anyone know how i might be able to fix this?

I have followed the setup of this site guide to the letter but after the encoding was completed i checked my .WMV and played it thru Windows Media Player 11 and i only had a file size of 6kb, i have Klite Mega Pack and Windows Encoder 9.8, i noticed on the WINDOWS ENCODING SETTINGS tab in the GENERAL tab, "media type...Audio "bit rate VBR" codec "windows media audio 9.1" i could only chose 9.2 would this make a difference.....can sum1 point me in the right direction here plz

I have done everything correcly, it looked great on my computer. But, its still not playing on my xbox 360. Do I have to get a certain DVD. I currently have a memorex dvd-r, 360 said it was unplayable I also tried to use a flash drive, but the 360 said I need to update my video through xbox live, which I do not have!! Can someboday please HELP ME??

ryan87: Not sure why your WMV file is unplayable on a DVD, but giving you a different error message on a flash drive. But let's try to fix the flash drive problem first - I think there is a video playback update available through Xbox Live that you need to install. The update is free and available to anyone with the free Xbox Live Silver account, so you'll need to find a way to connect your Xbox 360 to the Internet and apply the download (there might be other parts that need updating too). Fix the flash drive problem first and then if the files on DVD still doesn't play, make sure the DVD you've burned has been closed or finalized ("no multisession").