# Changing video file types

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 25, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399 "2003-06-25T23:46:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399/1 "2003-06-25T23:46:55Z")

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Are there any good programs for converting between the various video file types? (mpg to avi or wmv, especially)

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**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399/2 "2003-06-26T00:03:08Z")

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[Virtualdub](http://www.virtualdub.org/) is a great piece of software, I’ve been using it for years. It will accept mpeg1 as input and will ouput avi/divx/whatever codec you have installed.  
If your input file is mpeg2 (like what you’d get off a DVD), there is a modified version of virtualdub that will handle that. All this and more can be found at [this page.](http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tools.htm)

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**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399/3 "2003-06-26T01:00:52Z")

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VirtualDub is great for making AVIs. To make MPEG files, try [TMPGEnc](http://www.tmpgenc.net).

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/changing-video-file-types/184399/4 "2003-06-26T01:28:39Z")

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Comprehensive step-by-step guide:

[http://www.dvdrhelp.com/convert](http://www.dvdrhelp.com/convert)