I have a 470MB .flv file that I want to burn onto a CD-R to make it into a VCD that will play on a DVD player. EIEIO. So what format should I convert the .flv file into so that it will be compatible with DVD players?
Would it be better to burn it onto a DVD instead? That seems like a waste if the file is only 470MB.
When I had some FLVs recently I needed to burn to DVD Video, I used Vista’s Windows Movie Maker to transcode them, then Windows DVD Maker to actually burn the file. At that moment, getting it done quickly and for free were the two main needs.
Step-by-step here.
There used to be a well-traveled video hacking website that had forums covering every video conversion and hacking tool around. I can’t for the life of me remember the name nor find it; I haven’t needed a bushel of freeware and video hackware since I acquired the Adobe set for professional work. That would be the place to get a complete answer. (Anyone? Bueller?)
FLV is kind of a crappy format and can be difficult to turn into regular video without losing quality - for one thing, is it 30 fps, or a reduced framerate? Is it full 720x480 DVD resolution, or something smaller? You’ll need a tool to turn it into a standard format, like AVI or MPEG2, correcting the framerate and size at the same time. Any standard DVD creation tool can then be used to put it on a disc a DVD player can read.
I wouldn’t dick around with VCD and so forth; all that hacking was for video experimenters who didn’t have or couldn’t afford DVD burners etc. and wanted to use 30-cent CDs instead of $1.00 DVDs. Now that almost every computer comes with a DVD writer and software is plentiful, saving unneeded disc space is a pointless effort. Blank DVDs are what, a dime? Twenty-five cents?
Ninja’ed. This will work fine for the OP’s needs. I’m still not quite used to having utilities like this bundled free; they used to be prized hackerware. 
Many DVD players already recognize a lot of other file formats besides VCD when burned onto CD-R. Some players don’t play VCDs even if they do other formats on CD-R; You should check your player’s manual for what it supports. You might be able to just burn your file without converting it. If you have to convert it, that almost always results in loss of quality and/or video artifacts on screen.
If the only CD-R choice for your player is VCD, that means converting your FLV file to MPEG-1. A VCD can have a max of 90 minutes of MPEG-1 video, regardless what size the original file was before converting.
If your player can do SVCD, and your video is no longer than 45 minutes, SVCD is a better choice; that’s MPEG-2 and much better quality on screen.
If it’s a newer DVD Player (or you have a Playstation or gaming device), just put it on a flash drive. The newer units can already play .avis with .divx codecs and the like.
That’s what I do with… stuff…
Windows movie maker isn’t recognizing the file. I tried using handbrake to convert it into MPEG-4 but I didn’t get any video, only audio doing that. I can’t burn it directly onto a CD-R using Windows DVD Maker because the file format .flv isn’t recognized.
I can’t redo the video file to get a higher resolution, I am stuck with the low resolution 470MB file. I am wanting to make it into a VCD (or DVD) for my mom who is not tech savvy. So putting it on a USB drive is not an option for her, her TV is a CRT model.
The video length is 150 minutes. I can burn it onto a DVD if a VCD would not hold something of that length. I honestly don’t care if it is VCD or DVD, I have lots of blank disks of both at my parents house. I just didn’t know if it was necessary to burn a 470MB file to a DVD-R. But if the file is too long (150 minutes) I can use a DVD-R no problem.
Just use a DVD authoring software. There are so many..
The main trick is reading the .flv in first
And the DVD will get filled up, as the .flv is a highly compressed format, the DVD format will be less compressed…
You might use vlcplayer to convert the flv to an mpeg4 or mpeg2 format so that the dvd software can read it.
Damn, I forgot the first step, which was to use RealPlayer to convert it from FLV to WMV. I may actually have gone straight from there to DVD Maker. Sorry!
You can make a DVD with this, though in my experience .flvs can be a bit flaky.
Here’s the VideoHelp start page for VCDs. You can browse that site for software blurbs on converters, etc.
Back in the day when I made VCDs, I used VCDEasy. But given the time gone by and the type of file you have, there are presumably much better options for you.
If your player can play SVCDs, try that instead. MPEG2 and much higher quality. (But also less time available/disc, of course.)
(This all assumes a phobia against DVDs.)
I seriously doubt you’ll be able to encode an FLV of that size with a modern codec and have it fit comfortably on a (S)VCD, at least, not without majorly reducing the quality. The only way I’d bother putting it on a CD is if your DVD player can play DivX AVI files. For universal compatibility, stick with DVD.
As for how I’d do it? I’d probably use VLC to convert it. It comes with all the codecs, so you don’t need to get them separately. Convert to the MPEG2 format in whatever file format you want (MPG would be good) and then use a DVD authoring program to put it on DVD.