TechLifeWeb

Quite often I need to convert video from various formats to xvid. I do this to bring video with me on my Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player. Additionally, my Media Server can also stream xvid files to my D-Link DSM-520 HD Media Player so I often transcode video podcasts to xivid. I have been doing this with batch files and Mencoder for a long time. Recently I decided to make it easier and more flexible and build a GUI front end to Mencoder to make it easy to mix and match settings. This makes it much easier to use since I don’t have to re-script the whole thing or maintain several batch files.

My new utility is called My-Xvid. It can be used to convert files from mp4, m4v, mov, mpg, flv, vob or dvr-ms format to a Xvid (Divx compatible) avi.

MyXvid.zip (13MB)

MyXvid.zip (mirror. Use if the above doesn’t work)

There is nothing to install. Just unzip the file to a folder and run my-xvid.exe. The speed will depend mostly on the size file your are trying to convert and the horsepower of your CPU. High definition video takes a LONG time, just let it run.

Notes on usage:

Help button: Displays this information.

File to convert button: Use this to locate the file you want converted to xvid. When you choose your file, a file of the same name but with the avi extension will be put in the Name of output file box.

Folder to save to button: Use this to locate a folder to save your new xvid into.

Name of output file: This gets automatically filled in with the name of the input file and the extension of avi but you can change the name if you like.

Dimension options:
Do not resize: use this to keep the output set to the same dimensions as the input

Resize to standard TV: This is only useful if you have a large file (such as one from an HDTV source) that you want to save down to standard TV dimensions. Trying to upscale a small file is possible but might look very blocky depending on the source file so isn’t recommended.

Resize to small: Useful to scale down for a portable player.

Audio options:
Keep AC3: This is only good for vob or dvr-ms that contain an AC3 source.
Convert to MP3: Converts the audio to mp3

Quality options (NOTE: These do not apply to VOB files so don’t worry about it):
Best: sets some optimization for higher quality but is slower. How much slower depends on your computer.
Medium Quality: General use. Faster.

Start Conversion button: Once you have everything set, click here! If your source was dvr-ms the program will first quickly mux the file to mpg then proceed with the conversion to xvid.
When the process is done you will get a message box letting you know your avi is ready.

Enjoy your video!