resizing AVI results in no audio

[lsloan]

I'm fairly new to VLC, so I hope I'm posting to the right forum.

I have an AVI video that won't play in my cheap DVD player (via USB Flash drive) because the video resolution is too high. When I convert it to a lower resolution, I end up with an AVI that has no sound at all. I hope by describing what I've tried, somebody here can tell me what I've done wrong or what I missed.

I'm using VLC 1.1.6 on Mac OS X 10.6.6. The .AVI file I have has these characteristics (gotten with the "file" command at a shell prompt):

Code: Select all

file.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 800 x 432, 23.98 fps, video: DivX 5, audio: Dolby AC3 (5 channels, 48000 Hz)

I want to convert it to something proportional, with a width of about 600 rather than 800. All the rest I'd like to remain the same.

From the "File" menu, I choose "Advanced Open File..." Under the "File" tab of the "Open Source" dialog, I choose my input .AVI file. Down below, I check the "Streaming/Saving" checkbox. This is the only checkbox I selected. Then I click the "Settings..." button.

In the settings panel, I clicked the "File" radio button and gave a name for the new video file. I chose "AVI" as the "Encapsulation Method". That's all I've chosen in that "Streaming and Transcoding Options" section. In "Transcoding options" section, I checked the "Video" checkbox and chose "DIV3" from the menu. I left "Bitrate" blank and set the "Scale" to "0.75". I checked the "Audio" checkbox and chose "mp4a" (I had also tried "mp3" at one time) with a "Bitrate" of "128" and "4" in the "Channels" field. I click "OK" for the "Settings" panel, then "Open" on the dialog box.

VLC then does its work, but when I check the resulting file (using the "file" command at the shell again), I get this:

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vlc-output.avi: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 608 x 328, ~24 fps, video: DivX 3

There's no mention of the audio. And when I play it in a video player, there's no sound.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get the sound into the new video file?

Also, the resized video looks *HORRIBLE*. I'd like to fix that, too, but I'd like to settle this audio problem first.

Thanks in advance to those who can help me with this.

I've uploaded screenshots of the settings I chose in the dialog box and settings panel here:

- http://tweet.pho.to/40RDAN

- http://tweet.pho.to/kFhlT1

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC isn't the right tool. Use handbrake.

[lsloan]

VLC isn't the right tool. Use handbrake.

I'm surprised that VLC can't do this. It's capable of so many things, I thought it would be perfect for this, too.

I've just given handbrake a try and it won't do the job, either. At least, not easily. I've an AVI input file that I want to resize/scale and I need the output to be an AVI, too. (It's what my DVD player can handle.) Using handbrake, I can only get an MP4 or MKV file. I've used another tool to convert MKV to AVI, but then I believe the quality will degrade further and it will take yet more time.