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General discussion

Media types?????? avi,mpeg,WMV,mpeg4,, confusion!!!!!

Jan 22, 2006 8:54PM PST

AM I the only one out here who needs a discussion and understanding about the various media file types!!!! I am totally confused when it comes to this. It started when I purchased an Archos AV500 portable media player and am attempting to download recorded TV shows from my media center pc. It seems to me that there has to be an explanation of all of the types and how to convert (decode) them to be compatible with the different devices out there. It appears that each vendor, Apple, Microsoft, Sony is trying to make their media only compatible with their players with no way to interchange them to play on other devices. My view is that if I PURCHASE something from somewhere, I should have the tools to play it on my chosen device.

Discussion is locked

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Googling for explanations and/or tutorials will eventually
Jan 23, 2006 12:41AM PST

answer all of your questions. If the hardware vendor doesn't supply the proper conversion software, the content provider (DVD publisher, etc.) cannot be expected to do so.

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I know just how you feel...
Jan 23, 2006 9:52AM PST

but it's call business.."I'll lock you in if I can"!

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Try Nero 7 Ultra....
Jan 24, 2006 4:51AM PST

no10ken,

What are you using to burn recorded TV to DVDs? The format of the recorded TV is DVR-MS which is a Micro$oft proprietry thing. The only thing I found that works reliably is Nero 7. There is some freeware out there (DVRMSToolbox, DVR-Edit, DVR Ripper), but I couldn't get Toolbox to work at all, and I gave up on the others when I found an append to a forum that stated they had some (repeatable) success with Nero. I sent an email to Nero support and they said it was not supported and suggested the freeware I listed previously. I think I need a better answer from Nero's tech support, but I haven't had time to ask them yet.

Let me know what you found that works.

Cheers,
John

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showbiz dvd will translate dvr-ms files
Jan 24, 2006 6:27AM PST