How do I convert video formats?

[Dave Ronyak]

Does anyone have experience in converting video formats, and burning videos to a disk?  I am trying to share some videos with a friend who only has a corporate-provided PC (running Windows XP) which is setup to prevent him from going directly to the internet source to view them.

I downloaded some videos, mostly through YouTube and saved them in .FLV format (Real Player).  The downloaded files run without any problems on my Dell Inspiron E1505 PC (running VISTA Home Premium OS) using Real Player.  I copied / burned them to a CD  (CD-R) using the software provided by MS.  I have confirmed that the files on the CD will run without any problems on my PC.  But my friend cannot view any of the files.

I openly admit I do not know what I am doing, I just kept trying until something worked on my PC.

Is there a particular copying software that I should use?

Any ideas you may have to bridge the differences in software and file formats are appreciated. 

If/when I get a better digital camera, I'll likely have similar questions to enable me to post videos using Festool products.

Thanks in advance for your help

Dave R.

 

[tbellemare]

Dave:

Does your friend have Real player installed?

Tom

 

[mwhafner]

Dave,

Often companies severly restrict the media capabilities of the PCs that they deploy to end users.  Mine is certainly that way.  Depending on how restricted the machine is, you may be able to load Portable Apps on a flash drive.  It includes VLC Player and MPlayer Portable that will play most video formats.

As you are finding out, video formats can be pretty difficult to work with.  There are many standards, file formats, etc.

Snapfiles can be a great source for free utilities to convert, edit, and play video (as well as 100s of other free programs).  Look under Multimedia, and the programs are categorized by function.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Dave:

Does your friend have Real player installed?

Tom

Yes.

Dave R.

 

[daveg]

Actually, I believe FLV is Flash Video. As such, it would require to have a Flash Video player installed.

Editorial note: I'm not sure I'd encourage a friend to put personal videos on a company owned PC unless I knew the company didn't have a policy against doing so.

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

Dave,

Get your son to run them through iMovie on his mac and he can output video that will work with Windows player of Quicktime....

Best,
Todd

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Actually, I believe FLV is Flash Video. As such, it would require to have a Flash Video player installed.

Editorial note: I'm not sure I'd encourage a friend to put personal videos on a company owned PC unless I knew the company didn't have a policy against doing so.

I totally agree.  Real Player runs flash video.  The videos are on a CD I made for him.  I downloaded them from the internet using my PC which I bought.  I have no employer but myself.

Dave R.