Convert an AVI file to DVD

I've got lots of stuff in AVI format on my comp...movies, music vids, digicam/handycam vids...blah blah..... And quite often, I want to watch these movies on my TV rather on on the 17" monitor screen. Now, the new DVD players in the market support AVI format file playback. So, you can just make a data CD/DVD with the files you wanna watch. But, the older players just play normal CD's & DVD's. They are incompatible with AVI files. But, no sweat! There's a very simple & FREE way of converting your AVI file into a DVD so that you can enjoy it on your TV.

First of all, we need a video converter that'll convert the AVI file to DVD format. I've searched around the net a lot and I've found a couple of good converters that are also free. I've listed them here-
1.DVD Flick - Download it from HERE

2.Avi2DVD - Download from HERE

3.SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer ). Download from HERE

Besides AVI, these softwares can also be used to convert files of other formats.

You may find many other converters (Xilisoft, Cucusoft, ConvertX) if you google for them, but, most of them will be shareware or trial which will convert only a certain percentage of the file or have a time limit or have a watermark on the output file. After a lot of searching, these were the good softwares I've come across.

I've illustrated the actual conversion process using DVD Flick which I find the simplest to use.

1. Download and install DVD Flick from the link I've provided above. Launch the program.

2. The main window looks like the pic alongside. At the bottom left corner, choose the directory where you want the final DVD format output file to be stored. Now, at the top right corner, click on 'Add Title'. Browse for the AVI file on your hard-disk and press OK. I would recommend burning only 1 file on 1 DVD if its a movie file [700MB]. Its not advisable to burn more than 800MB on 1 DVD because when the software converts the file to AVI format, the 700MB file automatically gets bloated up to a 4.2GB file.

3.You can edit the file by selecting it and clicking the 'Edit title' button which is just below the 'Add title' buttuon. Now, the properties window will be displayed. Use the tabs to change any properties you want.

General Tab: Allows you to set aspect ratio [choose 4:3] and create chapters.
Video Tab: Add/remove videos
Audio Tab: Add/remove audio tracks
Subtitles: Add subtitles
Edit anything you want here and there click 'Accept'

4.
Once, your done editing, click on 'Project Settings' on the toolbar at the top.

Now, you will be provided with another window-

I'll explain the tabs here-
General Tab: Choose the size of the DVD you're gonna burn to. [normally its 4.3GB]. Leave the encoder priority at 'Normal' if you want to use the computer for other work while converting. Else, you can change the priority to 'High'. [This will use lot of RAM]
Video Tab: Here, you just need to decide whether the target format should be PAL or NTSC. In most cases, its NTSC. The best way to see this is if the video runs at 25 frames per second, it is PAL & if it runs near 24 FPS or near 30 FPS it will be NTSC.
Audio Tab: Let the target format remain at 'Auto'
Burning Tab: Here, you can choose whether you want to burn the converted files to a disc or not. If you choose to burn to disc, DVD Flick will automatically author you a DVD. Otherwise, if you select 'Create an ISO' then an ISO format file will be created and stored on your hard-disk which you can later burn using a software of your choice like Nero.
Once your done, click on 'Accept'.

5.Next, in the main window, click on 'Create DVD' which is right next to 'Project Settings'. That's it, your done! Now just let the encoder do its work. Conversion is normally a lengthy process and will take a couple of hours.

Once the DVD is burnt, you can watch it on your TV. Enjoy!

Tweak Windows XP look to like Vista

I was particularly bored of XP. My eyes bled every time I looked at it! Like every other geek in the world, i jumped for joy when Vista was launched, but, quietened down just as soon, coz I heard about all the problems with Vista. I didn't wanna mess up my PC with Vista. Anyway, I decided that I really liked the Vista look. So using some free software, I've managed to give XP the Vista look completely.

Now, there are two ways to do this-
1. Using the shell packs like Vista Transformation Pack. This software automatically converts XP to Vista,but, lots of users have sworn that it'll mess up your computer. So I'm not really in favour of this. Still , if you wanna check it out, head over HERE
2.Using MS-Styles. this option is relatively safer and it'll not damage you comp at all. It basically consists of some small softwares that will give you the Vista look altogether. I have explained this method below.

Here's a screenshot of my desktop- the standard XP look -

OK, lets start!

To make XP look like Vista, you basically need to change the following stuff on the comp-
- The basic theme (which includes the vista windows, fonts, start button, etc.)
- Icons (like My Computer and My Documents)
- Transparency
- Sidebar
- Wallpapers, Screensavers, Vista sounds, Mouse pointer, etc.

1. In order to apply any new style to XP, you first need to patch up uxtheme.dll
Download it from HERE. 'uxtheme.dll' is a patch for the latest Windows XP Service Pack 2 to enable third party theme usage.

Then download and install another software called Skinny from HERE
Use skinny to patch the uxtheme.dll (the first download). It's easy, you just open Skinny, locate the file, and follow the steps on the screen.

2.Then, download the theme from HERE or HERE. It includes the basic Vista theme.

Open the theme [i.e. the Windows Visual Style file which has extension *.msstyles] and windows should now recognize it. Just double click and apply it.
Or copy it to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes and then right click on your desktop and select 'Properties'. Go to the 'Themes' tab and select the theme from the drop down list and apply it.

3. For icons, first download and install Icon Tweaker from HERE
Then get the Vista icon pack from HERE
Now open Icon Tweaker and use the 'Install Theme' option to search and install the Vista Icon Pack. Then simply apply the theme.This could take a little while, but it's worth it.


4.To get the transparency effect of Windows Vista, download and install Glass2K from HERE.
Glass2k is a small little program that makes any window transparent. Right-click on any window or press the keyboard shortcuts (Control + Shift + [0-9]) to make any window transparent. It's that simple.
Above, there's a shot of how you can literally "see through" the windows using Glass2K.


5.Now for the Vista sidebar. Download and install Thoosje's Vista Sidebar from HERE.
It has gadgets like media players, google search, yahoo search , weather and system uptime and lots of more useful gadgets. Here's a screenshot of the sidebar-


6.Next, we gotta get the Vista wallpaper. I've uploaded some nice wallpapers HERE.
Alternatively, you would find lots of neat walls if you google for Vista wallpapers.

Get Vista Screensavers from HERE. Just download the above file and unzip the scr screensaver files in your Windows installation directory [defaults to C:\Windows\SYSTEM32] . The instructions to customize the various settings of these screensavers are mentioned in the text files attached with each Vista screensaver.

For the Vista cursors, download the Aero cursor pack HERE. Just read the read me file supplied and enjoy.

7.To switch between windows [Vista style], get the Windows Alt-Tab Replacement PowerToy from HERE. With this, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page.

And your done! Now you can start celebrating! You could actually fool anyone into thinking that you've got Vista on your comp now.

Here are some screenshots of my desktop after I finished tweaking it -

This ought to keep you busy for awhile!

Please leave your comments.