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What is a good (preferably free) program that can convert MPG to AVI, for Windows?

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Why do you need it as an AVI? It would probably be simpler/faster to just install the appropriate (mpg) codec for whatever you're trying to play it with –  mothis Jan 3 '10 at 6:38

3 Answers 3

up vote 5 down vote accepted

HandBrake (versions < 0.9.4) can do this for free. AVI support was removed in 0.9.4 so any previous version should be fine.

From Handbrake's page:

Focus on what we do best

As we've had on our roadmap for quite awhile now, one of our goals for version 0.9.4 was to refocus on HandBrake's key strengths and to remove dead weight. As part of this process, several containers and a codec have been removed from HandBrake.

AVI: AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake's AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn't even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read and maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.

You can get older versions of HandBrake from FileHippo.

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Their description doesn't make it sound like you would actually want their AVI capabilities. VirtualDubMod might be a better choice then. –  Joey Jan 3 '10 at 9:56

Format Factory is a personal favorite. Handles many types of audio, video and still image files formats. Go to Formatoz.com to grab it. Be careful about the download links, some of them may be fishy. Try Cnet's download.com - they may have it.

PS. If you're trying to edit video in Premiere Pro CS3, you don't need to convert MPG files, just import the MPG DLL files from the Encore CS3 program folder into the Premiere CS3 folder.


To copy the DLL from Encore to Premiere, you need to go to (where C: is your hard drive)

C: >Program Files > Adobe > Adobe Encore CS3

and slowly move your mouse over a file. A yellow tooltip will pop up. You are looking for the AC3 Decoder. It's called something like AAC Audio decoder. I don't remember, but I think it's one or two of the following three files:




Select them one at a time or all together and copy them. Paste them into the following folder:

C: >Program Files > Adobe > Adobe Premiere CS3

It is possible that one or more of those files will be in the Premiere CS3 folder already. In that case, use the original one just to play it safe, but I don't know that it matters.

Once again, Good Luck.

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How do I import the DLL? Where do I click? –  coderama Jan 3 '10 at 6:57

SUPER (http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html) I think is the best. But you must have the last codecs in your computer to be allowed to convert to some filetypes. Then download also K-Lite Mega Codec Pack.

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protected by Community Mar 18 at 4:00


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