February 17, 2009 (15 years ago)

How To Make DivX AVI Videos Rendered by Sony Vegas 8 Compatible with DVD Players


updated 2.17.2009

Ever been disappointed to find that your video edit that was rendered as DivX AVI video in Sony Vegas would play fine in a DVD console player but without sound? Soon enough, you'll find out later that if you let the video play up to the end frame, the sound begins to play but the screen is blank and black. This is a case of improper audio-video interleaving.

The solution is quick and simple. Restream the video in a lossless manner in VirtualDub. The following instruction is based on VirtualDub 1.6.16. Other versions may require different steps.

  1. Open the DivX AVI file in VirtualDub. To open, you can quickly drag and drop the file from Windows Explorer to the VirtualDub window.
  2. At the menu on top, click Video and select Direct stream copy. This bypasses video reencoding and recompression, retaining the original video quality of your source file.
  3. This step is optional, as a newly opened VirtualDub video has default settings. At the menu on top, click Audio and select Interleaving... The Audio/Video Interleave Options window should pop up. You can also press Ctrl+I on the keyboard to access this window. Make sure that Enable audio/video interleaving is checkmarked and click OK.
  4. At the menu again, click File > Save as AVI... or press F7 on the keyboard. Browse to where you want to save your video and enter a filename in the File name field, then click Save. You should see a status window while processing is in progress.

Comparing the original file and the VirtualDub output file, you will notice a lesser file size but the quality remains the same. No recompression has occured as evident by the short processing time.

Transfer your new video file to disc or USB stick and test it in the DVD player.

Notes:

  • DVD console player refers to a DVD console player that can play DivX AVI files stored in USB stick or data disc. Such a DVD player bears the DivX logo.
  • AVI files rendered in Sony Vegas must be using DivX codec standard presets for playability in DVD players. If your target DVD player can play AVI files rendered with the Xvid codec instead of DivX, you can avoid this problem altogether. However, players with DivX only support are more common than players with both Xvid and DivX support.
  • It is unknown if the problem occurs in DivX AVI files rendered by Adobe Premier Pro.