Hi there, I read in a previous thread (back in march) that Derek was having an issue with the ATI 128MB card and the .vcr format. I too ran into this issue, though I already knew how to go about changing the format to MPEG-1/MPEG-2. Somehow it got switched back, unannounced to me. Now here's where the problem lies: I need to convert the file and can't seem to do it anywhere in the ATI MMC software. I've looked high and low for some sort of converting tool that will do it, but as I'm sure you know, the .vcr format is ATI specific. I'm almost out of ideas, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help in advance, Jay

-- Jay Rock (d1018@hotmail.com), October 03, 2002

Answers

I too am searching for such a converter. The only workaround I can think of so far would be to output to an actual vcr, then input from the same tape. Basically a copy of a copy approach. It's better than losing a recording accidentally done in vcr format. I don't know why they had to be so secretive. The format doesn't seem to have any particular qualities that distance it from MPEG2, including file size. Anyway, keep looking for a digital approach.....

-- Tim Dee (eagleman@prodigy.net), October 07, 2002.

Here's the answer that we've all been waiting for!! Open the ATI Library, find the file that you want to convert, right click it and presto, it brings up the menu where you can choose to "export to MPEG-2" this will export the file to MPEG-2 format, and then you can use your other tools to play with it and do with it what you like! I appreciate all the replies that I've received, on this question, and thanks for all the ideas!

~!JR!~

-- Jay Rock (d1018@hotmail.com), October 07, 2002.

Great - works well

-- chris (chris@gallantree.com), December 16, 2002.

THANKS!

-- Célestin Bouchard (celestevie@yahoo.ca), December 17, 2002.

Yes, thanks from me too!

-- Ian Yorkston (ianyorkston@netscape.net), December 17, 2002.

Thank you JAY!! I had been banging my head all night trying to get this converted.

-- Paul Roop (pwroop@charter.net), December 29, 2002.

Funny, such a simple answer!! Thanks. (Now I bet that was in the documentation somewhere too.)

-- William Parish (wparish@newsguy.com), January 06, 2003.

Media library doesn't work on some systems unfortunatly and there is no patch yet!

-- Jo shumo (jo@shumo.com), January 23, 2003.

Dear sweet god you are a savior. I have a project due in less than a week and I needed to edit video I got from a vcr but adobe premier won't recognize .vcr files. Thanks man, i owe you one.

-- Nick Biggerstaff (Fubar@fubar.com), February 12, 2003.

Unfortunately, I am a member in good standing of the "Media Library doesn't work on some systems..." group. That means that there are at least two of us for whom the problem remains a problem. An alternate solution would therefore be wonderful news (at least for me!). Any more ideas out there?

-- Leon Duych (lduych@msn.com), February 14, 2003.

"Library doesn't work on some system" Answer: Try uninstalling MMC 7.7.xxx (i am assuming that is what you are using), and install 7.6.xxx. I got the same problem, and 7.6 fixed it.

-- Chris Martono (cmartono@msn.com), February 16, 2003.

I have had the same problem, The file library won't display anything, after scan, says there might be a filter selected... (not that I can find!)

I got this answer from another board. I didn't write it. I tried it and it worked!

http://www.moviecodec.com/mb/topic20.shtml

email author Shayne_co@yahoo.com

I, too, was unable to use the library. The only workaround I was able to perform to convert .vcr files to MPEG-2 is as follows:

1. Search for a file called ATI-TShift.vcr (If you do a search and the computer hasn't found it, then you haven't used the TV-on-Demand feature.)

Note:It's a hidden file... 2. Copy the file to convert to the directory where you found ATI-TShift.vcr.

3. Delete the file ATI-TShift.vcr, and rename the file you want to convert to ATI-TShift.vcr.

4. Start your All-In-Wonder TV program.

5. Press Ctrl+X (This starts up the "Export TV-on-Demand" feature)

6. Tell it where to export the file to, and wait while it does the exporting process.

If you've never used the TV-on-demand feature, then consult ATi's website to find out how to use it. You will need at least a few seconds of TV-on-demand on your PC, or else you won't know where to copy the file.

-- Paula Pickles (paula_pickles@yahoo.com), February 20, 2003.

Thanks so much for this help!

-- Ashley Davies (ashleywdavies@hotmail.com), March 06, 2003.

Well I spent an hour trying all my movie editing programs. Finally did a google search and found the way to fix this stupid thing. Thanks all! You saved me lots of work

-- jkdflkjsdl;k (fgsdf;lk;@l;jl;kjljf.vcv), March 16, 2003.

Here is my problem..I have a bunch of video clips I made with my tv wonder ve card. The clips have .avi extensions however wont play in anything. Even after installing the ati vcr 1.0 codec from ati's site they wont even play in the ati video player. I am unsure what codec I used upon originally encoding them since it was several years ago when the ati board came out. Most of you have .vcr extensions for your files so I feel really alone here. Any suggestions or ideas how I can reclaim use of these files is much welcomed. thx in advance :)

-- james R (jamesrector3130@hotmail.com), April 03, 2003.

Hey,

thanks for the tip. I am using the lastest version of ATI launchpad 8.1 and when i right click on a .vcr file in the library it lets me convert to MPEG2.

I too had the problem with the old ATI card making .avi files that nobody else could play. I wonder if the person tried manually (in dos) changing them to .vcr extensions and then loading them into the library to attempt to convert to MPEG2? Just a thought.

Andy

-- Andrew Finnesta (nojunkmail@hotmail.com), April 17, 2003.

ATI's software does convert to MPEG2, but you will notice that the voice are in s slightly higher pitch. It seems that the ATI converter "speeds up" the clip.

-- Carlos (cgallardo1@nyc.rr.com), May 20, 2003.

When I convert to mpeg from vcr format, the audio (voices) begin to lag behind. I suspect I must adjust the bitrate or audio compresion to make it work.

Also thanks for the tip. A long time ago I remember a special seperate utility to convert the vcr format. I didn't know they had put it into another program.

-- Kirk (jkjowers@mindspring.com), August 05, 2003.

Thanks dude!! You would think that the ATI website would have been more helpful? Thanks again!!

-- Josh Vinson (josh43232@yahoo.com), September 05, 2003.

THATS AWESOME I THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!

-- Richard (metalhead152@hotmail.com), September 30, 2003.

That was way too ez. At least I'm not the only one who ran into this problem.

-- Dave (junk@purpletech-NOSPAM-.net), October 02, 2003.

Thanks...Helped me alot....i've been trying to figure this out for a while

-- Amit (God800@aol.com), October 27, 2003.

ok i play this game called motocross madness 2. you can play and have it record your race so you can watch it again if you want to but only in game. i went into the c drive and found where the files are stored. they are .vcr files and i want to know how to convert them into mpegs or .wav files without a program that costs money. does anyone know of a way?

-- brendon tempel (hart_hartattack@hotmail.com), November 07, 2003.

Thanks a lot!!! Will try to convert.

-- Obren Masic (nospam60@yahoo.se), November 23, 2003.

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and I can't find the ATI Library - where do I find this software or option? Its not on the right-click menu either....

-- Jay Patterson (jay@acsl.com), November 28, 2003.

Thanks a lot. To find the library, type library in "start, search", thats how I found mine.

-- Tommy Eich (Silver00Spike@yahoo.com), December 07, 2003.

I have an AIW 9700 Pro. The file that allows the conversion is mlibrary.exe in the \Program Files\ATI Multimedia folder. I, too, looked for a way to convert the evil .vcr format to something useful.

-- Ben Silverstein (bensil@bensil.com), December 15, 2003.

I too appreciate the update - works great. Now the question is how can you save video in mpeg of similar in the first place?

-- (finsup@direcway.com), December 21, 2003.

I have a problem with fragmenting on my hard drive and the defrag report says that the file(s) that cannot be defragged is \ATI- TShift.vcr. Another weird thing is that the file is 15.5 GB! Can anybody shed light on this problem?

Thanks in advance.

-- Geoff Pierce (gdp086@hotmail.com), December 30, 2003.

Turn off the "Video on demand" function"; you have probably turned it on and forgot to turn off.

-- Riss (zabojnik@volny.cz), January 03, 2004.

I tried this but the mpeg plays really choppy. It stops, starts, stops, etc.

-- MikeM (h_e_r_i@hotmail.com), January 15, 2004.

Thank you so much for the answer to this issue, I was going nuts over this, I just recorded a very important file I have to send over to spin in 42 hours and I realized I had saved it as a vcr file, but now thanks to you guys and this forum I can convert it and recorded in a dvd. Thanks so much

-- Ninoska Guerrero (ninoska@110.net), January 19, 2004.

I can see the *.vcr files in ATI Library. When I right click on them and choose "export to MPEG2" it asks me where to save it and the file name but it doesn't actually do anything. I can't play or export ATI's own media format. What is up with that?

-- Kevin (axh174@psu.edu), January 27, 2004.

Does anyone know how to export multiple files at a time, to either mpeg-2 or mpeg-4? Whenever I highlight multiple files the options to export are taken away.

-- Ryan (camo_06@yahoo.com), February 05, 2004.

If the .vcr file is showing up in the media library, but the convert option does nothig, check the properties of the item IN THE MEDIA LIBRARY. Make sure the Media Library is looking where the file actally is. I had the same issue just now, and it turned out I had moved the file after it had been indexed

-- Jonathan Hurley (silvercat@dreamseeker.org), February 07, 2004.

I exported an MPEG 2 and burned it to DVD with Roxio Easy DVD Builder, but I got no audio at all. Is anyone else seeing this?

Also, if the audio gets out of sync, as is reported in this thread, it doesn't seem very useful. Has anyone been able to go from.vcr file to a working, in-sync DVD?

-- Mike Jennings (mike@clanjennings.com), February 26, 2004.

I've got an All In Wonder 9600 pro and I was able to pull up the library tool but clicking on Programs\ATI Multimedia center\Launch Pad. One of the choices in launch pad is library. Then I had to drag and drop my vcr files into the media area. For some reason it wasn't picking them up????

-- Don (shadowkn@hotmail.com), February 26, 2004.

I've got it to DVD but had to use Studio 8! It kinda jumps when I take out the commercials! Not smooth, but it works!

-- Don (soupcan35@hotmail.com), February 28, 2004.

Thx all!! Your answer are very impressive!! all my problem were go out!!

-- bob (bob@bob.com), March 27, 2004.

I am able to convert the .vcr files to mpg while in the Library. When I edit the comercials using Roxio Easy DVD Builder the sound and video are out of sync. In fact it is out of sync around 3 mins into the video. Any ideas?

-- Joseph Stroy (jlstroy@netzero.net), March 29, 2004.

Saved my life!

-- P-Diddy (yomama@hotmail.com), May 19, 2004.

SWEET just what I was looking for! Right click on file from library and export!

Thank you

-- doug (Joe@aol.com), May 26, 2004.

Great works nice just the thing I needed to know, Thanks

-- DW (dcj_wokke@hotmail.com), June 11, 2004.

OMG thank you so much, that was so easy... THANK YOU

-- Stephen (asd@asd.com), June 14, 2004.

Hello fellow sufferers!! I bought a computer with ATi's 'ALL in One' on board, specifically to record from TV and burn DVDs in order to reduce my ever growing pile of videos. I have experienced all the above problems and have come to the conclusion that the card and ATi's lack of concern over these issues warrants the following response:- Get rid of the card and install another make. Don't waste your money on ATi rubbish!! Any response ATi? Why not put a solution on your web site? But then again, don't bother - we are only customers after all - you don't need us... or do you?

-- Graham Watts (graham@metoo.co.uk), August 29, 2004.

I spent all evening trying to burn these files (converted by the ATI tool to Mpeg2) to DVD. I tried Nero ,WMP ETC all to no avail.The converted files show up as different sizes depending on how you view them ..ie in ATI or Explorer.I'm still working on the TV-on_Demand option as i speak. grrrrrrrrrrrr

-- Phil (philaker@nildram.co.uk), September 23, 2004.

I have MMC 9 but the library wont let me put any files inside it. Does anybody have an answer? Need it desperately for a project. Thanx!

-- Mario Verhagen (tomilis@hotmail.com), December 13, 2004.