Convert VRO to AVI with AVS Video Converter - Free Trial
by
Brett Bumeter
So here’s a little tale about impulse buying and getting things right later on with a simple software program.
Several months ago, I purchased a video camera. It was something I needed for my business, but budget constraints were tight at the time and I purchased a video camera that had a few less capabilities than I really needed. It was a Panasonic 210 with a mini dvd recorder.
It works great in a lot of ways, but lacks a couple things:
- It does not record to a hard drive
- It does not have a USB cable to connect to my computer
If you have lots of experience with video cameras, you are probably saying to yourself, “Rookie Mistake” or “Poor Schmuck just wasted a few hundred dollars.”
Thanks for your sympathy.
Now, in my ignorance, I thought I could simply take the mini-DVD out of the camera, put it in my computer and start editing things in MovieMaker or WinDVD or something.
Unfortunately, that’s not possible.
However, I did find a simple program that makes everything as easy as I had hoped it would be when I bought the camera.
The program is called AVS Video Converter
EDIT 10-6-08 This is still available for a free trial download, if you later decide to buy, it is now sold as a bundled subscription for about the same price as it used to cost for a single program. Its a better deal now than it was when I first wrote this article, but it has changed a bit in the way it is offered and sold. 10 months later, I still use this video converter program for many many activities every week, almost daily.
Here’s the updated link free trial here).
How Does it Work?
I can simply remove a mini-dvd from my camera (either a DVD-RAM or a DVD-R or a DVD-RW, and pop it into my computer.
The converter can then view the VRO or the associate IFO directory and convert the VRO file into a large number of file formats.
VRO, MPG, VOB, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG, DVD, RM, 3GP, MOV, 3G2, QT, SWF, DV AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, DAT, VCD, SVCD, RMVB, ASF, MJPEG, H.263, DVR-MS, H.264
And maybe a few more.
So now I can drop it into MovieMaker and novice my way to a video with very little time spent!
What’s Next
Now that I have all the tools that I was looking for I can finally move move into the production mode. I’ve learned over the years that the best way to learn how to do something is to practice a bit and DO a lot more. Having my videos locked up on a DVD mini disc where I couldn’t get at it almost made my camera worthless. I would have been almost as good filming myself in front of my bathroom vanities and throwing the discs out afterwards for all the good it was doing me, but not I’ve got the ability to produce the film and edit the hell out of it (I have quite a bit of experience with MovieMaker and hope to graduate to some better tools in editing soon.)
Thanks.
Hey No problem Arun,
I originally picked up this program to convert video files from my mini disc camcorder onto my hard drive from VRO to AVI.
But these days I use it almost every day for many other conversions, working to get compression levels down. I often times convert from Mpeg down to wmv and then upload a video up to youtube, revver or utterz.
It’s also very hand for stripping out just an MP3 track. For example if you download a video from Youtube and it comes in .flv, I convert it to avi, and then using this program I will sometimes convert that to wmv for small file storage (like for a music video) or convert it to mp3 for a song.
Very useful if you want to create a YouTube video response for example or if you want to mash a number of videos or songs together.
thank you
thanks a lot!!
Too Yoot and Custom dvdr,
No problem, happy to help.
I use this software just about every day. Plus, as I mentioned I originally purchased it to get my mini dvd videos onto my computer in a format that enabled me to edit them. These days I also use the format conversions for many more purposes as well.
The converters can help me make a video small enough to email or small enough to submit to a video sharing service like Utterz, YouTube or Revver too.
i need a software convert VRO to Avi.
thanks
I don`t have the full version of this program!Can you help me?:( I need it!
What version do you have? To the best of my knowledge there is only a trial version and the full paid version?
I purchased the EXACT same Panasonic Camcorder (Model No. VDR-D210) last Fall (Sept 2007). I can view the .VRO video files on my Windows Vista pc with a few weird misc. tweaks. The main problem I am having now is that I can’t seem to view the still images (snapshots) on my pc….that I’ve taken with the camcorder. The discs that these pictures are on are mini DVD-RW discs. I follow all the manual’s instructions and finalize the disc, containing only still images, before putting it into my DVD Rom drive. Can this program, AVS Video Tools, allow me to view these still images somehow…someway?
Sincerely, Sara
Hey Sara,
The answer to your question is no and yes. The software itself does not help to show, display or convert single snapshots from this camera so that you can see them on your laptop. It entirely focuses on converting video from one format to another.
That said, if you use your camcorder to take video, which will be recorded on those disks in .vro format once finalized, you can then play the video and pause it on specific scenes.
You can then use a screen capture program ( I use Snagit, which costs about $30, but there are free ones out there and you might be able to just hit ‘print screen when viewing the paused video, and then hit ctrl paste in word for example to get the screen shot to show up there).
That would be a low tech approach.
Alternatively, I separately use a program called Pinnacle Studio 11 (they just came out with version 12 which I have not yet tried). That program is kind of like a more ellaborate version of MovieMaker from Microsoft. It cost about $140 from BestBuy and when you buy it in the Movie Box bundle, it comes with a little converter box. That converter box can be connected to the audio video cables that comes with your camera, and then from the box to your computer via USB.
From that point the software allows you to clip frames of any video at a high level of quality into pictures.
I do not use the actual picture taking function on my own camera that much as I typically have a regular digital camera for that and just take video with the Panasonic, but I’ll try and see if I can find any other answers the next time I’m experimenting with it.
Hope that helps!
Brett
thanks
Good for vro TO AVI