Because AVS script files are used, avi.NET requires AVISynth to be installed and VobSub also needs to be installed if subtitle support will be required. Finally, either the DivX or XviD (or both) video codecs need to be installed, all of which are available in the .Tools Package (DOWNLOADS section).

avi.NET will allow you to load in both MPEG-1 (VCD) and MPEG-2 (DVD/HDTV) files and convert them to an AVI file. Whether it be DivX or XviD that is chosen as the video codec, the resulting AVI file will be 100% standalone player compatible. It should play in your home dvd avi player just fine.

Using avi.NET is simple, select 'IN' and load in your movie file, usually a VOB or MPG file. The file will 'INDEX' (process will take a couple of minutes) and once completed you'll notice many options have automatically been set and the movie is playing, you can now select 'ADD' to add the job to the batch list.

Once one or more jobs have been added to the job list, the conversion can be started by pressing the 'START' button although further options can be selected or amending depending on your needs. The top three options are refering to the encoding mode; you can use SIZE mode, BITRATE mode, or QUALITY mode. SIZE mode is the most common and will convert you movie to a required size. For movie clips, music videos e.t.c select 'Custom' and input your required size. BITRATE mode will encode using the bitrate shown. QUALITY mode is a single pass quality based mode which uses the chosen quantiser to obtain a fixed quality throughout the encode. Higher numbers are lower quality and vice versa. The required audio track can also be chosen here. Clicking the 'No MP3 Conversion - Keep AC3' will keep the original audio as AC3. Subtitles need to be indexed before they are used which avi.NET will do automatically for you once selected. The 'Forced' option will include/display forced subtitles only and 'Only Make External Subtitles' will create seperate subtitle files rather than 'burn' them into the AVI.

Screen width allows you to select your required width for the final AVI file. When this option is changed the movies aspect ratio is re-calculated to allow the shape to stay correct, slight adjustments can be made by using the height - and + buttons. You can trim the edges of the movie allowing a nice crisp edge, this is important for encoding. The - and + buttons are refering the the amount of cut. When cutting is used, the amount of cut is displayed on the preview window. The 'Decomb Deinterlacing Filter' is needed for movies that are interlaced and display artefacts (jaggies/combing) on screen, which are quite unsightly. A smoothing/sharpening filter is also selectable to allow a slighly smoother or sharper effect to be added to the encode. Higher autocrop changes the threshold to allow more automatic edge removal. Be careful with this on dark movies or clips, it may take too much off and completely destroy the shape (ratio) of the screen, if so, select a lower value and re-load.

Select either the DivX or XviD codec depending on your preference. Advanced encode mode uses different codec settings which in theory delivers a 'better' quality encode, though conversion time is increased. Remove .TEMP removes the temporary files used for the preview/ conversion and I think shutdown PC needs no explaination.

When a movie is previewing you'll see brief but important information displayed.

In this screen-shot XVID is refering to the codec selected and SIZE 896MB is refering to the encode mode and size chosen, all of which can be changed if desired. 0.22 is refering to the bits/pixel ratio, try to keep between 0.15 and 0.25. The screen aspect ratio is shown here as 1.74:1 and 640x368 is the current size of the movie being previewed and thus the size of the final conversion. The bottom section of avi.NET contains a slider and time display allowing you to easily preview anywhere in the movie.

Selecting a job in the batch box will display a little pop-up giving brief information for that encode. Right-clicking a selection in the box gives options to allow you to move up, down, and delete the required encode. Also, right-clicking the preview display, and also the information log window displayed during the encode, with give you options to minimise avi.NET. avi.NET is a .NET application thus requires the latest Microsoft .NET Framework (windows update). avi.NET is a Windows XP/Vista application.