converting video for portable player (vidego28)

Advertisements

I have this Vidego28 media player. It's a cute little mp3/avi player that works well. I am trying to automate downloading video onto it. I want to transfer video from Tivo and convert and move it to the player automatically. I have it down pat, except the video isn't playable. I am converting using ffmpeg (TVHarmony beta). The player came with some cheesy software that converts to avi. It works fine, but I can't incorporate that into the automated process. So I am using ffmpeg in my automated procedure.

What I am trying to figure out is what settings I need for ffmpeg to convert the videos into the same specs as the program that came with the player. Is there an application that I can use to look at the avi's that are created with the included program (called aviconverter or something generic like that) to determine the EXACT specs. Then I can setup ffmpeg to mimic those settings. I have tried a bunch of stuff (framerate and framewidthXframeheight) but the files still aren't playable. I am missing something, but have no idea what. Maybe the way the sound is encoded? who knows. I'd like to compare a working avi and a nonworking one to see the difference.
TIA,
John