Noob needs help...

[Dave DC]

I'm transferring many hours of old video to MPG and want to extract parts to save individually.  So I installed Avidemux 2.5.6, read the Quickstart page and tried the following:

Saved a section of video as an AVI file.  Windows Media Player had only sound, no video.  VideoLAN played it fine.

Saved the same section as an MPEG file.  Windows Media Player wouldn't play it, and VideoLAN had no sound.

ARRGH!!

Both Video and Audio are in Copy mode.  I have no idea what other combinations to choose.  However, I'm looking for the best format to upload online that friends and family with both Windows PCs and iPads can view.  Is that MPG?  MPEG?  MP4?  I should stay away from formats that are obviously in one camp or the other, like MOV or WMV, right?

Any tips or pointers in the right direction are greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[Jan Gruuthuse]

you already found the solution yourself: VLC  VideoLAN played it fine. so AVI and providing link to VLC should work. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
So you may target the Ipad with MP4 (H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps)
So only thing left to find out what the original Ipad supports and if these are in the family. VLC should handle these without problem on PC's

[styrol]

Saved a section of video as an AVI file.  Windows Media Player had only sound, no video.  VideoLAN played it fine.

You didn't mention the format of your source video, use the i button in Avidemux to determine this. You can't put any video and audio track into AVI container.

Saved the same section as an MPEG file.  Windows Media Player wouldn't play it, and VideoLAN had no sound.

It seems you have selected "MPEG Video" as container, this only saves the video track.

However, I'm looking for the best format to upload online that friends and family with both Windows PCs and iPads can view.  Is that MPG?  MPEG?  MP4?

As Jan mentioned it's MP4 (video: MPEG-4 ASP / audio: AAC), if you use ADM 2.5.6. If you wanna use more efficient video coding then select MP4 (video: MPEG-4 AVC / audio: AAC). To edit MPEG-4 AVC files (h.264 content) you best use Avidemux 2.6.