whats best to use to copy my home videos to DVD... avi files or wmv files??

[leegutcher]

I am looking into editing my home videos on windows movie maker then copying them to DVDs. Im a novice when it comes to computers so i just need a little help with one or two things.

Once i have editied my video, i publish it to computer then use Nero 7 to burn it to DVD. As nero will only let me burn AVI files to DVD, i need to publish my videos from Windows movie maker as AVI files, but the problem there is 30mins of footage equals about 7GB and obviously my DVD-R discs are only 4.7GB.

Is they anyway I can reduce the size of the AVI file, but yet still maintain a good quality video resolution. I ask this as I downloaded a 1hr 20min film the other day which was about 800mb and was a AVI file, the quality of the video was very very good.

The next question is: do i still get the same quality video resolution if i copy my videos as WMV files to super Video CD?

Does anyone have any advice or tips for me??

Thanks
Lee[/b]

[ZippyP.]

What is the source of your home video files? DVD, DV camera, VHS....

[edDV]

I am looking into editing my home videos on windows movie maker then copying them to DVDs. Im a novice when it comes to computers so i just need a little help with one or two things.

Once i have editied my video, i publish it to computer then use Nero 7 to burn it to DVD. As nero will only let me burn AVI files to DVD, i need to publish my videos from Windows movie maker as AVI files, but the problem there is 30mins of footage equals about 7GB and obviously my DVD-R discs are only 4.7GB.

What is the source format of these "home videos"?
Are you talking about DV camcorder video? These are 13GB/hr if you want quality.

If so, you capture DV-AVI, edit and then export DV-AVI (hard to find but it is there) to Nero.

Nero or a different MPeg encoder will handle the MPeg2 shrink to DVD.

Is they anyway I can reduce the size of the AVI file, but yet still maintain a good quality video resolution. I ask this as I downloaded a 1hr 20min film the other day which was about 800mb and was a AVI file, the quality of the video was very very good.

Couldn't have been that good at 800Mb/s but it was most likely MPeg4 (divx? xvid?)

If you want to put that on DVD as MPeg2 figure ~4GB.

The next question is: do i still get the same quality video resolution if i copy my videos as WMV files to super Video CD?

Does anyone have any advice or tips for me??

Thanks
Lee[/b]

Video CD is rock bottom quality. Is that your goal?
https://www.videohelp.com/vcd

What is your goal?

[redwudz]

If you are making a standard DVD that will play on most set top players, you need to encode to MPEG-2 format. You can edit in Windows Movie Maker, then output a DV AVI. Encode the DV AVI to MPEG-2 format with a MPEG encoder. Then you author those MPEG-2 files to DVD format with a authoring program. See 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page for the DVD format and specification.

Or you can use a program like ConvertXToDVD to convert the edited DV to DVD and burn it. There are other all-in-one converters listed in our 'Tools' section to the left.

Or there are individual encoding programs and authoring programs that range from freeware to very expensive. They all do similar work and have much more control of quality over the finished product than the all-in-ones.

If you have a set top Divx player, then you can encode them to Divx or Xvid that will take up a lot less space.

For the regular DVD format, you should be able to get one hour of video on a DVD with very good quality. Two hours with good quality, if you use the right settings for the encode.

Best advice, read and study. We have many guides available.

And welcome to our forums.

[leegutcher]

I am using a JVC DV camcorder and a fire wire cable to transfer videos.

What are divx or xvid?

Thanks

[redwudz]

Xvid and Divx are two MPEG-4 or AVI type codecs. Xvid is freeware, Divx cost a few $. There are quite a few set top DVD players that can use the format these days. You can get close to two hours of fair quality video on a CD with either format, or with a higher bitrate, 4 - 5 hours of good quality video on a DVD. Of course what is 'good' or 'fair' depends on personal opinion.

Keeping the video in DV format until you do a final encode to MPEG-2 DVD will preserve the quality fairly well. If you can save the DV tapes and store them, you can always re-encode them later to different formats. DV generally takes up too much hard drive or DVD space if you store in that format. About 13GB/hour.

For the best quality encodes, you need to use a decent MPEG encoder. For freeware, HC is good. Payware, there are a lot, all with their fans. I use TMPGEnc Plus because it's easy. But it is slow. CCE, Procoder, Mainconcept and a few others are all good.

Then you need a authoring program. Freeware, GUI for dvdauthor. I use TMPGEnc DVD Author, again because it's easy and I don't do much in the way of custom menus, etc. For that DVD Lab Pro and others are good. I use Nero occasionally, for just burning, but most of the time I use ImgBurn, also freeware.

Window Movie Maker is OK just for editing, but at some point you may want something more flexible with a little more power. I'll let other recommend here. You may look into getting a package tool with editor, encoder and authoring all in one program.