What's a good format to use to put several videos on one disc?

[DVDNewb]

I have different videos I want to put onto on disc - in one case it's TV episodes and in another just regular movie files (WMV, AVI, ASF). I have MANY files which I have saved on DVD's as regular data files which is fine for watching at home w/ my PC connected to the TV. But if I want to take them with me, I can't play them on freinds DVD player. So I want to put them on DVD's to make them playable, but would like to put more than the usual 3 episodes on one disc.

There are so many terms (VCD, DVD, SVCD, AVI, DIVX, Xvid, etc.) I don't know which to use. I know DVD would be best, but takes up the most room right? There was a chart under the DVD menu that showed them all compared side-by-side, and Divx seemed to allow the most on one disc, with good quality... Im thinking I should convert to Divx? What program is best for a newb in DVD/video authoring?

Any advice would be appreciated. BTW, I am still reading through all these forums and seen a couple articles about converting so I think im getting on the right track. Ohhh I am using Vista 64 bit windows, so any program I use would have to be compatible.

thanks!

[guns1inger]

If you want to make the truly transportable and able to be played in any DVD player then you have to convert them to DVD or VCD. VCD limits you to CDs, however the VCD resolution is DVD compliant, so you can use this to put many hours on a single DVD, albeit at low quality. Depending on your source, this may be appropriate.

You can put Divx/Xvid encoded material on a disc, however it needs to be encoded to a specific set of constraints, and will only play on Divx/Xvid capable players. Standard DVD players will not play these files.

Vista cuts out Divx for the moment, but Xvid is OK. AutoGK is probably the best front-end to start with. It allows batch encoding, and will give you compliant files. Given the range of sources however, you may find that no single program will handle all of them well, and give you good quality conversions.

[DVDNewb]

Thanks for the information. I'm gonna try out the AutoGK program and see how the show comes out.

Thanks!