Friends wedding video, need help.

[RobbieP]

Hello,

I recently agreed to help out a friend and did the video of his wedding. The camera I used was a JVC HD Everio GZ-HM200. I am now confronted with around 70 individual files (.MTS) ranging from a few mb up to 4gb (Around 12.5GB in total). I have done research into different programs I can use but the list has become mind boggling.

I would appreciate any info on how and what program(s) I should use to get the desired result....not that I am entirely sure what this is at this point.

1) Convert the .MTS files to a format I can edit ie cut bits off to make them smaller.
2) Somehow reduce the size without too much loss of quality. I chose the second setting on camera which I thought would be 720 but the files are 1080.
3) Join the files into 1 then convert to DVD? (Yeah, I have no idea..sorry).

I suppose I am looking for programs that are freeware (this will be probably a once off) but I suppose I would purchase a program (within reason) that "does it all" and is easy to use.

I have dabbled with "Any Video Converter" to get them to .avi, but only slightly reduces size.
Someone suggested "Handbrake" or "Sony Vegas" free 30 day trial.

Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated. They are due home from Hawaii soon so want to have something for them.

Thanks!
Rob.

[Baldrick]

All-in-one apps: Sony MovieStudio or Tmpgenc authoring works or Ulead Videostudio. They should be able to do everything. Free 30 days trial.


Free apps: In Any Video Converter see if you can adjust the video bitrate to make them smaller in file size.

Or try freemake video converter, add all mts, select to join files top right, convert to avi or some other format or maybe dvd directly. ( Edit the avi in wmm. Convert to dvd with avstodvd, dvdflick , etc. )