Resolution

[yowszer]

I am making a DVD of my home videos. Some of the videos that I have I captured via firewire in 720x480 and the others I am using an ATI TV Wonder Card and a VCR in order to capture analog video. My question is should all of the videos be in 720x480 to look good on the final DVD? If not what is a good resolution for the other video files?

[snowmoon]

To be compliant for DVD you can use 720x480 or 352x480. Personally if you are capturing straight to mpeg-2 then you should give 352x480 for low quality VHS tapes as 720x480 would be overkill. Try it both ways and see if there is really that much of a difference on the output first before you do the whole thing thoug. If you are capturing as .avi and then doing edditing, filtering, and then conversion I would cap at 720x480 just so you have the extra headroom. As one of the last steps resize it down to 352x480 and I think you will be suprised at how good it can look.

Valid DVD reolutions 720x480, 704x480, 352x480 ( 352x240 mpeg-1 - bitrate restrictions on this )

It may or may not be possible to use other resolutions based on your authoring software and your DVD player, but I personally think that most of them would be a poor use of your time and nerves.

Good luck.