I recently bought a digital camera and am trying now to convert some of my home videos to a more compact format, burn on CD and send to my friends and/or relatives.

I've read a lot about conversions and different programs, but I can't make a movie of a good quality. No matter what I do, it comes out quite crappy.

Could someone share their experience with me and tell me (as detailed as possible) what they do to get a good quality movie? What programs you use and what settings? I am not even looking for a very high compression ratio - as long as I can fit 30-40 minutes of video on a CD.

Thank you very much in advance.