Pls suggest compact Video format for episodic storage on DVD-R with menu

[Firewire60]

I am a hobby video person and need advice on the following.

At present I use Nero Vision to convert my hobby MPEG2 format clips to DVD format and store on a DVD-R with menu. Works well but is very bulky and occupies many disks.

Can someone suggest a more compact format such as DIVX that can also be stored on a DVD-R with menu that can be played back on a DVD player that plays DIVX. I would like the video quality to be comporable to DVD quality and I want to be able to play the selected movie clips from the menu.

And what apps will convert from MPEG2 to DIVX with menu and burn to DVD for playback on a DIVX compatible DVD player.

I do not know the difference between DIVX, XVID and AVI . Which of these will play back with menu on the current DIVX compatible players and which of these formats best fits my needs.

Thanks all.

[yoda313]

only divx ultra certified dvd players will work with divx menus. And I think only divx 6 and newer can generate menus.

I think dr divx can make divx menus but I don't know if that software is updated any more. You should check out www.divx.com for more info on menus.

Just remember "compressed" and "dvd quality" are not really possible. You will pay for compression in quality terms. You will get "good" results depending on what settings you use but remember you are taking out video information so you won't be getting the original only at smaller file sizes. You are compressing the signal so it won't be bit for bit.


AVI is just a generic container format - it holds all kinds of codecs. Xvid is the open source version of divx. xvid is playable with many divx dvd players but I don't know of any menu system that you can create for xvid. That doesn't mean you can't I just don't know about it. But if you standard divx than your much more likely to get it to work with a wider range of "divx" dvd players.


---also you might want to consider looking into hard drive based media players such as tversity and similar devices. They are media players that use hard drives to play back ripped dvds, mp3s and other media files onto your tv. So you can stick in any harddrive - they have 3.5" and 2.5" models - and hook it up to your tv and play. That way you could do away with discs if you wanted and load up your original files on to these players. SOmething to consider and you would be able to preserve quality by using your original files. I don't know what kind of menu systems they offer though.

[guns1inger]

Dr. Divx doesn't do menus, but the latest Tmpgenc DVD Author I believe does, as does the more focussed Divx Author (same basic programs but limited to Divx based authoring).