DV Files convert to...?

[cumi]

Hi there,

until now I captured my (non-HD) videos using WinDV. It creates an AVI file for each scenario. Then I used Pinneacle (lot of crashes!) or Nero to create a DVD (with menus and transitions).

Now I have an external HDD that is connected into media player (WD HD Player). There would be no need for burning DVDs, if I could play the files fro the external HDD.

1 hour of DV video is about 13GB and every scenario is a separate file.

My questions:

1. What would be the easyest way to join several files (creating one file for each week or month recorded, even without transitions or menus)?
2. ... and convert (compress the huge size) them into some standard video format (DIVX, XVID) that my media player is able to stream...? What software should I use?

Thank you in advance

[_Al_]

You can try this, use some rename programs that rename your clips into some sequence, something like - like 0001.avi, 0002.avi, the trick is that it has to be done subsequently in time, then load into VirualDub first file and then choosing File/append avi segment choosing 0002.avi it will load subsequently rest of the files. Encode into whatever you like or frame serve it into some other encoder.

But another way is to load it directly into encoder that has append function upon loading also.