Help on Video Size

[elf aggie]

Dumb newbie question: I captured DV into my computer at a very high resolution (760 x 360 ???). Very large files. I caputured them using Premiere 6.0. Using Premiere I imported about 20 minutes worth of clips. I fumbled through the editing process. I completed the timeline and exported to an AVI file. Well the file is 4 Gig for only 17 minutes worth of video. I want to convert this to MPEG and then burn to VCD or SVCD but the darn file is too big. TMEG can't open the file. What did I do wrong? Thanks.

[Mavrick]

First, you want to capture as close to the resolution of the CD you want to create. For a SVCD, capture at 480x480 (NTSC). DV is 720x480 by default, you can capture at this resolution, but will take longer to encode into 480x480 MPEG format.

Second, Adobe Premier 6.0 does not have native MPEG support (unless your capture card has hardware MPEG encoding). You will have to upgrade to Premier 6.5 which does have MPEG support, or buy a 3rd party MPEG plug-in for Premier 6.0. I think it’s cheaper to upgrade to Premier 6.5 than get the plug-in.

OR

You can save your files as an uncompressed AVI (this will be even bigger files size) and use something like TMPGE to encode it. I personally don’t like this option for two reasons. 1: Why add an extra step and extra time to encode? It’s easier and faster to encode your AVI to MPEG right in your editor. 2: I always had audio sync problems with TMPGE, a lot of people here use it and swear by it, but I only made coasters when using it.

[Linelle]

Another newbie here! I thought I read that it was best to always capture at the highest resolution possible, since it then gave you more options for output. I realize that time and disk space are major concerns. If you think that VCD is the only reasonable output, then should the capture always keep that in mind?

[Mavrick]

What resolution you capture in depends on the project at hand. If you are making a DVD, then I would capture at 720x480. However, if your intent is SVCD or XSVCD, then capturing at 480x480 will save time in the encoding. You can capture 720x480 then encode to a 480x480 MPEG2 file, it will just take longer. Just play around with it and use what works best for you.