DV Camcorder to VCD

[Ape]

Hi,

I can get my DV tapes onto my PC via Windows Movie Maker. I can then use TMPGEnc to turn it into MPEG format to write to a CD, which is the right format for VCD's.

My question is when I get the data from the camcorder, I can read it as AVI or WMV & then convert either format to mpeg.. Is there any difference in the quality of MPEG whether it comes form AVI or WMV?

Thanks,

Ape

[bombart]

I've been converting my DVs to VCDs for a while now. I haven't ever captured to WMV... So I can't exactly answer your question. However, I'll attempt to make this useful.

I capture to AVI and then convert to MPG and then burn it onto VCDs. The quality of these VCDs are as good as VCDs I've bought. For most of them, my wife can't tell the difference between watching the VCD and the original DV. Ofcourse, I can!!!

Anyways, hope that helps.

B.

[BJoseph904]

Save yourself some trouble....capture to .AVI, especially if you want to edit your video before you convert it. Raw .AVI is the best format to edit and you get the best results. WMV is used more with web applications or streaming if i'm not mistaken and I don't believe the resulting video will be as good of quality. TMPGEnc is in my opinion the best for the money to convert to .mpg. You should be good to go there.....if you're doing home video, I'd suggest trying XSVCD or SVCD format.....if you have a player that'll play it......I can't tell my home video from a DVD movie....720x480 with a 3000 bitrate, I can still get just over 30 minutes per CD-R.

Good luck,
Joe

[Ape]

Well, 2 good replies within a couple of hours. Thanks very much for your help. I will use AVI and convert to MPEG using TMPGEnc.

The only DVD player I have is on my PC. This is as much for backup purposes as anything else. Previously I managed to get a 1 hour DV tape onto a 700MB cd.

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.

James