compress avis?

[newtie]

Hi all-

I'm a classroom teacher and am accumulating more and more original footage (avis) that are taking up too much space on my HD. Is there a way/file type that would allow me to compress these and have them still editable (in MovieMaker or similar that requires avi format) at some later date?

Many thanks,
Mark

[Baldrick]

DV AVI?

[newtie]

Yes, that's correct.

[Baldrick]

You can convert to avi divx/xvid using for example AutoGK or wmv using Windows Movie Maker and those will be editable in moviemaker. But you will lose video quality best would be to keep them as DV.

[edDV]

Interlace MPeg2 is a less destructive intermediate step. MPeg2 can be edited. Hand held DV is difficult to compress with quality.

[newtie]

Thanks guys, I check it out...

[Nitemare]

Mpeg2 may not be the best choice for editing. It is possible but it's problematic.

[edDV]

Mpeg2 may not be the best choice for editing. It is possible but it's problematic.

Not as good as DV or all I frame MPeg2 but he said he wanted to compress.

[gadgetguy]

Buy some external and/or removable hard drives and export to them, keeping the DV-AVI format. Divx/xvid and Mpeg2 are OK for simple editing, but I assume you want these clips for future students to work with and you'll want to be able to offer them the best starting point possible for their creative projects.

[guns1inger]

Or buy a pile of blank tapes and put the video back on mini-DV tapes for storage. An external HDD makes them more accessible though.

[edDV]

Or buy a pile of blank tapes and put the video back on mini-DV tapes for storage. An external HDD makes them more accessible though.

Proper drive preference settings can get all your temp files for your project on the external drive along with the primary imported bin files. This allows you to reload the project at a later time and continue editing without having to re-render all the effects and filters. I still keep source video/graphics/audio files and an edit master on tape/DVDR separate from the hard drive as backups.