Saving AVI files

[astro4travel]

I have some captured AVI files which I would like to save to external media such as DVD. The reason for saving would be for possible future projects. How would be the best way to do this in order to keep the file size down to fit on a standard size 5 dvd? Thanks in advance. Michael

[gadgetguy]

By AVI do you mean DV-AVI like what's capsferred from a camcorder? If so, to keep them in the same format and save to DVD, split them into approx. 20 minute segments using VirtualDub Direct Stream Copy in both audio and video. Then burn them as data DVDs. These will not be playable on a standalone DVD player.

[astro4travel]

Yes, these were captured from analog source (VHS) using Canopus 110 device to Premiere Pro 2.0. I used them in a project but would like to save them. They are already sort segments less than 10 minutes long. Should I still use Virtual Dub? Once they are converted to data DVDs, will they be easy to bring back into Premiere for future work? Thanks, Michael

[gadgetguy]

When you save them as Data DVDs there is no conversion. You are just copying the files as you would to another hard drive, so yes, it will be easy to copy them back to hard drive for use with Premiere. (You may be able to work with them directly from the DVD in Premiere, but I wouldn't recommend it.) With 10 minute segments you don't need to use VDub, you only need to use Vdub if your clips are longer than about 20 minutes. You should be able to fit 2 ten minute clips to a disk, but for smaller clips you'll have to experiment with your burning software to determine which and how many files you can add to a disk to minimize wasted space.