Travel Question: DV Firewire -> laptop(compressed) -> DVTape

[midnightio]

I've been searching for an answer and trying some different software with no luck yet. I will be doing quite a bit of traveling soon and I would like to capture video from my digital camcorder to my laptop via firewire. That's the easy part. The problem is that even if I take a 160gig firewire drive I'm limited to 13 hours of video captured at the full DV data rate.

I would like to find the best way to convert my DV .AVI capture files (figure 1-2 hours per file, so with NTFS the file size would be 13-26 gigs).
I would like to compress this raw DV .AVI quite a bit. Once I return, I would like to be able to output it back to DV tape, or at least to VHS tape and retain the highest quality.

I do not know how to go about this. My SVCD's are very blocky. I keep raising the bit rate until my Apex dvd doesn't like it and I still see the blockiness. I know if I stick with raw DV .AVI files I will have excellent quality -- just very large file sizes! If I really compress the video using - say DIVX - what is the best way to get the video off my computer when I return and recorded onto a VHS tape? Or is there a better way?

I have a new ATI All-In-Wonder card specifically for the TV output, but I'm loosing some quality once my test movies playback on the TV.

My one limiting factor is the laptop - I can't have a capture card - and most of the external ones seem to have their own issues thus far. I can captured flawless DV .AVI video with firewire, I just need a way to compress these files while traveling, and then uncompress/output to my VCR when I return and hopefully the video quality will be good and I won't see any video noise/artifacts. I won' t have a lot of time to run through multiple steps. If I could find one step beyond the firewire capture that would compress the video I would be very happy.

Thanks!
MidnightIO

[EricB]

You've lost me, what is your ultimate goal? Why not just record to DV tape and save the tapes? Convert them however you want when you get back to civilization.

[resnullius]

i think the easiest solution to your problem would be to buy either a dvd burner or an external hard drive... it cost money but it might be worth if you don't want to sacrifice quality...
or do as eric has said...
sorry for not answering the question...