avi to mpeg aspect/settings which converter

[Nicola-Pickle]

I would love some guidance please on best (preferably simple) avi to mpeg tool. I want to store a good copy as my longterm archive of family video on hard drive and also put copy onto DVD using Windows DVD Maker and I want to choose non-distorting non-cropping settings for my video.

Settings very confusing. Eg aspect ratio: Panasonic camcorder dv tape says “VGA recording 640x480 (4:3)”. Avi captured in moviemaker produces 720x576 (5:4). Different video converters produce 720x576 mpeg but some of these leave unfilled black screen top and bottom of my 375x298mm (5:4) but others don’t, yet both say 720x576. I've lost default settings of free video converter but think default might have been 640x480. Perhaps had different default for dvd-pal to mpeg2.

Also file size - one even at “superb” settings was only going to give me a file of 600+MB whereas in other converted filesize was 1.85GB and in another 2.76GB.

I have tried several but am confused with settings options and the aspect ratio, etc.
Many thanks, Nicola

[Baldrick]

DV is 720x576(4:3). It is not 640x480 but it maybe will be displayed as 640x480. Always convert to 720x576 with 4:3 settings.

I would

Avoid anything that says "free video converter".

If you capture in windows movie maker then export as dv-avi, 720x576.

Convert the dv-avi directly to dvd-video using good converters like either commercial software like tmpgenc authoring works or free tools like favc, thefilmmachine, avstompeg(they use the hcenc encoder) or the easier dvd flick(not the best mpeg2 encoder).

And for longterm archive probably just save the video in dv on dvtape. But if you want to save it as mpeg2 then use good mpeg2 converters like tmpgenc xpress or the free hcenc(not that simple though or use it together with avstompeg and save the mpeg2 stream on the hdd).

[Nicola-Pickle]

Hi, thanks very much Baldrick, will have a look at those. I'm still a bit confused that the video is 720x576 which have a ratio of 5:4 by calculating, while I understood (and you mentioned too) that it is regarded as 4:3.

Bye Nicola