How to end up with recorded tv video just like the torrents out there?

[mainstreet]

Hello,
There are tons of TV episode torrents out there without commercials and in perfect divx/xvid AVI format (which have an excellent balance between video quality and file size).
Is there a comprehensive guide out there that desribes how I can do this myself?

Currently, I am recording obscure foreign TV shows using Windows7 Media Centre. The problem is the WTV format, which is difficult to edit and the huge file sizes (which makes editting even more difficult).

Unfortnately, Windows7 Media Centre is the only capture software I can get to work with my crappy ViXS Pure TV tuner card that came with the Gateway SM5410E computer I have.

In summary, I guess I am looking for 3 things:
1. How can I reduce the size of huge WTV files into a convenient format for editting?
2. How can I easily remove commercials or scenes I don't want?
3. How can I do all this and end up in divx/xvid AVI format without losing a lot of video quality along the way?

Thank you for reading and any advice you can offer,
Terry

[redwudz]

1) You might look at this thread: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/325139-WTV-remux-to-MPG?highlight=wtv
2) AVIDemux or for a few $$, VideoReDo for the MPEG files.
3) For the last part, just drop one of those files you have downloaded into MediaInfo and look at the bitrates and formats of the audio and video. That should tell you most of the Divx/Xvid settings to try.

And welcome to our forums.

[mh2360]

If you right click on the WTV file, Windows 7 should give you the option to convert it to DVR-MS format, which is accepted by more software than WTV is at the moment.