Wow, the video files are huge!

[Mosey]

I have been taking home movies for years using a Mini DV camcorder. I decided to attempt to copy my home movies to DVD. So, I got a firewire card and Ulead VideoStudio 9.0 SE DVD software. I copied a 1 hour Mini DV tape to the computer. The Ulead file consummed almost 11GB! Is that right or am I doing something wrong? I wanted to back up the file on a CD, but there's now way it will fit on any CD. I also don't see how it will fit on a DVD. Thanks.

[2COOL]

Here's a simple formula for size in regards to video.

Size = Bitrate x Time

Assuming that you recorded in a high quality bitrate and with your mentioned 1 hour footage, you have to expect a large file. Your camera probably outputted an AVI file like mine does. Another option would to split it to multiple discs.

[paglamon]

Yes, Mini-DV Camcorders record as DV-AVI,which is about 13GB per hour.When it is transferred via firewire to PC there is a simple transfer from cam to PC without ANY compression. If you want to fit this in a CD,then make a VCD out of it using any VCD compliant file making software(TMPGEnc is very good at this). Making a DVD will require to first make DVD compliant MPEG2 files from the AVI and then using a DVD authoring program.You can try out Ulead Video Studio for making both a VCD and A DVD. One hour of video will easily fit into a standard 700MB CD(as VCD) or a DVD5( as DVD-Video).

[Mosey]

OK, I guess I won't panic yet then. I'll go ahead and create a DVD from it and see how it goes. Thanks for your help.