Just want to make a Christmas DVD!! Help!!

[vfd265]

I searched, scoured and browsed the forum for answers, only to become more confused than I was when I started. I am new to digital video, but consider myself fairly computer literate. However, all this formatting, codecs and compression talk is making my head spin. Now to the root of the problem.

I have 2 Christmas videos that I recorded on Mini-DV and would LOVE to turn them into DVD's. I transferred the video to my PC, using Windows Movie Maker. I save them as AVI, it was the best qaulity choice and I figured that was the way to go? I edited the videos, adding a few transitions and titles.

My question is how do I get these to DVD from Windows Movie Maker without losing quality? Also, would a different program be better to use? I am not making professional quality movies, just want to archive my home movies.

Any help would be appreciated, and remember I know next to nothing about digital video.

Thanks1

[Chewy]

http://forum.digital-digest.com/forumdisplay.php?f=146

I reccomend this free program for beginners

Play around with it to convert to dvd compliant mpeg2 files that you can later burn to dvd

you do have a dvd burner right?

[vfd265]

Yes I do have a DVD burner, no offense taken, It is a legit question....lol.

As a further note, the files I already stored on my computer were AVI....each one is 10-11 gigs.

[Chewy]

Well this is rocket science and no one can lead you thru it, it takes a while to get it right

I would have kept my avi file size down to about 700MB/hr of video since hard drive space can become a premium and unless you are capturing home video in high def the extra size won't help, it only helps an older computer keep up by not having to compress

[paglamon]

@vfd265
Did you try the software that Chewy mentioned in his earlier post ?

@Chewy
His is a MiniDV camcorder.Transferred via Firewire will always give him DV-AVI,which is about 13 GB per hour. Why should he compress that ? The conversion from DV-AVI to DVD will itself entail compression.It is better not to compress before the conversion.

[Chewy]

A friend does it both ways, we can't tell any difference except the uncompressed avi wastes a lot of space. Moviemaker allows you the choice.

[paglamon]

uncompressed avi

DV-AVI is not uncompressed. It has bitrate of about 25 Mbps. Uncompressed avi is about 9 times that size.

[Chewy]

My friend only has an 120 gig hard drive which is already close to full, his amd 2400 handles the firewire capture and compression less than a gig an hour without problems or quality loss, why would he want to keep a 13 gig one hour avi?

I have heard this for years but i think it's a holdover from when computers couldn't handle the compression in real time

[paglamon]

Sorry Chewy. I disagree. Hardware that can support real time capture and compression without frame drops should cost much more than adding a few hundred Gigs of HD. Secondly, the OP does some editing on his captured/transferred video. It is accepted that DV-AVI is better editable than mpg.
I still feel that prior to editing the video should be as little compressed as practically possible. Anyone interested in video editing MUST have a dedicated HD for that only. But then,everyone has his/her preferences.

[Chewy]

Hardware that can support real time capture and compression without frame drops

his amd 2400 and 512 megs of ram has been doing it for 2 years, never dropped a frame

I tried to convince him about the extra hard drive, he said no need