Newbie - confused about DVD->Divx->DVD

[nzmike]

Sorry if this has been asked a zillion times... I've looked through a few of the beginners guides and FAQs but can't seem to find a simple answer to my question. In fact they were just making me more confused (most of the stuff I read was from 2001 so I have no idea whether it's still relevant or not.)

Say I have a DVD that is larger that 4.7GB. I want to convert this DVD to DivX to compress it and then write the DivX back to a DVD so I can play it my standalone player. I know I can do the first bit using tools like Gordian Knot etc which (I assume) creates a single AVI file.

But what do I use to basically reauthor the AVI file to a normal DVD format (VOB/IFO) that I can then use Nero (or whatever) to write back to a blank DVD? Or is this not possible?

Also, what codec (3.x, 4.x, 5.x) and tools to do both steps (ie: rip/write) do people recommend?

TIA for any help... this stuff is very confusing for a newbie (or perhaps I'm just particularly stupid!).

Mike

[jimjim9001]

if you already have an avi file to convert...try this site...

https://www.jimmysoft.bravehost.com

it might help...its a new site, but if you just want to compress a 9gig dvd disc doen to 4.4gig...go to this site and click on using dvdshrink

[setarip]

"Say I have a DVD that is larger that 4.7GB. I want to convert this DVD to DivX to compress it and then write the DivX back to a DVD so I can play it my standalone player."

Why go through this unnecessary process? Simply use the excellent freeware program DVD Shrink to compress and duplicate the DVD (without bothering to convert to DivX-compressed .AVI). This will yield far better results...

[nzmike]

Sorry, I should have said that I already use DVD Shrink (and love it!) to back up existing DVDs... what I wanted to do was to take numerous .avi files (a whole pile of music videos I have) and burn them to a DVD along with adding a menu etc. I checked out Jimmy's page and have downloaded the trial of NeoDVD... haven't tried it yet but it looks like that will do the job.

The other reason I was asking about DVD->DivX->DVD was that I read that DivX gives you a lot more compression and smaller resulting files... so I thought I could get more clips or movies on one DVD if I went through that process.

What authoring tools do you folks use to the sort of thing I'm talking about here?

Mike

[jimjim9001]

once you have all the avi files u want you can use neodvd.....
its the best 1 i have found to get half decent qulity at a quick encoding time.....as for turning dvd's to divx i dont know a lot about......please post on this page if u know any good and quick software.....thanx....