[nbush]

I'm a novice with video conversion. I just took a 12gb (60 minute) avi file and edited it down to 26minutes with videowave. I then outputted it as a general avi file again. I expected the output file, being half the length, to tbe half the size. However, the 26 minute output file ended up as more than 10GB. How can that be? I did check the audio normalization option but nonetheless I expected a much smaller file to subsequently play with in MyDVD. Alternatively, how should I edit down an original avi file into a smaller avi file?

Thanks.

[ml]

I'm a novice with video conversion. I just took a 12gb (60 minute) avi file and edited it down to 26minutes with videowave. I then outputted it as a general avi file again. I expected the output file, being half the length, to tbe half the size. However, the 26 minute output file ended up as more than 10GB. How can that be? I did check the audio normalization option but nonetheless I expected a much smaller file to subsequently play with in MyDVD. Alternatively, how should I edit down an original avi file into a smaller avi file?

Thanks.

You're doing far to much work.

If you're going to be burning a DVD, you don't have to output that file you edited in VideoWave. Just open MyDVD and add the VideoWave production to the menu.

Those files are going to be converted to mpeg2 to play on your DVD player anyway.

[Jim_Hardin]

Although ml didn't specifically say it, you have to do a File Save while in VW in order to create the dmsm project file you will Add Title with in MyDVD.

[nbush]

You're doing far to much work.

If you're going to be burning a DVD, you don't have to output that file you edited in VideoWave. Just open MyDVD and add the VideoWave production to the menu.

Those files are going to be converted to mpeg2 to play on your DVD player anyway.

Thanks so much for the response. My motive for using videowave to edit the original file and resave it as an avi actually was to also reduce the file size of the master file- my hard drive is filling up. I've had success doing as you suggested- just using MyDVD straight to disk burning or mpeg, but the huge original (unedited) avi file still sits there eating up disk space. I'm reluctant to delete it. So I'm still confused why the editing didn't significantly reduce the file size.

Interestingly, there seems to be a difference to my struggling system between the original avi files direct from the camcorder and the resaved ones from videowave. I get an error trying burn the resaved files with MyDVD but not with the originals.

[myguggi]

Thanks so much for the response. My motive for using videowave to edit the original file and resave it as an avi actually was to also reduce the file size of the master file- my hard drive is filling up. I've had success doing as you suggested- just using MyDVD straight to disk burning or mpeg, but the huge original (unedited) avi file still sits there eating up disk space. I'm reluctant to delete it. So I'm still confused why the editing didn't significantly reduce the file size.

Interestingly, there seems to be a difference to my struggling system between the original avi files direct from the camcorder and the resaved ones from videowave. I get an error trying burn the resaved files with MyDVD but not with the originals.

Instead of capturing all the video from my camcorder to one huge avi file, I prefer to capture in small 10-15 segments which should create files that are less then 4GB in size. These you could then burn to a DVD as data for storage. Or you could also invest in an external hard drive and store you original videos there.
I mostly use a small free utility called WinDV to capture my video from my DV camcorder. This utility will capture the video from the camcorder to individual files based on the timestamp on the tape.

The difference in the size of the avi files after editing to the original file may be due to the fact that the resolution of the 2 avi files might be different. What is the resolution of the original avi file before you "cut it in half" and outputted to "avi normal"?