converting mpg or avi

[rodcon660]

I have downloaded two tapes to my harddrive. one in avi format the other in mpg. format. What I want to do is save them to a dvd disc without going through dvd builder, because I don't want any menus yet. When I try to use disc copier it doesn't recognize the two files. How can I get them in a format so that disc copier can recognize them? Thanks for any help.

[d_deweywright]

I have downloaded two tapes to my harddrive. one in avi format the other in mpg. format. What I want to do is save them to a dvd disc without going through dvd builder, because I don't want any menus yet. When I try to use disc copier it doesn't recognize the two files. How can I get them in a format so that disc copier can recognize them? Thanks for any help.

Well, I'm assuming you don't want them to be playable in a standalone DVD player since you don't want to go through DVD Builder, so you can just write them as Data DVDs in Creator Classic. If you're trying to use Disc Copier so that it will compress files to fit on a DVD, then you'll need to Create a DVD project using DVD Builder, and output to a .ISO file, then Disc Copier can tell what you want it to do.

 

So, if you just want to write the files to DVD, use Creator Classic and make a Data DVD, otherwise you'll need to go through DVD Builder.

[rodcon660]

Well, I'm assuming you don't want them to be playable in a standalone DVD player since you don't want to go through DVD Builder, so you can just write them as Data DVDs in Creator Classic. If you're trying to use Disc Copier so that it will compress files to fit on a DVD, then you'll need to Create a DVD project using DVD Builder, and output to a .ISO file, then Disc Copier can tell what you want it to do.

 

So, if you just want to write the files to DVD, use Creator Classic and make a Data DVD, otherwise you'll need to go through DVD Builder.

I was trying to fit them onto one disc and the only way to do this was to compress them. The only program that I see that does that is disc copier. I just needed to store them on a disc until I was ready to start my project. What I did was combine several files into to one in the mpeg format. I tried the Creator Classic but it wouldn't compress. This will be fine for now, thanks for your help.

[bimicher]

I was trying to fit them onto one disc and the only way to do this was to compress them. The only program that I see that does that is disc copier. I just needed to store them on a disc until I was ready to start my project. What I did was combine several files into to one in the mpeg format. I tried the Creator Classic but it wouldn't compress. This will be fine for now, thanks for your help.

If you just want to save your video clips and then use them later in a project, you certainly don't want to do any video compression using DVD Builder and then DiscCopier. After compression you will not get back the quality you had before compression. If you want to keep the quality you have to zip the files as data files although you will not get much compression. To save the files you will have to use Classic Creator and save the files as data files to keep the quality. DVD discs are cheap and you can use RW DVDs for temporary storage.

[Guest mlpasley]

I was trying to fit them onto one disc and the only way to do this was to compress them. The only program that I see that does that is disc copier. I just needed to store them on a disc until I was ready to start my project. What I did was combine several files into to one in the mpeg format. I tried the Creator Classic but it wouldn't compress. This will be fine for now, thanks for your help.

 

If you have them in mpeg2 format (make certain it's mpeg2 and not mpeg1), you'll be able to get around one hour of 'best' quality mpeg2 onto a DVD with Creator Classic. As previously suggested, a DVD RW will allow you to reuse the DVD. However, I'd probably just absorb the cost of a DVD R.

 

If you need to compress one hour of AVI footage into an MPEG2, then put the footage on a storyboard in VideoWave, Split the video so that it's less than an hour. Now do a File\ Output production as.... Video File, DVD authoring, Best. That will compress the avi footage to mpeg2. Now you can use Creator Classic to burn that mpeg2 to a DVD. Repeat as needed for the rest of the footage.

 

Or you can do as most of us do and invest in a second internal or external hard drive.

 

Hope that helps.

[lynn98109]

Just a thought - DVD/RW may mean you have fewer used DVDs at the end of the day, but if the DVD/RW fails (and RW media has a high failure rate), you've just lost everything. It might be worth it to just use DVD/R.

 

Lynn