vhs to dvd-avi file size 41gb!

[mc.dodd]

hi
had a go at this last night and used ulead videostudio saving the file as.avi
all went well but the avi file size is huge at 41gb!
don't know why this would be so can anyone shed some light on it or recommend me some other software to use that will give me a smaller file size?
I was hoping for about 1.5gb max per tape and then converting them all onto one disk with convertx2dvd..

cheers in advance
mcdodd

[Mickey]

id try divx or similair flavours or codex programs. This will compress it down alot. Cant think of the utility i used but all of them can compress without loosing much of the quality

[ilscuro]

Sounds like it saved as an uncompressed avi, you can compress that avi down to a more managable size with virtualdub, like Mickey says, choosing divx or similar codec, when converting.

[Over Carl]

According to wkipedia, vhs resolution is 333x480 so no point in saving in much higher quality.

[Possy_99]

fair point open carl, but not much point in taking much notice of resolution imo, as most likely the capture program will default to dvd resolution - and convertx will no doubt re-encode to dvd resolution no matter what the source resolution is.

The main problem is as ilscuro has suggested, with that kind of file size no doubt it's uncompressed avi.. just has to encode with some kind of compression.. but even saying that, if you have the hard drive space to hold uncompressed.. won't convertx take it and re-encode anyways..

[cosmicma]

i wouldn.t be too bothered about the file size as long as you have enough space to accomadate it

once youv'e edited the video footage to a point your happy with it and want to write it to dvd it's the overall time the video footage is that will be important
i think you can put about 3 hours of video onto a dvd but your better off sticking to about an hour or so on a single layer dvd if you don't want loss

iv'e allways used pinnacle studio for this kind of thing but there's a ton of video editing packages out there that does exactly the same thing

if your using a duel/quad core processor you might want to consider cyberlink power director 9 as it uses all proccesors and can speed up the rendering time considerably

hope this helps...

[mc.dodd]

cheers guys! I think I'll try and compress it down to divx first, there's only 4 tapes to do all about 45 mins (in fact they're golfing lesson dvds that can only be found on vhs)
I do have quad core so may look into power director too..

[Over Carl]

Cosmicma actually has a point - preserving as much quality as possible before final production is I believe how the pro's do it as it yields the best results.

If you have the storage space and time it's could be the best option.

[Bodman]

Sounds like its in uncompressed AVI (as said above) what is your intended end product, is it DVD if so then you can run it through a compressor package most of these will let you reduce the bitrate until you get the desired size. If you dont have a lot of experience with video editing get a one hit package like Pinacle Studio as these are the easiest to get a decent result. If you want to venture further then look at Adobe Premier and CCE Encoder

Bod

[WRATH OF BOD]

maybe go dvd recorder root,i use a toshiba & it can record 30/60 minutes or 2 hour/4 hour/5hour/6hour on a 4.7 gb dvd-r.
the longer the original tape the worse the quality.
then edit on pc with sony vegas or pinnicle or what ever you feel.
converting 41gb will take hours even with a good spec pc
http://www.videohelp.com/ good place for help

[mc.dodd]

thanks, the original tapes weren't in the best of condition so I just converted them to divx.. used convertxtodvd and they were fine for intended use..
cheers