Mpeg 2 files or AVI ?

[Google eye]

Which are the best files to compress to. I have a DVD Maker Usb , but don't have a firewire on my computor .

Just want to know which formatt would be best for posting things on you tube or is AVI and Mpeg 2 virtually the same?

Dave

[StevieBuck]

It depends entirely on what type of file you compress to and the encoding options you use.

mpeg 2 is what you use when creating DVD videos for playback on a standalone player.

For saving on your PC you can get better compression (i.e smaller files) with the same quality using certain types of .avi file, such as XviD or DivX.

[senu]

Originally Posted by Google eye

Which are the best files to compress to. I have a DVD Maker Usb , but don't have a firewire on my computor .

Just want to know which formatt would be best for posting things on you tube or is AVI and Mpeg 2 virtually the same?

Dave

AVI is not a format.. Mpeg4 files, mjpeg ect with various codecs use AVI extension as does DV AVI which is 13Gb/ hr
Mpeg2 similarly has a huge Hi Def variant. however you can have smaller mpeg2 or mpeg1 files with low encoding bitrates and small pixel sizes
The best DVD ready mpeg2 files arent that small : ( 4.7 Gb/hr)
Suffuce to say that we friendly format try and combine a size/ quality ratio. The more compressed the file , the worse the quality but it may be OK for web use
I would have a look at You tubes FAQ to see what they say on upladed files
MOV, real, divx , xvid, wmv are other web friendlly formats