Help with home video please

[ryanos]

Hi,

I have some video that has been recorded on minidv on my 2 yr old Panasonic camcorder but when I upload it onto my PC the file is enormous 1 hour = 12gb!!

Is there anyway I can compress these, they are listed as AVI files. I obviously would like to retain as much quality as possible

Any help greatly appreciated

[senu]

Not as DV AVI
DV AVI filesize is fixed

It was not meant to be the end product on the PC but one you would use for editing and convert onwrds then delete the DV AVI

Ass such if it ends up as a DVD video it would not be DV AVI anymore but mpeg2 which is smaller and if well done still rather good quality

If you want to watch them as they are there are loads of video file conversion software ( and editing software) with which you could convert them to various smaller size file with varying degres of loss in quality

[ryanos]

Thanks for the prompt response

what sw do you recommend I use to convert, please?

[senu]

I use Canopus Procoder but there are loads which are cheaper and do the job well if not quite as fast
There are some freeware titles too but Im less readily familiar with them
Even WMM ( free) can convert to wmv
If editing is required though it would be best to edit with any of the common ly available editing titles , then let that software convert as part of the output process
What would be helpful would be for you to determine to which use you want to make the video files . This would determine whether you use any of mpeg, wmv, real, divx/ xvid or any of the mpeg4 file types ( some of which have AVI extensions) or even mov ( quicktime)

[ryanos]

Thanks again divx is my preferred option