Is compresion possible ?

lk wrote on 2/24/2004, 7:11 PM
HI all -I am not really great at this editing stuff yet I was hopeing maybe somebody would have some ideas for me--
I have a old home video (VHS) that I transfered over to digital then I used screenblast to capture and put it together then i was going to use the program my dvd to finish it off and burn it -well well that is when i relized my video is about 19 GB -all in all it is less than one and a half hours - I thaught I've done this with my home digital movies before and a hour fits easily on a dvd-
Is there a way to compress this or should i have trtansfered something different ?

thank's for any help-
Laura

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/25/2004, 5:12 AM
It sounds like your video is still in DV .avi format (which is about 13GB/hour). In order to make a DVD it must be compressed to MPEG-2 which is usually less than 1/4 the size of DV .avi files. Your video should easily be under 4.5 GB after it's converted to MPEG-2.
cbrillow wrote on 2/25/2004, 5:13 AM
Hi Laura,

I'm just getting started with Screenblast myself, but have some general knowledge about NLE from using similar programs.

It's very likely that the large file that you're looking at is an AVI file. In order to be written to DVD in a format that can be played on a DVD player, it needs to be in meg-2 form. I'd suggest reading it back into Screenblast, and selecting the "Make Movie" function. Again -- I'm not familiar with the menu structure yet, and I'm not at my video editing machine -- I know that there's an option to call up MyDVD from there. You'll probably have have to render your edited video to an mpeg-2 file before going to MyDVD. (Haven't used it yet...) If you do that, it should fall under an option to save your movie to your hard drive. Look in the file formats for a choice that mentions mpeg & DVD compliance -- something similar to that. Rendering will take a LONG time -- at least a couple of hours. But when you're finished, you should have a compressed mpeg file that MyDVD can burn to a disc for you.

Wish I could be more specific with menu steps -- just don't know the program well enough yet. Saw that nobody had yet replied, and I figured vague help might be better than none at all.... I'm sure that one of the fine folks here who have more Screenblast experience will clear this up for you very soon.
smshick wrote on 2/25/2004, 5:54 PM
Hello,
I am definitely not an expert on Screenblast Movie Studio, but I have been playing around with it a lot. I want to thank Cbrillow with the info. I have noticed that from Screenblast when you click on Movie Maker and select "Burn it to DVD" you assume, or at least I assumed, that the file it renders it to would be compatible with the My DVD program. Instead, in the My DVD program, the burn button is grayed out and I couldn't understand why it wouldn't let me burn it. I looked on the My DVD website and it said it is often grayed out because the file size was too big. And it was true that my video was saved in Screenblast as an .avi file. If you have the Screenblast manual, look at page 98 and it gives you a list of file types and which ones you can save your video in mpeg. I ended up following Cbrillow's advice, saved it to my hard drive, and under Render Settings, I selected the mpeg type. I had no problem then burning this onto a DVD using the My DVD program. Hope this helps.
lk wrote on 2/26/2004, 9:28 PM
HI- update
that was exactly what it was -I went back to Screenblast redid the rendering to mpeg 2 and tada my little movie was 3.9 GB perfect for a DVD.......or so you would think -I can't burn with Screenblast so I went back to My DVD and as it "copied movie and settings " and put in the menu and button that I didn't even want or need it hiked it over the 4.7 dvd again-
Well I was at my wits end I tried every program I have but I've not used before- Still nothing I called X copy to see if Icould somehow use plantnium
on a file on my hard drive-NO-
I called screenblast and for only 99.95 i could have all the tech. help I want-
or E-mail them and wait a few days-
It was also the same (email and wait) at sonic.(My DVD)- Finally I called the the tech guy at my Comp usa figureing he could sugest a class or something-
That was even confusing to him but he said there was a video geek sales guy ,he would ask
How nice was this, the man called me told me about a web sight,that will give me a better understanding of stuff and took me through a bunch of links that braught me to a program that burns your stuff with no added junk -you don't have to have any extra's-
So I finished it today and am just going to unvail it to the family tonight-
thank-you to all that offered help -I hope I can do the same someday-Laura

IndyGuy wrote on 3/5/2004, 2:21 PM
Go ahead and burn your DVD files to your hard drive. Download DVD shrink (free). Point Shrink to the folder you put your files in and it will compress them to fit on one DVD.