What can you use to compress avi ?

holo wrote on 10/7/2005, 9:27 PM
Hi all,

I have Vegas 4 but not DVD architect.
I have created a couple of large avi's (12 gig) from various home movies and want to burn to a 4.7 gig DVD. What is the best way to do that to keep the best image quality please ?

I can do it and reduce the size to 700 mb but this is significantly lower quality. I realise architect could probably do it , but is there another way you'd recommend with free, or cheap, software ?

Thanks for reading.

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 10/7/2005, 9:32 PM
There are companies that will give you a 30 day free trial and you download the program from their site. Some are limited in functions, but for the most part work. Ulead, TMPGEnc at pegasys, Expect it to be confusing, as all new programs will be. 30 days just may be enough time.
I forgot to add, you can prepare them for DVD in Vegas by turning the avi's into mpeg2s. 12 gigs of avis should be about an hour in length. So about 3 gigs for mpeg2. (or super high quality 4.3 gigs)
johnmeyer wrote on 10/7/2005, 9:51 PM
Use TMPGEnc at 7,000,000 bps average rate.
holo wrote on 10/7/2005, 10:33 PM
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I will give it a go :)
Burning to Mpeg 2 is a great idea, thanks :)
John_Cline wrote on 10/7/2005, 10:39 PM
holo,

I'm not sure if you realize this, but in order to create a DVD that is playable on a set-top DVD player, you will not only need to compress the video to MPEG2, but "author" the disc as well. Authroing creates the menus and file structure on the disc necessary to play on a standard DVD player. Simply compressing the video and copying the resulting file to a blank DVD will not do it. You will need DVD Architect or some other DVD authoring software.

John
holo wrote on 10/8/2005, 12:13 AM
Hi John

Yep, I have a DVD creation program pre loaded on my computer, I also have Nero. I have previously used the pre-loaded software (Intermedia DVD creator) to burn a copy but was only able to burn a version to 700mb or so. I am keen to try to pre compress, knowing it will fit onto a single DVD before I try to burn again.

Thanks for the info though, never underestimate the depths of my ignorance :)