Compressing Video

[Dennis_C]

I need to know how to take a DVD and compress it, or convert it to like an avi file.

This is NOT for any music or concerts....but something that I am doing for work. I was asked to take these vhs tapes, burn them onto a dvd and then using a program like Pinnacle Studio, compress it down to an avi file or mpeg file that is fairly small.

I need to take 28 minutes of video and make it less than about 600mb.

Any help would be appreciated.

[saltman]

go to dvdrhelp.com they got the goods

[Five]

also videohelp.com

[h_vargas]

1) dvdrhelp.com = videohelp.com

2) this may sound dumb, but if you were given VHS tapes to capture, why not eliminate encoding/burning to DVD? i may be misunderstanding your post, but it looks to me like you want to go from VHS -> AVI file (read: divx or xvid). so, if you don't need to create actual "DVDs," then by all means skip that step as it is unnecessary (unless you were asked/told to provide "true" DVDs as well, of course).

now, if the source material is on DVD, then it's pretty easy to do... you can just use a freeware ripping software like DVDDecrypter, then use a divx or xvid encoder. the divx encoder costs (not free). i THINK i read that there's a free xvid encoder, but i may be mistaken.

oh, and fitting 29 minutes onto a single CDR (in xvid/divx) should be VERY EASY to do as far as space on the disc goes... you can get very acceptable quality (relatively speaking) of 60 minutes of footage in divx format under 600 MB. it won't be as good as higher bitrate DVDs, of course, but still MUCH better than VCD crap... or even SVCD, IMO.

[jaguaracer]

1) dvdrhelp.com = videohelp.com

2) this may sound dumb, but if you were given VHS tapes to capture, why not eliminate encoding/burning to DVD? i may be misunderstanding your post, but it looks to me like you want to go from VHS -> AVI file (read: divx or xvid). so, if you don't need to create actual "DVDs," then by all means skip that step as it is unnecessary (unless you were asked/told to provide "true" DVDs as well, of course).


Yes it sounds odd, however, in his original post he said he was asked to specifically to burn to a DVD first:
was asked to take these vhs tapes, burn them onto a dvd and then using a program like Pinnacle Studio
Sounds like maybe he is using a standalone DVD recorder.
But, if all you need is the .avi file and you have access to a TV capture card Most capture software records to MPEG/AVI files of various compressions settings.

[willndmb]

you want to use the same imported file for both tasks
import the vhs, it will be about 6gb in size and depending on your programs might be a avi file
then the editing program should have a export file option where you can compress it down to 600mb and then reuse the same original file to export it as m2v for dvd at a size of like 2gb

[h_vargas]

willndmb - excellent, perfect, concise reply.



and too many adjectives in my reply.