Newbie needs much help.

Question: What is the most efficient way to convert VHS movie to DVD. ?

Set up: VHS ->Camcorder->Laptop (Sony Vegas Pro, Vista) I have made an .avi capture file. When I convert this to mpeg2 (many hrs! ) for DVD authoring (Sony DVD Architect) the DVD is too large for my 4.7 GB DVD disk burner.

Is another software approach better? Or do I purchase an external DL burner? If so can others with older players read it? Or do I settle for highly compressed (I suspect poorer quality) smaller DVD ?

Any help greatly appreciated


Bob

Prolly not what you want to hear, but the shortest and usually cheapest route is to buy a DVD recorder (set-top box).

But when you convert your AVI (raw DV) to MPEG2 for DVD authoring, you need to be looking at the bitrate and quality settings to manage the file sizes. you should be able to put 1.5 hrs on a single layer DVD with very decent quality. Another approach that can yield good results is to create your DVd project with the larger file sizes, then use a tool like DVDShrink to reduce it to DVD5 size. Results can vary, but again if it's 1.5 hrs or less it should wind up with very good quality.

Thanks CDan for your quick response. I m trying the Vegas CBR/VBR custom settings to convert the avi to mpeg2 and using the Bitrate Calculator - not exactly sure what I'm doing yet but will see if this produces a smaller DVD file. Is DVDShrink freeware, shareware or a commercial product?
Again thanks!

Bob

DVDSHRINK is freeware.