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AR15.COM
6/16/2007 7:12:36 PM EDT
I finally got my laptop able to connect to my digital camcorder so I'm moving my videos to DVD's.  These files are huge!  The first one I imported was about 30 minutes and ended up being 6 gb.  Will it compress when I burn it to the DVD?  I bought 2 hour discs but it says they only hold 4.76 gb.

At the moment I'm just using Windows Movie Maker.  Any other software I should look at?
6/16/2007 7:18:21 PM EDT
[#1]
I believe compression does take place.  I am not sure how much though.  You may want to research that or if you should convert those files to a different file type before recording.
6/16/2007 7:19:42 PM EDT
[#2]
I have no idea what file type they are being imported as.  I had some options but I think I stuck with the default.
6/16/2007 8:10:11 PM EDT
[#3]
when you copy the file over   right click on the file and go to properties and it will tell you the file type.   common ones.   .vob.    .mpeg.  .mpg   etc etc

you can convert it to a smaller image but you will lose quality.   you might want to check your manual on what quality level its on,  im guessing.   i have never used a camcorder before.  i would assume it would be similar to a camera
6/16/2007 8:27:04 PM EDT
[#4]
I'm going to have to figure something out.  This last clip, about 80 minutes, is a 16 gb file.
6/16/2007 8:42:53 PM EDT
[#5]
that seems excessive to me too.  

but what do i know  
6/16/2007 9:00:23 PM EDT
[#6]
My Sony Mini-DV Camcorder sends them to the computer in raw AVI.. huge files.. but they'll convert to MPEG2 just fine and make excellent DVDs..

I'll bet your camcorder came with DVD making SW..

If not.. fire up usenet or bit torrent and get nerovision

6/18/2007 3:15:10 AM EDT
[#7]
If they are that large, they are probably being imported as *.DV

These are basically uncompressed digital video. Everything will compress down.

Once you make the DVD structure on your Hard drive, if it is bigger than 4.7GB, go find a program called DVDShrink, as it's name implies, it will do some good compression, but it does have it's limits.

If the final DVD with menus and everything is still over 10GBs, then you will need to do some cutting out of content