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I wonder if some of you can help me with this technical issue.

I've been making video files to save as wmv format so that it is easy for people to watch in their computer. They are in good quality high resolution from avi files. This means that people can only watch them in DVD-Rom. Now, I run into a problem and realize that some people want to watch these videos on DVD-TV player.

Some people have given me some suggestions to change my files to DVD-TV player but the problem is that the quality suffers in the transferring.


Question:

1. Does anyone have any good way to help me out in this technical issue? Maybe you have some good experience?

2. Also when you learn piano, do you prefer watching on TV rather than from computer? In the past, I've watched piano lessons from computer only, so it never dawned on me to watch on TV.

Thanks for helping me out because I feel stuck.

Rosa

Ok, let's start with a few questions.
Are you using a miniDV camcorder? How do you transfert the video from the camera to the computer? Are you using software for editing?

Serge

I use Canon camera to make videos and they are in avi formats. Then I use Video Editor Software to make videos. At first, I saved them in avi formats but they are very big size files in high resolution quality. I didn't really want the high resolution to suffer, so I save the files to 'wmv' instead, and the file size is greatly reduced. Now, everything I have is in wmv format. I deleted all the original avi cuz they were about 6 GB. They were taking up too much room in my computer.

Thanks for helping me out with this technical issue. I am stuck! I wonder what to do with these wmv files to burn them to TV DVD playing so that the quality is not lost.

Rosa

Grab the demo of Sony Vegas Platinum and DVD Architect if you're using windows. The first of those two allows you to import footage from your camera and cut/edit/add special effects and fades, adjust audio etc The 2nd of the two takes the movie(s) you made in the first and allows you to make a standard DVD including intros, menus and chapters.

If quality is your concern, you're best going from the original camera footage into Sony Vegas then rendering that to the correct DVD format (see the tutorials for the correct format). Assuming you kept the original DV tapes? However, you should be able to directly use the wmv if you no longer have the original footage, but chances are it will be re-encoded which will result in some quality loss and depending upon the resolution the wmv is, it might not look great on a TV. Easier to just try it and see if it's acceptable or not.

It's always worth keeping the original footage around, even if it means burning it directly to a DVD (not as a video just as plain data) either a 4.7GB or 9GB dual layer DVD will do depending upon the size of the files from the camera and you can always split them across multiple DVDs. That way you can always re-do projects in the future should the need arise, especially if you backup the project files onto the same DVD.

rosa, have you googled the term "convert wmv to dvd"? I just did and found numerous programs that claim to do the job. Most are shareware which you can try for free to see how they work. I would suggest downloading a few of these and trying them out. Then you can purchase the one that works best for you. This one looks proomising. Please note that I have not tried it, but there is a free trial offer before purchase, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot.

Wow, you guys are great with your suggestions. I'll certainly look into them. It never dawned on me to google and search. Any suggestions is good and thanks for pinpointing promising ones for me. I am not good with technical stuff and don't even know which one to pick among the pile. Good thing playing piano does not involve understanding computer technical stuff. LOL!

Rosa

I use Sony's Vegas and DVD Maker to make and burn DVDs. I've been using both for about 5-years (they used to be Sonic Foundry until purchased by Sony).

It's about the best that I've used. Perhaps a bit pricey. But you get ease of use, great results, and a lot creative flexibility.

BTW, if you make *.mpg files instead of *.avi, your files will be smaller and more managable.

>>Now, everything I have is in wmv format. I deleted all the original avi cuz they were about 6 GB. They were taking up too much room in my computer.

That is the problem, you should have kept the original. Going from wmv to mpeg2 (dvd), the quality will suffer.

Serge

Or used a lossless codec. I do that for my iTunes library because while I don't want to store uncompressed files from my CD collection, I do want full quality.

I can't offer much help on convertig files, I usually stumble through the process, but if I were going to watch lessons I would probably want the option of DVD on TV because my computer isn't in the same room as my piano, but the TV is. I'm sure I'm not the only one, and a DVD made for a player will still work in a computer unless its a very old one.