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What is the best compression to use with AVI files so that I don't have very big files on my computer? I have a 341GB hard drive with 220GB free at the moment. I use capture from an analog video camera (PAL). I did have an alparysoft lossless codec about 5 years ago but I couldn't tell if that was doing anything to the size of the capture. Most of my capture files from back then seemed to stall my windowsxp computer.

I was doing some editing using MPEG2 clips with VideoStudio Pro X2 (patched with latest patch) and found the audio to come out of synchronisation with the sound during the final edit. I read in the forums that MPEG2 shouldn't be used for video editing programs. This seems funny to me but I suppose I have to accept it.

Anyway, I played around by stopping smartrender and it seemed to get rid of the sound in the project when I rendered it. The program wouldn't let me save a few times stating that a file was already open even though I wasn't trying to save as that filename. So I closed and reopened the project.

I don't know what happened in the end but I managed to get a file which was in synchronisation by using a separately compiled audio and video stream. Now I can't do any more editing to the file though, and with all the playing about i'm not sure I want to

I realise that this question is probably answered somewhere in the forum but I just got accepted into the forum and I wanted to write a post to communicate my tribulations. I've been looking at the forum for 1 or 2 hours.

Welcome to the forums,

For editing purposes, DV is the recommended compression for editing. There are 2 types of DV, Type-1 which has the audio stream mixed in with the video, and Type-2 having a separate audio stream. Both yield file sizes of 13 gig per hour of video.

When you start editing in VS, you have a Project file, which have the extension of VSP, (Video Studio Project). These are nothing more then text-like files, that are instructions for VS. Instructions on where the clips, images, ect., being used are located on your system, any cuts, transitions, effects, and so on. Then once you are finished editing you create a video file, which is done using the instructions of the VSP file. So your original (source) clips remain untouched.

So when you insert a video file, you see a thumbnail representing that video file. This is a virtual clip, again so that your source clips are not altered. Unless you render a video file, and save it as the same name as your source file, you should be able to render as many video files as your system is capable of holding.

Now if you're intentions are to put your video masterpieces onto DVDs for viewing on your TV, then you need to create DVD compatible MPEG-2 files. These then are are inserted into the timeline of the burn module. The burn module is basically a separate application, that is accessed from inside the VS editor. VS project files (VSP) can be used in the burn module, however some people do have problems when using them.

MPEG is a higher-compressed format than DV or raw uncompressed avi. While we're here at "avi", I'll mention that avi is not a single video format in and of itself. AVI is a container or wrapper. It can hold numerous video file formats or compressions, such as DV, DivX, Xvid, MJPEG, Cinepak, WMV, and MPEG-4 to name a few. Back to the MPEG format..., since MPEG is a higer-compressed format there are risks that are inherent with editing them. MPEG and several of those I listed are not meant to be edited, but viewed and distributed, so editing them can be risky, and results can vary from the more common OOS (out of sync), glitches near transitions, and bad quality. Compressed video is like JPEG photos when it comes to editing them. They tend to loose quality with each generation.

You might want to read through From Camcorder to DVD tutorial. It's rather lengthy, but contains a lot of information that help answer some of your questions.

A Suggested Workflow has been developed to help guide you through the mine-field of video editing, as it pertains to Ulead's VideoStudio Programs. They can be viewed here:
Suggested WorkFlow for Video Creation

For a brief summary of AVI and MPEG-2 please read the article at this link:
Summary of AVI and MPEG-2

There are 2 types of DV, Type-1 which has the audio stream mixed in with the video, and Type-2 having a separate audio stream. Both yield file sizes of 13 gig per hour of video.

Thank you, I learned something today. Was wondering about the difference.
Both create an avi file that can be used by VS.
As far as I remember I always capture as type-1.

I imagine the separate sound track created by type-2 will appear in the first audion channel on the timeline, and it will be possible to edit separatedly from the video? Then if needed overlay with audio from the second timeline audio channel?
Will experiment this weekend on my home PC

No, that is not what Type 2 DV does. You don't get separate audio and video channels which you can edit separately in VS. You still get video and audio all in the main timeline. Type 2 video is usable in rather more advanced ways by more professional level programs, such as Adobe Premiere Pro which prefers Type 2 and handles the video and audio differently.

Then I guess I will continue using the split audio function in VS, for a moment thought one less step is possible.