video quality/Best format/making dvd changing .avi size?

[brucefl]

I have a few tapes I want to convert to DVD. I am using VS9 with an intel cam that has an vid jack on it.
Someone I think said the best to start recording in is .avi? When I check the settings it has 160x120, I go to the options video and audio preferences, and says default, I change it and go ok, but it won't change?
In 160x120, the quality isn't very good.
I can go to win. moviemaker and record in higher settings, the file is about 14 megs a minute.
Any suggestions?
thanks bruce

[2Dogs]

Hi Bruce,

it's a little hard to figure out exactly what you're dealing with.

When you say you have a few tapes - are these miniDV tapes? If so, then the best course of action would be to follow the "recommended procedure" as laid out in the sticky post at the top of this forum. Follow that and you'll get the best DVD quality, and avoid the most common pitfalls.

160x120 resolution is very low - more appropriate to cell phones and the like. By contrast, NTSC DVD's are 720x480. MiniDV avi files are also about 3.6Mb per second - which you can see is much higher than even the 14 megs a minute you quote for the moviemaker files.

What exactly is your Intel camera? Not sure what you mean by a "vid jack" - for avi capture from a miniDV camcorder, you would normally hook the camcorder up to your pc using a firewire cable. The firewire port on the camcorder is usually a very small rectangular 4 pin socket measuring only 0.2" x 0.125".

Perhaps you could supply a bit more info.

[jchunter]

Bruce,
Start by following the recommended procedure in the top sticky post. If you have problems, let us know.

[brucefl]

What it has is a standard video jack in the back of the camera. I plug my vcr into that jack, and the audo into the audio in on the computer. I change the preferences on the camera setting to video jack