mpeg1, mpeg2 or pal dvd

[Klaus Christo]

I have had the worst time with trying to put my video together in widescreen. I am checking everything at the moment and am a bit confused with the project properties. With some of my converted clips it says pal dvd, other times it says mpeg1 or mpeg 2.
I have been reading and reading and still am not clear as to their meaning.
I am trying to put about 5 different video files into the one dvd and they all seem to have different properties - the file formats are different and theVideo types are different. Should I just start from scratch and try and get these into the same format??
Some of the video files look ok when put on the dvd and others are terrible.
Also what would be the best settings in the basic instructions it does not seem to mention the file format and video type and vbr settings.
Also having trouble with vs9 keeping the aspect at 16:9 it seems to want to change to 4:3 and go to frame based instead of lower field first.
So many things to watch for.

[sjj1805]

It sounds like you are obtaining your video sources from a variety of places.

heres a brief explantion of file types.

AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) is the movie equivalant of a still image BMP
MPEG is the movie equivalant of a still image JPG.

AVI files are huge but editable.
MPEG files are not designed to be edited.

PAL DV is an AVI file.
MPEG1 is a smaller picture and was designed for VCD / SVCD - the days before DVD when you could get up to a hours worth of video onto a standard CD disk.

when DVD came along a new MPEG2 standard was developed allowing larger picture sizes to be created which are obviously sharper and more detailed but obviously have larger file sizes.

When you create a DVD any AVI files you include are converted to MPEG2 format.

[Trevor Andrew]

I am trying to put about 5 different video files into the one dvd and they all seem to have different properties - the file formats are different and theVideo types are different. Should I just start from scratch and try and get these into the same format??

Yes-----That may be the best option.

You dont say where your original footage came from or how you captured your video.
Digital camcorder to DV via firewire.
Through a capture card to Dvd (mpeg)

With the video clips in the timeline, right click and select properties to view.
These settings are the ones you used during capture assuming you haven't rendered the files. The video attributes should indicate 16:9.

Trevor

[Klaus Christo]

thanks sjj that makes that issue a lot clearer, now I just have to avoid the Mpeg 1 clips (beats me how come they got rendered as mpeg1). I captured all the clips with the same camera --> firewire via pinnacle movie box but somehow they got messed up. Could have something to do with the fact that I have 4:3 as well as 16:9 shots on the same film.
Only solution was to recapture and rerender and re edit, hours of work but at least I learnt a big lesson. ALWAYS CHECK THE PROPERTIES OF THE CLIPS.