Need advice on "DVD Authoring"

[Mitch]

While I'm asking questions, if you'll excuse someone who is interested in
this stuff, but doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about most of the time,
I guess I don't really understand exactly what "DVD" is! I used the software
that came with my laptop, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus v7, and burned a couple
video files that I had on my laptop to make a DVD. I don't remember if they
were .wmv files or MPEG-2 files, but after my DVD was finished and I put it
in my player, the "movie" was totally pixelated as if I was just watching it
on my computer at about 400 or 500%. Is this normal; did I do something
wrong, is my app not made for DVD authoring, etc? As I said, I am pretty
naive about all this, but want to learn. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!

Mitch

PS...I did read the posts about the different DVD authoring apps you guys
recommended and I am looking into it, just don't know if it's my app or if
something I'm doing, or if to make a DVD, you need a certain type of file.

 

[Graham Hughes]

If the initial video is small, then it will be blown up to fit the screen
size of 720x480 NTSC, so will look pixelated and is exactly the same as
looking at a picture at 400% or whatever.
Another reason is if you have too long a movie, it needs to compress it to
make it fit on the disc. 1 hour is ok, two hours will start to look poor.

 

[Mitch]

Thanks for getting back to me and attempting to answer my issue. That only
brings up another question though, and that is; is 720x480 the best size for
saving any movie that I want to burn to DVD? The one time I attempted to make
a DVD, all the files were smaller than 640x480. Is 640x480 OK to use for a
DVD, and is that size better for saving analog captured video, or is 720x480
better?

 

[Graham Hughes]

640x480 shouldn't look too bad, but there are many other variables which
could make a difference.
Type of file that the 640x480 video is, wmv? How compressed is it?
wmv is not interlaced, but this won't make much of a difference if you have
a progrssive tv, but will if you have a normal crt or interlaced set.