Need Help Choosing Correct Format to Capture & Burn Video wtih WMM

[Guest]

I want to capture video from my Panasonic PV-GS150 video camera and burn high
quality DVDs for television viewing. Should I use DV-AVI or should I use
NTSC? How many minutes of video can each format fit onto a standard 4.7GB
DVD? I have plenty of drive space and RAM so I don't think that should be an
issue. Also, is either format easier or harder to use with Windows Movie
Maker and Sonic MyDVD? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Al Stu - MVP]

DV-AVI (NTSC) is the format you want to capture and make movie with.

Amount you can fit on a DVD will depend on authoring settings.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. But I'm a little confused. The WMM tutorial I read on
the Microsoft site said pick NTSC INSTEAD of DV-AVI. Are you recomending
both? Is that possible? Do I select DV-AVI and then go to the drop down
menu right below it and ALSO select NTSC? Can you please clear that up for
me? Thanks.

 

[Wojo]

You should choose NTSC if you are NOT planning on putting the video on a DVD
as the quality of the video when viewed on your computer is the same but the
filesize is much lower than with DV-AVI.
But you should choose DV-AVI if, as you are in your case, you plan to put
the video on DVD. Again the quality as seen on the computer appears the same
but the quality after your DVD program converts the file and burns it to DVD
is very different. The High Quality NTSC video will tend to appear pixilated
and there are usually audio problems but this is not true of a video created
as a DV-AVI.
So Al's advice does stand, you want to save the movie as DV-AVI.