Cari,
I have been reading this newsgroup and asking a few questions for a while
now. (You have answered some of mine - thanks for that.)

I have found that about 12GB per hour is what I am getting for my DV-AVI
format file when downloaded from my Panasonic GS-35.

But I was actually expecting, as you said, that I would get about 2 hours
per standard 4.7GB DVD when written by the editing software.

I am using Ulead Video Studio 8.0, and I find I only get about 1 hour per
DVD. For example I am writing a file now. It is 39:09 in total, and the
software states I need 2.8 GB, which compares with the other 3 files I have
written so far. On two of these I have just managed to get about 1 hour on a
DVD - I think these two were 58 and 59 minutes. In fact I had to edit out
some of the video on the larger one to get it to fit. The software also
states that my available space on the DVD is 4.4GB, not 4.7GB

Is this normal?

I think the file is written in MPEG1 format, and that there is no other
choice with the Ulead software. Would I be better off trying to convert the
MPEG1 to MPEG2 or MPEG4?

If the answer is yes, then I still don't know what software would do this. I
have Panasonic MotionDV STUDIO LE for DV, Bink Video Converter and DivX
Converter.

--
Cheers,
Trevor L.
Website: http://tandcl.homemail.com.au

Cari (MS-MVP) wrote:
> That's completely normal. DV-AVI will take up approximately 12gb for
> every hour of footage. Of course, it won't be this big on the DVD,
> your third party software will re-encode it and burn the DVD so you
> will be able to fit about 2 hours on a standard DVD. After you've
> created the DVD, unless there is a special reason to keep the file,
> it can be deleted. --
> Cari (MS-MVP)
> Printing & Imaging
>
>
>
> "pug" <pug@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:BBAE112F-BB6F-41E2-BCE8-923B3C8DEC33@microsoft.com...
>> Thanks for the tip re saving to hard drive first. My problem is that
>> when I
>> change format to DV-AVI (PAL) the file goes from 4094 mb to 59512mb.
>> The file
>> becomes to large to save to the hard drive. Is this normal or is
>> there more
>> to it?
>>
>> "Cari (MS-MVP)" wrote:
>>
>>> You need to save to your hard drive in DV-AVI format. Then open
>>> your third
>>> party burning software, import the DV-AVI file and tell it to make a
>>> Video
>>> DVD.
>>> --
>>> Cari (MS-MVP)
>>> Printing & Imaging
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "AL" <AL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>>> news:5CE03DCF-F782-4F29-8583-84909D017B0D@microsoft.com...
>>>> After I download my movie from movie maker, it wont play on my
>>>> home dvd player
>>>> what can I do to remedy this? I downloaded directly to a cd and I
>>>> aslo saved it for future recording