I am new to movie maker, I have what should be a simple question. I need to
know what format to save my movies in. My goal is to make a master copy of
the movies that I can edit in Movie Maker and then later in life edit and
transfer them to the DVD format.

The first time I save my movie with DV ASCI or something like that and the
file was huge, one 60 minute movie was too big for a DVD data disc.

The next time I used the toggle that said something like “best quality for
computer use” the file size was much smaller.

I converted a copy of each one to the DVD format and it seems like I lost
some quality with the “best quality for computer use” setting.

What setting is best for editing and retaining the best quality? I have
over 50 60 minute tapes.

DV AVI is the best to render and save your movie in, and will maintain
quality. Don't worry about the huge file size since your dvd authoring
software converts the file into another format for dvd. Just make sure you
have plenty of disc space and keep each movie clip fairly small. You can
always consolidate the clips in your dvd software to make a longer movie for
dvd.

DV-AVI is more 'time' sensitive than size. Your dvd authoring program
should show the size required to dvd..... also check your dvd
authoring/burning program and see if you can save in varying quality...i.e
Best Quality (60 minutes)...Good Quality (90 minutes) etc to maintain the
quality that you want. From Movie Maker I use the DV-AVI files to burn
dvd's, but I also render each movie in High Quality NTSC which is a much
smaller file size to keep and view on my computer. I then delete the DV-AVI
files unless it is extremely important to archive. Thats when I save it to
my external hard drive to keep rather than delete it. Good luck!~

"What format to use?" wrote:

> I am new to movie maker, I have what should be a simple question. I need to
> know what format to save my movies in. My goal is to make a master copy of
> the movies that I can edit in Movie Maker and then later in life edit and
> transfer them to the DVD format.
>
> The first time I save my movie with DV ASCI or something like that and the
> file was huge, one 60 minute movie was too big for a DVD data disc.
>
> The next time I used the toggle that said something like “best quality for
> computer use” the file size was much smaller.
>
> I converted a copy of each one to the DVD format and it seems like I lost
> some quality with the “best quality for computer use” setting.
>
> What setting is best for editing and retaining the best quality? I have
> over 50 60 minute tapes.
>