Compress .mov file?

[saturnk1]

I have a home video (DV) file that is about 11 gigs.....how in the world am i going to be able to put that on a DVD? Is it possible to compress the file or something?

[comictimes]

I've tried compressing .avi's and .mov's using stuffit, and they a 1gb file will only lose like 15mb... so, from my experience at least, it's not very helpful compressing the file...

[rand()]

That depends. If you want it to be a true "video" DVD, as in the kind that you play on your TV, then you *have* to compress it to fit the MPEG-2 standard anyway. But in all actuallity, you won't have to worry about compressing it, as iDVD will do that for you. Assuming that the DV file is less than 90 min. in length, that is.

If you're just backing up the file, on the other hand, you could compress it to any format you want (DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, AVI, animated GIF.. er... no.). Or, you could leave it uncompressed and span it across many DVDs.

Hope that helps.

-rand()

[Elan0204]

Assuming that the DV file is less than 90 min. in length, that is.

That is a very good point, however iDVD 4 can put 120 minutes of video on one DVD. How long is your home video? Once you work with it in iMovie and iDVD as long as it less than 2 hours, iDVD will do all the work of putting it on one DVD.

edit: You're file isn't a .mov file is it? It is DV footage, right? Because that would make a lot more sense in what you are talking about.

[idkew]

just be prepared for a nice long render time for your movie, especially if it is not in the DV format.

but- as was said, time is the factor here, not size.

[cb911]

DV footage is around 13GB per hour of footage, so i'd say that you shouldn't have any problems fitting your footage on a DVD.

it's already been mentioned about iDVD, that's your solution if you want to make a DVD that you can view on DVD player, in DVD Player.app etc.

if you just want to compress it to fit on a data DVD, you could use XviD or 3ivX to compress it. or maybe Mpeg 4? or if you can get H.264... :eek: :D :D

[LethalWolfe]

That is a very good point, however iDVD 4 can put 120 minutes of video on one DVD. How long is your home video? Once you work with it in iMovie and iDVD as long as it less than 2 hours, iDVD will do all the work of putting it on one DVD.

edit: You're file isn't a .mov file is it? It is DV footage, right? Because that would make a lot more sense in what you are talking about.

Mac's use QT to natively handle a/v files so if he captured the footage w/a Mac it will be a QT movie. .MOV is just a file wraper, it is in no way indicitive of what kind of file/format it is.


As others have said, if you want to make a DVD you can watch in a regular DVD player then use iDVD and it will compress it into the proper format (MPEG-2 for DVD).

I would advise against "archiving" footage shot on MiniDV on DVD because you lose a lot of quality.


Lethal

[saturnk1]

Wow, thanks for all the replies.

The DV footage is just short of an hour long. What I did was export it from iMovie with full quality settings and it automatically saved it to the desktop as a *.mov file. I will try the iDvd thing when I get home. But should I burn the exported *.mov file or just go straight to iDvd from the iMovie (export to iDvd)?

I do want it in DVD format btw.

Thanks!

[LethalWolfe]

But should I burn the exported *.mov file or just go straight to iDvd from the iMovie (export to iDvd)?

I do want it in DVD format btw.

Thanks!


Either way will work.


Lethal

[saturnk1]

I opened iDVD, imported the .mov file and it worked! 11gb on one DVD. It compressed it somehow down to 4.07gb, thanks ALOT for your help everyone!

[cb911]

glad it worked out. see how easy it is? just like magic!! :D

and don't thank us, thank Apple. ;)