[Rictor]

Right, so what I'de like to do is convert a 3-hour show that I have recorded on 2 video tapes, into a format suitable for burning on to a CD. This is because I need to send the show to someone, but don't want to send the original tapes.

The default software (ATI TV tuner) that came with the TV-in card has this capability, but all the codecs are pretty crappy (MPEG1,2, avi) with no option to install your own. As it stands, I can get the show on to 3 CDs, but the quality is rather bad.

What I'm looking for is some sort of DIVX  or [insert favourite video format] recorder, that is going to give me a good quality:file size ratio. It would need to convert 1 hour of video into 700 megs or less. Now, I'm not a videophille, so I'm not out to get some sort of insane crystal clear quality which no living person could possibly notice, just a decent quality with minimal pixelation and so forth.

any help would be appreaciated.

[kasperl]

well, if you are willing to allow some adware/pay 15 bucks, DivX has an encoder available. Xvid could work as well, though i never used it. AFAIK you just install the codec and the app should be able to use it. As for quality, I have seen 45-60 minutes (one enterprise ep) go down to 80 megs using DivX, but at roughly 320*240. The 200 meg rips where a bit better, but those used mpeg 2 IIRC. Then there where the 400 meggers, but those where never available at more then 2,5KBPS on Kazaa, so i never saw them.

[Rictor]

so, something from here maybe?

I'm more or less shooting for 1hour=650 megs, with any quality that entails.

I've never been a great advocate of standardization than I am right now.:D

[kasperl]

I have no clue behond what I have given you already. Do try double pass encoding, I heard it helped.

[diamondgeezer]

You can install the Divx adware package, then use Ad-Aware to clean out the Gator nastiness it leaves behind

[JarC]

why install the adware package to begin with? just do a search on google for the divx 5.01 codec...enough location without that junk