You forgot to tell us what you plan to do with the video production. Are you planning to burn a DVD (standard definition) or a blu ray or upload to something like YouTube or your own web site or ????

Rule of thumb - for BEST quality standard video video on a single layer DVD, limit the video to one hour; a little less than 2 hours on a double layer. Don't worry too much about size of the video files on a DVD. For DVD, all videos will be converted to mpg2.

There are other possibilities for blu ray so let us know. .
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Hi Stevek,

I will be using them throughout my videos. They will be AVI's approx. 5 seconds long and inserted in the appropriate places on the video/s. (We leave in 3 weeks and be away for 6 weeks.)

I'm hoping to make the videos somewhere between 60 & 90 minutes long. There will be both HD DVD AND Blu-ray versions.
My video cam shoots movies in AVCHD. The maps at the moment are saved as .jpg's. Is this ok, or would I be better using .gif or .png? I am generating the maps in Uncompressed codec or would one of the other codecs shown on the attachment be better?

Do you need any more information?

Thanks. IanB
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Uncompressed is always best if you have the space. Jpegs are fine; no need to go to bitmap or gif.

Note: There is no such thing a high definition (HD) DVD. All DVDs are standard standard definition (720 by 480 or so); if you try to put too much on a DVD, the bit rate will decrease to a point that the video will be unwatchable.

You can make AVCHD discs that will hold the 60 minute videos if 1) you use double layer, 2) you have a blu ray player that will play them. No need for a blu ray burner or blu ray discs.

You can make blu ray discs if 1) You get blu ray blank media, 2) You have a blu ray burner, 3) you have a blu ray player. They will hold several hours of video at up to 1920 by 1080 (or higher).

Edit:
There is on old adage to remember your audience. Your friends will not want to watch hours and hours of video of YOU enjoying yourself. Consider making a highlight video of about 60 minutes (AVCHD disc would be great for this) and making a blu ray with chapters (scenes) to document the trip and to be able to show specific highlights (cities?).

Have fun ! You have a lot of work cut out for you when you get back.
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Quote: Note: There is no such thing a high definition DVD. All DVDs are standard standard definition (720 by 480 or so).

Sorry I forgot to mention that the DVD's will be 16:9 (1920 x 1080) I have already done test discs on both DVD & Blu-ray. I needed to get used to the camera so I created discs in PD12 of the grandkids and the pets and some other miscellaneous stuff. Those particular discs are about 30 minutes. I have a Blu-ray stand alone player as well as a burner on the PC. Also a DVD player which is about 10 years old, but is still in good working condition. So there is no problems in that regards.

FYI - You probably know, but we use PAL in Australia. (720 x576 SD)

Thanks for your reply so quickly. IanB
PowerDirector Ultimate 18.0.3801.0 (64bit)
Dell XPS 8700, Win 8.1
4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 processor (6M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
Nividia GeForce 720 Version 372.54 GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz (4GB x 2)
2 x 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard D

Great, have fun.

I didn't know you were from south of the equator. Vacation to get away from the Winter?

Double check the DVDs; I bet they are the PAL equivalent of 720 by 480. .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Quote: Great, have fun.

I didn't know you were from south of the equator. Vacation to get away from the Winter?

Double check the DVDs; I bet they are the PAL equivalent of 720 by 480.

They were produced in 16:9 on PD12

Yes, we are heading to Vancouver. The package includes a couple of days in Vancouver, then 7 night Inside Passage cruise to Alaska, back to Vancouver, then 2 nights on the Rocky Mountaineer to Banff, then by coach to Lake Louise and Jasper, then 3 nights on the Canadian Train to Toronto & Niagara Falls. We then have a few nights with friends, then fly to Manchester and 2 weeks driving round UK, then home. (Sorry for the rambling on )

Thanks again. IanB
PowerDirector Ultimate 18.0.3801.0 (64bit)
Dell XPS 8700, Win 8.1
4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 processor (6M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)
Nividia GeForce 720 Version 372.54 GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz (4GB x 2)
2 x 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard D