Converting AVI to MP4 for 46 GB project

Ren715

Newbie Joined: Jul 31, 2019 05:37 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Aug 11, 2019 21:38

Hi -

I just inherited some cassettes that contain over forty 2-3 minute AVI files that were converted from 8mm reels dating from the 1940’s-60’s
The AVI files are over 60GB and too much for my hard drive.
Would I lose too much quality if I convert each AVI file to MP4? It cuts the file size by 50%
My goal is to burn a DVD with menu for immediate family members and upload clips to YouTube for extended family.

Thanks so much!

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Aug 11, 2019 21:57

There are actually two parts to your question as I see it, one relating to storage space and another to conversion quality.

For the first part, external flash drives are very inexpensive these days, and you could easily get a USB (3.0) 64GB flash drive for around US$10. If you do that, you're free to not worry about converting the files before editing them.

For the second part, you can try converting a couple of clips to see if you notice any problems. PD17/365 has a very nice feature in the Produce module called Profile Analyzer:

When you click on it, it will figure out the best producing format based on your source clips, and then you can produce your sample clip straight away. It's best to watch the converted clip after the original to verify that the content is not visually distracting, as can sometimes happen if the wrong settings are used.

YouTube/optodata

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Ren715

Newbie Joined: Jul 31, 2019 05:37 Messages: 5 Offline

Aug 13, 2019 03:51

Thank you
Thank you
THANK YOU!!!!