A standard DVD is a slight variation of MPEG2 format.... MPEG1 format is
the what a VCD uses, a definite loss of quality over MPEG2.
SP on a DVD is a mere one hour, LP (pretty much standard) on a DVD is 2
hours... depending on the software, you may get an EP setting which will
allow 3 hours, albeit with a definite loss of resolution.
PowerProducer will do the 3 hour one, WinDVD Creator will happily do 2
hours....
I haven't yet tried to see just how much I can get with Roxio's Videowave
(part of Easy Media Creator)
My usual choice of editing software would be VideoWave or PowerDirector
because they seem to be the easiest to use... or if it's a WMV to start
with, then Windows Movie Maker..... once done, I often then create the DVD
on the hard drive itself - usually with WinDVD Creator.
Then I'll use either Roxio 7.5 or 8, to burn the DVD using the Disk Copy
method. It actually seems to be the quickest way to do it on my setup as I
often have more than one PC saving to it's hard drive.... then just cut and
paste the folder(s) over to the desktop to burn the Disk Copy at the end.
Scroll down to Video File Comparison at
http://www.videohelp.com/dvd which
explains it all far better than I could in a simple NG posting!