camera to avi/mpg which format
 

I have just purchased the canon XL1s and using premiere 6.5 I'm surprised that the output is *.avi .I thought by now there would be a better output (smaller in size)The results are good and I'm making VCD's that work in the home dvd players which is what i wanted but the file size is huge.Is this what other people are doing.my goal is to be able to archive all my videos to cd and a format that anyone can play .
Also has anyone been able to bring the dv signal from the computer back to the camera as an insert(video)
The canon xls1 in the vcr mode is looking for a dv signal ,could that come from the computer.

The avi extension is just a wrapper for the DV format. You will have to compress it down using one of the various codecs if you want to reduce the file sizes.

Most camcorders do not support insert editing. Many of the stand alone decks do support insert editing, just depends on the price point.

Jeff

If you want more on a disc, go for DVDR recording. If you only need VCD quality you get 3hrs and more on a disc. On the insert issue, as far as I know all DV camcorders perform perfect inserts, due to the DV recording principle itself. No erase heads, perfect tracking.

Frame accuracy is terrible, usually +/- 25 frames and it's inconsistent. It's extremely frustrating not being able to edit on your mark. I wouldn't recommend it. Some camcorders do not support DV in.

Jeff

Agree Jeff on the accuracy, if the computer NLE is not being tuned for the specific camcorder.(transmit pauze time/record pause time/delay record time). I tought the question related to whether or not a signal coming from a computer could be inserted in a DV recorder(camcorder).