Click on Menu - File - Render As - click on 'Save as type' and choose 'Video for Windows' - click on the button 'Custom...' - click on tab 'Video' - click on drop down menu 'Video format' - Choose DivX or Xvid codec (if they are installed on your computer). Be aware that the AVIs that will result have nothing to do with DV-AVIs, not all PCs can read them (but there are some newer DVD players that can play them) and they are NOT suitable for editing later...

If you do not have any of these codecs you can try rendering as Windows Media Video (*.wmv, all Windows XP PCs can play them) or MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4, QuickTime7 or VLC player needed to play them). Again these two formats are NOT designed for editing.

If you plan editing at a later time DO NOT erase your original DV-AVIs. Keep a copy (on tape or on PC).

I'm pretty sure I have the DivX/Xvid codecs. Will choosing those codecs when rendering as .avi result in a much smaller, more compressed final file? If DV-AVI is 13gb/hour, I'd like my .avi rendering to be about 1-1.5gb/90 minutes, unless that will sufficiently decrease the video and audio quality. My goal is to get a smaller .avi file without sacrificing too much quality. I don't really want to quality loss to be easily noticeable when compared to DV-AVI.

Also, why is it that the resulting .avi, or .wmv, or .mp4 files are not suitable for editing?

Most of these codecs perform quite well quality wise. The compression is configurable: the more you compress, the less quality you get (for a given codec).

Because they are heavilly compressed with lossy, approximation, irreversible algorithms.

File Size: The Curse of Video Editing
 

You have found the curse of video editing. File sizes. I have only a few current projects, but I have already chewed up 250GB of space. I have to swap projects from my ackup HD on to my edit system because its drive is only 150GB.

If you do not want a loss of quality then the ONLY answer is keeping the native DV-AVI files and always using them for editing. That may mean reserving ~>80GB of space for each new project, calculating how many projects you expect to edit simultaneously, then purchasing HD space to meet or exceed that requirement.

I deleted the native files for one project because it was finished and I needed the room. I wish I didn't have to do that because I am a digital pack rat..... I never delete anything if I have a choice (hence my heavy use of gmail).

jason

Remember, you still have the original tapes as "backup".

What else plays .mp4 (MPEG4).....does WM Player play them? Only Quicktime 7 or LVC?

Software? Several, but not WMP currently. Micro$oft is trying to get their own MP4 derivative off the ground. (VC-1)
Not sure if WMPClassic plays em' or not, I think it might.

Hardware? Several settops play it, same for iPod, PSP, and other similar devices.

I've been looking into the various means of web delivery. People keep mentioning this H.264....is this a mpeg4 codec? Is it part of Quicktime 7?
What is the best way to get HDV clips to the web? I know, a million questions, finding all this stuff in one place can be tough.

A bit late now, but if anyone is digging through the archives, the answers are: yes, H.264 is an MPEG-4 codec, and it can be rendered by Quicktime 7. Probably the best low bit rate codec at the moment. I do not know about the best way to get HDV clips on the Web, but one way might be to upload it to Youtube or Google Video after making an H.264 clip out of it. Just keep the bit rate generous if you decide to do this, as they will recompress it (e.g., Google recommends 2mbps for MPEG-4).