I have been using BeyondTV v 4.7 to record TV to my computer for the kids. A simple 1/2 hour program is being saved as an MPG file and takes up about 1 GB of space. I'm sure there must be a setting that would take up less hard disk space and still keep good quality for playback?

I can convert the MPG file with Xilisoft's conversion software.

Can I get some recommendation as to what for mat and setting I should use to convert the MPG file? My goal ... using less hard disk space and having good quality for playback

You input and direction is greatly appreciated.

- Bobo

I have sagetv to record TV programs and use Winavi 8.0 to convert the mpeg2 files to avi (I use the default winavi codecs) and choose the output size to be 640X480 which is viewable fullscreen on any TV or computer monitor screen.

The finished file is 1/2 the size of the original and on my amd x2 4800 cpu, it can convert a 1 hour video in about 10-15 minutes. The quality of the finished AVI is good enough for me.

What I like about winavi is the ability to batch convert 80 to 90 files at a time (leaving the computer running overnite) and it will do it without crashing.

It's been awhile since I used beyondtv, but I remember there was a setting to select divx as your encoder instead of mpg. You may want to check with the beyondtv forum and ask the question there also.

I will try the DIVX setting.