Vista - Burning DVDs with Media Center

I have recorded a number of shows and movies using Vista media center but am having problems burning them to DVDs. When I look at the file size of a 2-3 hr movie, the file size is somewhere between 6Gb-8Gb. Since the capacity of my DVDs are only 4.7Gb, I can only assume that most movie DVDs are using some type of compression software that decompresses the file as it plays. My question is, what type of software do I need to allow me to burn these files to a DVD so I still have them without using up all of my hard drive storage space. Any help would be sooooo appreciated.

Keith

Use an encoding software like Virtual Dub or TMPGENC to get the file size down.Then you can burn them on DVDs.

Asky, thanks so much for your prompt response and desire to help. I downloaded and installed the Virtual Dub software but when I tried to open one of the files I recorded with Vista Media Center, I got the response ".ASF files are not supported". Please also note that I'm no guru with this stuff so any responses will require a bit more info in the response. Is there someway I can change the file type? I always believed that if I could change the files to an .avi or MPEG that I could solve the compression problem but I am lost regarding these file types. Any suggestions?

hmm...i dunno much about encoding but search google for an "ASF to AVI Converter" software.
I dunno of any free softwares but there were a few paid softwares that did the conversion.
Once you get it to AVI i guess Virtual Dub should work.
Hope this helps.

Let us know.

Well, so far I've tried 'Virtual Dub', 'Boilsoft ASF Converter' and 'Win AVI Video Converter' in an attempt to convert my Vista Media Center television recordings with no luck at all. I realize that I may not have all the settings correct in the software but this is really becoming frutrating. Any other help out there? Perhaps something or someone who knows how to do this and can be REALLY specific? Please help.

Try this:

How to burn and convert ASF files to DVD?

Let us know if it worked please. If not well try some other avenues.

Also try "DVD Santa"

dvdSanta: Burn Your Favorite Videos onto DVDs and watch them on TV!