We want to supply clients with cd's of video evidence (legal cases). Considering the vast age (usually older) of workstation pc's and cd players - what is the most widely usable format and compressor we should be using?

Our choices of format in our editing software are AVI, DV AVI and ASF. AVI is the only one that gives us choices of compressor in the software we are using - it's a long list. We also have the choice of frame size. Which I assume will effect the file size as well(?).

Thank you for any help you may provide me.

Patrick Brown

IF possible, give them options. MPEG-1 is pretty safe across the board. You can make different video for Windows (Windows Media) and Macintosh (Quicktime).

So I should burn the video in multiple formats?

I think almost all of my clients will be using older pc's. Should I just burn it as a .wmv file? Assuming everyone has Windows Media Player? Would that be the same if I wanted to burn a dvd that they would be able to play on most pcs if they had a dvd player - and be able to play it in a normal dvd player?

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it. This is becoming a research nightmare. :)

IF possible, give them options. MPEG-1 is pretty safe across the board. You can make different video for Windows (Windows Media) and Macintosh (Quicktime).

If quality isn't a major issue, I would use MPEG-1 since you say they have older PCs.