Eliminate double rendering? Program to convert from DVD to .wmv?

Okay, so here's the scoop...

I utilize Pinnacle to create and edit videos, which need to be rendered for two different formats - both a DVD and .wmv. In order to eliminate the double rendering process, which is time consuming, is there any program out there that will allow me to convert the rendering for a DVD into a .wmv file? It'd be a huge time saver. I don't think I'd want to convert the opposite way (.wmv to DVD), as I think (but don't know for sure) that the picture quality would suffer. In the end, what I need is a good quality DVD that can be viewed with a DVD player (not only a computer) and a .wmv file for upload to our client server.

Any suggestions? The cheaper, the better!!!

 

I'm gonna bump to see if anyone can help! :confused

 

I have no experience with Pinnacle and don't convert to WMV format so take this with a grain of salt.

It sounds like the rendering process in Pinnacle can take four or more hours. You want to use Pinnacle to render a DVD and then use a different/faster software to convert the DVD to WMV. A quick glance at Videohelp.com doesn't show any simple free software for this process. I've used AVSmedia converter for DVDtoAVI conversions and find it simple to use but not all that fast--maybe an hour or two. It will work for Wmv. There is a trial download at their site that will leave a watermark. You could give it a go and see if it is quicker than the double rendering process.

Super Encoder http://majorgeeks.com/Super_d5117.html is free and may work. I've never had much luck with it (can't figure out how to control the output file size) but some people like it and it is free.

 

That's exactly what I'm trying to do - make the whole process faster. The time it takes to render depends on the actual length of the video - and of course the speed of the processor. In my case, it takes double the time of the length. 30 minutes takes an hour to render - and so forth. Problem is that I have time restraints, and I was looking for a way to simplify the process in the interest of time, having to only render once and hoping to convert that file utilizing a faster method. So in essence, you hit the nail on the head. I wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee - but, as I'm sure you would agreee - the cheaper the better.

I will try the program you suggested and see if it does the trick. Thanks for the help - and I'm STILL open to suggestions!