This is a good example of what I mean when I say use Quicktime by Apple. Notice the differences in the images. Because of lack of knowledge and the fact that I didn't have a copy of Quicktime when I edited, I ended up with images that contained vertical lines for the AVI format. However notice a shot that was saved in Quicktime at 50% of what the image size originally was.

I hope to move toward DV in the future. I found this image originally 640 x 480 out on the internet using the Sony TRV900. Notice how sharp the picture is. I saved it in Quicktime as well at 33% or 1/3rd the original size. Notice there is very little difference in the images.