How do you author many episodes to 1 DVD-R?

[1980sumthin]

I've seen some custom DVD-Rs that hold as many as 15 21 minute episodes on 1 standard 4.7 GB DVD-R. The total size of all the vob/vts files it contained was about 3.97 GB.

Now standard commercial DVDs seem to have at least around 6-7 episodes per disc. So that goes way above the 120 minute running time of the advertised limit on DVD-Rs.

Recently I just got ahold of some episodes of a show from the '80s that is rare and has never been out on DVD, but I have no idea how to author them to make them fit on a DVD-R. I tried to use my Power2Go and my Windows DVD maker software that came with my new PC, but that was showing I could only put about 2-3 episodes on a disk!

Here's what really confuses me... The DVD-R shows a maximum of 120 minutes. Yet I've seen other disks fill up with (said) 7-15 episodes and all of that totals way more than 120 minutes. Not only that, but for some reason Power2go only shows a 60 minute availability on the disk.

The files I'm tring to burn to DVD are Season 6 of Perfect Strangers and they are about 214 MB in size, and 23 minutes in running time per episode. Properties say they are AVI files. They should be Xvid files though.

I would like to burn at least 6-7 episodes per disk. So my question for you experienced ones is: How do I convert as many episodes as possible to DVD without losing quality and also author menu's with it?

I browsed through the guides and the forums but I didn't see anything that had my tools or that was recent and I understood.

I have alot of other complete series that I have collected over the years on VHS too and would like to use my new TV tuner to convert them to DVD, but I can't do that until I learn how to author a proper season's worth episodes on DVD. It would save alot of space to have them on a Disc than on a fat VHS tape.

The tools/software that I have are...
TMPGenc Xpress
DVDtoAVI
DGIndex
CyberlinkPower2Go
Windows DVD Maker
Windows Movie Maker 2

Please help!

Thanks in advance to every one who is kind enough to help and lend their knowlege!

[guns1inger]

A few things to keep in mind

1. Real commercial discs holding 6 - 7 episodes will be dual layer, which gives you 7.9GB to play with.

2. Generally, commercial discs start with much higher quality source than some file you downloaded off the internet, and they encode them with a little more skill and care than most normal users.

3. Bootleg discs that hold 15 episodes are generally sold in regions where the norm has been VCD for the last 10 years, and where VCD quality is still seen as acceptable.

So, I would suggest you try FAVC, understanding that your source is less than ideal in quality. With FAVC you can choose to encode at either DVD or VCD resolution, for single or dual layer, and you can use HCEnc, which is well suited to lower bitrates. You can possibly squeeze 6 episodes at reasonable quality on a single layer disc, 10 - 11 episodes on a dual layer, at DVD resolution. You can possibly squeeze 12 - 14 episodes to a single layer disc at VCD resolution/quality. FAVC will take all the hard work out of it for you, although it's menus are on the simple side.

[lordsmurf]

Please do not ruin your collection of VHS by turning them into low-quality DVDs. Please learn from the mistakes of others, do not repeat them.

Make yourself a DVD that is no more than 3 hours long, using good methods. This includes a good VCR, and a good capture card or DVD recorder. You might need a TBC.

Please don't use any of this:
DVDtoAVI
CyberlinkPower2Go
Windows DVD Maker
Windows Movie Maker 2
.... it's crap.

These might help at some point, but maybe not:
TMPGenc Xpress
DGIndex

"I just got ahold of some episodes of a show from the '80s that is rare and has never been out on DVD, but I have no idea how to author them to make them fit on a DVD-R"

I really hate to see things like this. If it's rare, then for goodness sake, back them up in as archival a quality as you can possibly make.

"How do I convert as many episodes as possible to DVD without losing quality and also author menu's with it? "

You can put up to 3 hours on a disc without losing quality. It depends on your settings. You need 352x480 for 3 hours. You can only do 720x480 up to two hours. This assumes a single-layer disc. You can do more on dual-layer discs. But given the cost of DL, it's easier to just put less on discs.

I've got some rare recordings too, not officially on DVD, and it takes up 30 discs. It has 2 hours per disc, 720x480, and is wonderful quality for a show that is not found on VHS or DVD or even Laserdisc. I've seen other people who have squeezed 4-6 hours per DVD, and the same show is 7 disc. It's the most awful things I ever saw, only barely decent when viewed on a 13" tv set. I don't know about you, but I'd rather watch a show on a 20, 27 or 55" set.

Even 30 discs is just a tiny spindle of media. Far less space that it was on 30 VHS tapes. The 30 discs take up about the same space as 2 VHS tapes did. That's a huge space savings, without killing quality. Making it 15 or 7 discs saves almost no space, but loses almost all quality.

What is your new tv capture card?
What VCR are you using?
What authoring software do you have? I don't see anything listed!
What about MPEG editing software? To remove commercials. You have nothing listed.

What kind of budget have you got, to buy a few more things. Remember this is a hobby, so it'll cost a few bucks.

[guns1inger]

These are downloaded after being encoded to Xvid by someone else

they are about 214 MB in size, and 23 minutes in running time per episode. Properties say they are AVI files. They should be Xvid files though

If he was working from original VHS sources then I would have advised differently, however these are already badly squeezed and nowhere near archive worthy.

Of course, the OP could be patient and start buying the series on DVD when it gets released next year : http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Strangers-Complete-Second-Seasons/dp/B00005JNIS/ref=pd_b...3820929&sr=1-1

[lordsmurf]

Oh, yeah, nevermind. Crap downloads. I missed that part.

The DVD release is the smart choice.