Why does TMPGEnc DVD Author3 say that my file size is too big?

[jimdagys]

I am using TMPGEnc DVD Author3 to convert avi to DVD, but the software frequently will say that my DVD will be too big. For example, I have an avi and when setting up TMPGEnc DVD Author3, it says that the DVD will be 5.04MB. But if I ignore the warning and just make the DVD, the final DVD is only 4.11MB, just right for burning. So why does TMPGEnc DVD Author3 give such an erroneous estimate of the DVD size?

[tinker]

Most likely your default is set to burn to DVD5, set it for DVD9 and you will not get the message, but in that case prog will not compress it either.
I hope it is a typo, when you talk about MB, because DVD5 is 4.7GB, actually 4.377GiB.

[RickA]

Greets,

My guess is if you get this warning and it takes more than about 6 minutes (depending on your machine) to author the disc. Then it is probably compressing it for you. Been awhile since I used TDA, think there should be an indicator bar near the bottom that shows you the size of your project in relation to dvd sizes of 4.7 and 9GB.

You did not say how large the avi file is that you are feeding TDA to give you such a warning. If Windows Explorer is telling you the avi is about 5GB along with TDA and you wind up with a 4.11GB output. Ya definitely know then that TDA is compressing the file on you. If Explorer says the file is about 3GB and TDA is saying 5GB, something is wrong somewhere.

Since I only used TDA for menu creation I had the output size set to dvd9 with no compression and ignored file size warnings when authoring. I feel HCenc is a better encoder than the built-in one of TDA and would use DVDRB w/ HCenc in full disc mode to preserve my newly created menu's to compress to fit if needed. I would then use ImgBurn to burn the disc. I also made sure when I encoded my files before putting them into TDA that they would be the appropriate size to fit on a dvd. Of course I like a more hands on approach than most who would prefer a single program and button to click and be done with it.

Cheers,
Rick

[jimdagys]

The avi's are 700MB. The problem (TDA saying that the file will be too big) occurs when the avi is longer than about 1hr 40 minutes. The bar at the bottom of the screen also shows that the file will exceed the 4.7GB limit. However, if I just ignore the warning and proceed with the encode, the file will be smaller. In the above example, TDA said the file would be 5042 MB, but the final DVD was 4.11GB, just right for burning. I don't like to use TDA (been using DVD Flick for over a year), but something is wrong with my computer and DVD Flick doesn't work anymore. Reinstalling DVD Flick, and restoring the C drive to a known good state does not help. I sure wish somebody would explain to me one thing:
TDA and DVD Flick are very different animals. Both take about 4 hours to process an avi. But when I process with DVD Flick, there are discrete steps (encoding, combining, authoring), and for each step, the computer hard drive will make its own unique noise (normal). However, when I use TDA, the DVD building process is seamless, that is, there are no discrete steps and the hard drive will make the same noise from beginning to end of the DVD building process. For some reason, due to this difference in DVD building, TDA works perfectly, but DVD Flick will only process about 30 minutes of the avi and give a DVD of about 1GB or less. (There is plenty of empty space on the NTFS hard drive.) Also, I am having problems burning (Nero to disk or to image) any DVD made with DVD Flick (get read data error), but TDA works perfectly. My question is, how can TDA make the DVD seamlessly but DVD Flick requires discrete steps to make the DVD? It seems that discrete steps would always be needed to make a DVD. Here is another example (see screenshot). This avi is 700mb, 2hours long and TDA says that the dvd will be 5.427GB (too big) and there will be a warning. But if I just proceed with the encode, the DVD will be smaller, however I don't know if it will exceed the 4.3GB limit until I actually finish the encode (4 hours just to find this out). With DVD Flick, the final DVDs are always 4.13GB, and the bitrate is automatically adjusted to yield the correct size DVD.

[RickA]

Thanks jimdagys, that helps alot. Saying that TDA takes about 4 hours for your 700MB file means that it is encoding it. Although it may look like there are no descrete steps. As I recall TDA does tell you the parts of the process it is going through via a text line. Under / near the progress indicator line it will say something like 'Creating (or Building) Menu's, 'Creating VOB's', blah blah. Which if overlooked I guess could be seen as seamless. Unless you mean being expected to click a button in the process to continue each step.

The huge difference in reported size of your 700MB avi and TDA reporting 5.4GB is that it is showing you the 'uncompressed state' of your avi that TDA will use to prepare your dvd with. Your 700MB 2hour movie is highly compressed (maybe divx or xvid?) so TDA needs to 'unshrink' it in order to work with it to put it into proper dvd format (mpeg-2 as a VOB). Unfortunetly 5+ GB is too big so TDA needs to then compress it some to get into dvd spec. Hope that makes some sense and my apologies for the very crude and basic explanation. Thanks on the screenshot. TDA is fairly smart and I wager that 4.7GB dvd size is set by default. So that is why you get the warning and it is going ahead and compressing for you.

I have never tried DVDFlick so cannot comment on it. I wager that TDA uses a different (possibly more efficient?) method to cache the data as it works. That probably keeps the drive spinning more thus sounding differently. Rather than pausing and letting the drive spin down or 'chugging' sounds.

I would ask that you use ImgBurn to burn your discs instead of Nero. Nero is a fine program but does odd things with the pointers and such for BUP's and IFO's and their layout consolidating space when burning. jman98 mentioned this in another thread and I have heard of Nero doing something like this in the past, but did not know exactly what. Hope some of this helps.

Cheers,
Rick