7gb for a 100 minute movie???

[ian4355]

I'm probably going to get burned for this (use the search, read the guides etc) but I think I have and still can't get an answer. Ok here goes; I'm trying to burn a 100 minute divx to dvd-rw and both Movie Factory 2 and DVD Workshop reckons the size to be 7gb. I've tried setting the bitrate to vbr (max 4000) and the setting doesn't change. I'm perplexed.

[chazzie]

Probably not so clean video that the encoder uses all bitrate possible.

[FulciLives]

You might want to try another encoder such as TMPGEnc.
In fact if you have never used it TMPGEnc has a demo mode that works just like the full blown version but I think it is limited to either 2 weeks or 4 weeks after which it stops working (for MPEG-2 encoding) unless you register (i.e., pay for it).

However having said that you SHOULD be able to use the built-in encoder that comes with MF2 as you can adjust the bitrate yourself. Make sure you select MP2 (Mpeg Layer 2) sound instead of PCM sound. That can make a HUGE difference. If you still can't get it to "fit" then either you are doing something wrong or perhaps MF2 is just giving you an incorrect estimated size. A 100 minute movie with a bitrate of 4000 is not going to exceed 4.3 GB in size.

Here is a fairly accurate and easy to use bitrate calculater:

https://www.videohelp.com/calc

It my opinion the bitrate calculator tends to side on the conservative side in that the file will usually be a bit smaller than what it says which is better than getting a file that is a little bit too big.

This is somewhat subjective but I would try to use a bitrate that would add up to a file size of around 4000MB to 4100MB (approximately 4.0 to 4.1 GB) so that you have enough overhead on the DVD for your menu design etc.

Good luck!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
I haven't used the built-in MF2 encoder in a long time but it does work for DivX/Xvid but I tried using it once on a widescreen DivX that had the black cut out and it stretched it to full screen so I don't know if that is just the way it works or if there was a setting to maintain the aspect ratio.

All in all you will get better quality if you use TMPGEnc or CCE or MainConcepts as your encoder FIRST then use MF2 or whatever to then do the authoring.

[ian4355]

thanks guys, I'll give it a go

[ian4355]

ok, I've had a go but mf2 still says 5gb dvd workshop still needs 6gb. bitrate calculator reckons 4900 bits, I gave it 4000 just to be on the safe side. I also took the mpeg audio down to 192. Any other suggestions., even another authoring program?

[Craig Tucker]

Workshop needs twice as much hard drive space for authoring than the final size that is required on the disc. Try creating an ISO disc image and see what the final size is, if you have a 4GB mpeg2 it requires 8GB of drive space for authoring, although the final ISO should be around 4GB. You can then use Nero to burn the ISO to disc. I could never get workshop to burn properly anyway.

[ian4355]

I tried tmpgenc author; it gave me a size of only 1.9gb so i don't know WTF those other 2 programs are doing! But thanks to all who helped.