XVID to DVD -- MP3 vs. MP2 Audio, Large Video

[kpkilburn]

Can someone provide me with some feedback and/or suggestions on my method here? Thanks in advance.

I'm converting an XVID encoded AVI to DVD compliant MPEG 2. Here's what I've done so far...

First, the XVID has the following properties:

576 x 240
158 kbs MPEG Layer 3 Audio

25 frames per second 120 kbs video with a sample size of 12 bits.

I used TMPGEnc to convert the AVI to MPEG 2 with the following settings:

(using the wizard)

NTSC
CBR MPEG-1 Layer 2 Audio (MP2)

Interlace
Bottom Field First
4:3 525 line (NTSC)

Other Settings...
CBR (currently at 2000, but I've tried others -- see below)
Video Arrange Method: Full Screen (keep aspect ratio)

With a 2000 CBR, this gives me a 4.1 GB file, just enough for a DVD+R.

OK... two questions.

1. Why is my file so large? This is a 95 minute video. I've tried various resolutions (352 x 480 and 352 x 240 after the higher 740 x 480 and 704 x 480 resolutions). The only way I can get the file to a usable level is to drop the bit rate to 2000, but I'm sure that will result in a low-quality video (even with a 2-pass VBR)???

2. (I think I found the answer to this on the boards, but I wanted to confirm before I go through the process). I have no audio. I think that this is because it's MP3. I read that you must use something to convert it to MP2 or AC3 before running the file through TMPGEnc. I just downloaded ffmpeggui02c.zip which seemed like a good, easy file to use.

Is that correct about the audio? Is there something easier to do or should I just do the conversion with ffmpeg?

TMPGEnc reports the file as more than 3 hours (when I tried to use PCM audio encoding). How did it calculate that? The movie is only around 95 minutes.

Finally, I was thinking about just encoding it with a 5000 to 8000 CBR, running it through TMPGEnc DVD Author, then running DVD shrink on the structured DVD files as I would for a normal, ripped DVD on the hard drive. Would that be adding extra steps? It seems that TMPGEnc can't get the file size low enough at higher bit rates. I've run DVD Shrink on many DVDs at Level 10 compression and as long as there wasn't a lot of fast motion, the results were actually pretty good. (Friends couldn't see the blocks and ringing, but I knew they were there and where to look).

Thanks again for any assistance.

[kpkilburn]

Just a follow-up to my own post. I went ahead and ran the XVID file through TMPGEnc with a 352 x 240 resolution at 2500 bps. I split the video and audio so that I could throw away the blank audio track.

I then used ffmpeg to convert the audio from the original XVID (.avi) to AC3.

The file size of the final video was still large (over 6 GB). For some reason, the last frame froze and remained there for over 1 1/2 hours. So, when TMPGEnc reported a 3 hour file, it was technically correct.

I still don't know why that happened because the original XVID file doesn't do that. Any ideas on why this happens?

After I got the video and new AC3 audio tracks, I put them into TMPGEnc DVD Author. (I put the video and audio "as is" -- the full 3 hour versions -- then cut them while in the authoring program).

I finished the project and tested it. Works great. The only problem is that I "wasted" space on the DVD. The 6 GB file is now only 3 GB after I cut out the frozen last frame. Maybe I'll go back and re-encode it at higher resolution and bitrate knowing that I can cut it down almost by half during the authoring process.

[kpkilburn]

I think I've found the final answer on this...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=197282

(Just in case someone has the same problem and runs across this post -- use the above link for the answer to the problem).