Sonic myDVD Disk Capacity Issues

[omena]

I am new to DVD burning, and new to this posting board, so I hope someone can help me out with this. I have a fairly new Sony Media machine, and it came with the Sonic myDVD software package. I've been using Sonic myDVD in conjunction with an Adaptec device to capture VHS movies from a VCR and burn them directly to DVD. The problem is I can rarely get a movie any longer than 80-90 minutes to fit on a single DVD because the files almost always exceed 4.7 gigs. I have the myDVD video capture settings on the lowest possible quality (i.e. 'Good'), but it isn't helping in most instances. Does anyone know if there are other settings that can be adjusted on Sonic myDVD that would help reduce the file size? Or is Sonic myDVD just not the best package for transferring VHS to DVD? Is there a better package I can use to transfer VHS to DVD? I'd really just like to be able to routinely get a 90-120 minute VHS to DVD. I'm not real concerned at this time about sophisticated editing or creating fancy menus or any of that stuff.

[jtoolman2000]

Yep, that's about right. I use Sonic's DVDit and I can understand. occassionally and what I think is happening with your setup is that My DVD is creating PCM format audio and that particular format if HUGE. If you can choose AC-3 it would allow you to put more video before reaching the max capacity.

[omena]

Wow - I'd never even considered that audio size might be the problem. Can you tell me how I would change the audio to AC-3 format? Is this done right within the Sonic package? Also, with the 'shrink' package, does it shrink the myDVD files after they are created? If so, can the files then be burned to DVD? Thanks for the tip!

[Shocker Milwaukee]

The option to choose AC3 over LPCM is only available if you buy the upgraded version (check Sonic's site for version & $$$).

You can use DVD Shrink to further shrink your Sonic projects, but since it won't touch the audio, your video will be quite compressed while your audio will not be. This results in too much 'space' allocated to audio while video suffers. You can demux, convert, then remux the audio, but I doubt you'll find that worthwhile.