Happy Holidays!!
and
Thank you in advance for any responses you may provide...

I am attempting to convert some video to DVD-R and finally worked out most of the capturing bugs that were plaguing me but NOW my dilemma is correctly fitting 1hr 30min onto a DVD-R.

More specifically, I have captured a test 1hr 30min video, but the bitrate used (or other parameters) have created a file tooo large to fit on a 4.7gb disc. Some of you probably follow what I'm saying....

My question is what bitrate or setting (CBR?, CQ?, VBR?) should I be setting on Tmpgenc when converting the captured AVI to DVD-Mpeg? ( I am using the tmpgenc template for DVD only changing the settings for de-interlace and bitrate #s...)

Is there a standard bitrate for DVD compliant video? (6000 and 8000 were yielding files toooo large)

**I would experiment with more with bitrate settings BUT a 1hr 30min takes 5 1/2hrs to encode from AVI to mpeg**

I have tried 5000mbit set to CBR and it has yielded a great DVD that fit on the disc but I would like to know if 5000kbit is still too high for DVD burning?

Also, I have tried the following programs to compile and burn the files and each has its limitations and I would like to get suggestions for other programs if you have any.

Ulead Movie Factory - Good interface but templates are too restricted.

DVD-IT PRO 2.5 - Somewhat buggy? Does not seem to identify the file sizes the same as ULEAD..

Roxio's Video Factory - Utter crap OR I don't know what I'm doing...

Any other programs? I want to do the whole nine yards... menus, background images, motion thumbnails, chapters etc etc.