A bunchof AVIs into a DVD... TOO BIG!

[hellhole]

Hello,
I am a noob in this AVI and DVD area. something I dun quite understand. i have a bunch of AVI ( each about 300+MB) that i want to make into a DVD. Example : 5-10 AVI into 1 DVD.
I am not sure what is the best tool to use, but i have have ULEAD Video studio 8.0. When I put the files in.. after 2 files.. the DVD is up to 10+ GB! that i cannot burn into 1 DVD. I try to rduce the resolution of the DVD using ulead...but doesnt help..
then i try to convert the AVI into wmv... that helps a little, but these is sometimes some lag in the audio...plus...i can only put 3-4 files before it goes up too HIGH again...

so what do i do? some pointers will do fine mates.. and of course the right tool will definately help.. DVD Shrink helps? know a link to some guide? i tried searching...but not too sure if i got the right thing....

please heklp!

[Baldrick]

DivXtoDVD is very easy to use, add all avis and convert.

[jtoolman2000]

DO what baldrick said.

The thing to remember in these convertions is that original file size is NOT the factor that matters. It is the LENGTH of the video files. Usually tools will assume you want good quality so the default bit rate will be fairly high to begin with . If you pop a one hour avi it will already be 4 gigs or so depending of the dafault bit rate of course.



DivXtoDVD should automatically adjust itslef to "fit" whatever # of files to load. Quality will of course differ greatly from good to awful depending on the ammount of total time's worth you load.

[hellhole]

i am trying that...
but my files takes a massive 15hours to convert! is that normal?
or that is determind by the length of the files i have.. example 1 file is 1hour... 15 files will be 15 hours? because i can see that the file is playing as i do it...

my PC will reset! itself...whenever i do it.. reason why? 1GB RAM not enough?

[junkmalle]

example 1 file is 1hour... 15 files will be 15 hours?

That's how it works. 1GB RAM is plenty. Faster CPU is about the only way to increase speed.

[MysticE]

Well the 350MB Xvids I deal with are about 45 minutes long (TV shows). Using NeroVision Express to convert at it's default settings (5073kbit/s bitrate) will end up being about 3.27 GB. To add a 3rd the bitrate has to be dropped to about 4500kbit/s. Going to a 4th the bitrate has to be dropped to about 3300kbit/s which with Nero's encoder makes for unsatisfactory results.

[junkmalle]

Well the 350MB Xvids I deal with are about 45 minutes long (TV shows). Using NeroVision Express to convert at it's default settings (5073kbit/s bitrate) will end up being about 3.27 GB. To add a 3rd the bitrate has to be dropped to about 4500kbit/s. Going to a 4th the bitrate has to be dropped to about 3300kbit/s which with Nero's encoder makes for unsatisfactory results.

That's about typical. Nero's MPEG2 encoder isn't the best but it's not horrible either.

Are you using 2-pass VBR? That will help a lot. Of course it will take twice as long too.

Xvid (MPEG4) is much better at compressing video than MPEG2. You'll need 2 to 4 times the bitrate with MPEG2 to get the same quality.

You're probably also increasing the frame size (it's rare to find 720x480 Xvid files). That will require more bitrate too.

What is the resolution of your Xvid files? You can try using 352x480 for your MPEG2 files. That way you can use less bitrate. You are trading off resolution for compressability.

[concisa]

Browsing all forums to find an answer to one of my issues, I stumbled into hellhole post. My problem is similar to his, therefore I read anxiously all answers to his post. However, I am still confuised.

But, rather than making another post, I wonder if I can piggyback on hellhole's post.

I have more fundamental (read really stupid newbie) questions:
(1) The definition of DIVx in the Glossary is not clear (nor is DIVX site) regarding the following:

(a) Is DIVx playable on regular DVD players?
(b) Do we have quality degradation when going from MPEG2 to DIVx?

I have a bunch of clips already encoded to MPEG2, I'd love to have them in 1 or 2 DVDs, however, my authoring tool ULEAD DW2 tells me I'll need 6 DVDs. Of course that does not make me at all happy. ULEAD DW2 tells me I can only fit 60 minutes at what they call high quality level on a DVD-R (4.7Gb). How come I often watch 3 hour movies on 4.7GB DVDs?

You see my problem...I can't understand why I cannot put 120 or 180 minutes of high quality DVD on 4.7 Gb DVDs while 3-hour long movies with all kinds of scene selection, the make of, etc, etc, can -- whitout any quality degradation ?

Hope it is OK to piggyback on hellhole post and hope hellhole does not mind.

Can anyone shed some light on these?
Thanks,

Armando

[junkmalle]

(a) Is DIVx playable on regular DVD players?

No, only a small percentage of players support Divx. If your player doesn't have a Divx or MPEG4 logo on the front it probably doesn't support it.

(b) Do we have quality degradation when going from MPEG2 to DIVx?

Anytime you convert from one lossy codec to another there is some loss of quality. It's possible for that loss to be so small it's not noticable.

ULEAD DW2 tells me I can only fit 60 minutes at what they call high quality level on a DVD-R (4.7Gb). How come I often watch 3 hour movies on 4.7GB DVDs?

First be aware that most commercial movie DVDs are dual layer. So they can hold twice as much data as single layer DVD-R.

There a few techniques that you can use to squeeze more video onto a movie DVD.

1) Encode at 352x480 (or 352x576 PAL). The smaller frame size means there's less picture to compress, hence you can use a lower bitrate. The loss of clarity may not be noticable unless you look closely.

2) Watching wide screen movies on a standard 4:3 TV? Rather than using an anamorphic encoding, include the black bars as part of the picture. The black bars take almost no bits to compress so there's a lot more left for the remaining picture. There will be very little difference when watching the final result on an SD TV. It will look much worse on an HDTV though.

[concisa]

Thanks a lot junkmalle.
Since I've already encoded the clips in question, which by the way took about 36 hours of uninterrupted encoding with TMGENC on a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, it seems cheaper for me to use the 6 DVDs rather reencode them.
For future reference, perhaps my best option is the 2-layer DVDs. I wonder if my PC is capable of burning 2-layer disks. By the way, 2-layer is a function of the DVD as well as the burner? Or burner only?
Thanks again,
Armando

[mats.hogberg]

2-layer requires 2-layer burner as well as 2-layer media.

/Mats