6 hours of high quality AVI compressed to1 DVD?

[matvangogh]

im kinda new at this i have some downloaded AVI files that appear to be very high bitrate( no idea)

one file is dvd- quality its just over an hour long and when u try to use SONIC DVD it just barely fits onto 1 DVD5!

becuase when i try to use my SONIC DVD to try o create the dvd to make a dvd folder it uses all my hard drive space let ( 26-28GB) and doesnt seem to work the applicatation stops becuase im out of hard drive space ( it uses it all up just to create the dvd folder9 and maybe the temp files)

what i am trying to do is create a dvd folder ( made up of about 5- 6 hrs of movies from an AVI ( create with sonic dvd) and then use my DVD shrink to compress it to fit onto a single DVD5


is there program i can use to take several avi files, compress at least 4 hours of the video to fit into a DVD5 while its making a dvd folder on my hard drive that uses 10-15G max OR burn directly to disc while its compressing all in one shot??

its a shame dvd shrink doesnt compress several avi files at at once. . if it did my problems would be solved!

i like my dvd shrink but i dont have the hard drive space to do this.
can someone please help?

i have tmpenc,tmpgenc dvd author, dvd shrink sonic dvd,

[Mr2001]

Cramming 6 hours of video onto a single DVD5 isn't going to result in high quality any way you slice it. That's around 1500 kbps once the audio is accounted for. I'd suggest splitting it into two 3-hour DVDs.

[guns1inger]

Or 3 two hour disks. Unless you DL, 2 hours is about the limit for 'quality' (although quality is a very subjective term, and for some 1500kbps is quite acceptable).

Also, if you need to use Shrink to make it fit after the fact, you aren't doing ti right. Use a bitrate calculator to get the correct bitrate for your runtime and use that. If your software won't let you adjust the bitrate, ditch it for one that will, or accept that your quality will be sub-par forever.

[matvangogh]

sorry i didnt explain myself very well
the Avis files are are high quality already thats probably why it uses up so much hard drive space to make the dvd folder

but i would be happy with VHS quality ( as long as they arent vcd quality im ok)

like dvd shrink only makes backups but it does so well at autpmatically shrinking it to fit the full size but make the video quality as best it can be with the disc size available
thts what im trying to do here
put 4- 6 hours of high quality AVI videos onto a single DVD

as if i was using a standard dvd recorder and putting 4- 6 hours of cable tv programs on a dvd5
i wont notice the difference but it will save time, money and space( less dvds to buy and store)

as i said if dvd shrink could convert directly from an avi to dvd while compressing while leaving the video as best it can but can still fit on a single DVD5, i would use that. but it doesnt do either.


putting them on 3 hour movies is a to much of a waste for me

i can be happy with 6 hours per disc.
i have a dvd recorder and use it for tv programs. and the quality is fine
im trying tyo do the same here
i want to put 6 hours of AVI files on my computer but i have no hard drive space for those while its making a dvd folder

i need a program to act like DVD shrink but can take AVI files directly and then compresses it while making a dvd folder ( so it would only need 5- 15 GB ) i would be ok with that or directly burning to disc which would require even less hard drive space
can someone help?

[matvangogh]

update- i mean 4 to 6 hours of o AVI files that was high quality and now compressed medium quality but good enough to fit onto a DVD5
do you know any dvd creators that can adjust the bit rate of about 6 hours of AVI files directly to make a dvd folder small enough for a dvd5?

[lordsmurf]

Forget what you think you know about VHS. It doesn't apply anymore. VHS is no more important than DVD than shoeing horses is important to cars.

You also need to forget about the filesize of AVI files. It doesn't matter. It's another kind of compression than MPEG, whatever codec it is.

352x480 with about 2.5 Mb/s (max of 4 hours per DVD) is about as good as you can do without butchering your video and making it look like crap. Yes, worse than EP/SLP mode VHS.

A better suggest is 352x480 with about 3.4Mb/s for 3 hours per DVD. And then make two DVDs. I fail to see why cramming so much on one disc is so important. I could understand wanting to put more than 1-2 hours, but more than 3-4 strikes me as mostly ridiculous, especially considering the huge cut to quality. It's almost unwatchable past 4 hours.

If you tried to slam 5-6 hours on a DVD it would look similar or worse than a VCD, as the specs would be close.

Forget silly notions about DVD Shrink too. That software is not magic. It compresses even further, and make 99.9% of all non-commercial source horribly unwatchable and full of blocks. Do it correct the first time around, and then understand only so much can fit on a disc.

If you have a DVD recorder and consider 6-hour mode fine, then I just wasted my time typing. That will undoubtedly look like crap, and is usually lower than a VCD spec. It deinterlaces, and is worse than VHS tapes ever could have been.

I don't want to come across as ruthless, but at some point these kinds of questions need to end. It's been discussed and re-discussed on this forum for years now, and the answer has never changed.

A few people may try to sell you magic potions (KVCD, for example), but it's really nothing more than sugar water. This question can never be answered the way you'd like for it to be answered, it's technically impossible.

Unless you decide to use DVD+R DL or DVD-R DL media. Then just put 3 hours on each layer, and there's your 6 hours.

Even if you wanted to dump a bunch of XVID files in good quality (another thing that is debatable), you'd be hard pressed to cram 6 hours worth on a single disc.

[matvangogh]

ok ill tell u what i want ther maximum quality i can get qwith 4-6 hours
even if it is near supervcd or nearrvcd quality as you say

if it can go it with my dvd recorder i dont see why i cant have a computer program to do the same
it doesnt have to be near DVD quality
as long as it fits with the best resolution i can get

i want to attempt putting several hours of video of AVI files to a dvd ( i already explained the problem with my sonic dvd)
do any of you recommend a dvd author or dvd creator program that can shrink or lower the bitrate tot he maximum
i am lookign to drag and drop 4-6 hours of avi files to a program menu screen, and have it fit into the disc as BEST IT CAN
i dont care if its not dvd quality
just becuase it WAS high quality doesnt mean i want to archive it that way

once again doesnt have to be perfect
1-3 hours per disc is not acceptable here
just as good as i can get it

i have 6 hours of AVI files
my goal is to get it on a dvd5 in the fastest way and using the least amount of hard drive space in the best quality possible
how can i do this?

so now can anyone help me

[guns1inger]

Encode at VCD specification (resolution, bitrate) using tmpgenc. Use TDA to author the disk. Let it upsample the audio to 48k for you. Burn as DVD (not VCD). Accept that this is the best you will get for such a specific (and frankly, unreasonable) request.

[matvangogh]

do u mean encoded the AVI to MPG? using tmpgenc? but do i set it to dvd low resolution or vcd in the project wizard
when i do this it only shows up a file in the video area to encode
it wont do audio..
i have tmpgenc plus
what am i doing wrong?

[lordsmurf]

Read one of any number of guides on this software.

[flemming kristiansen]

Use Nero Recode to recode to Nero digital. Thats the best quality you´ll get if you want 6 hours on a single DVD.

[guns1inger]

Can you play it back on your DVD player ?

[Nelson37]

Step 1. get a bitrate calculator. Use it. That will tell you what bitrate to use to get the desired time length of video on one disk.

Step 2. Pick an encoder. There are dozens. Find some guides for it, there should be several. Read them. Encode.

Step 3. View for acceptable quality. If unacceptable, reduce resolution and re-encode.

Authoring programs author, they do not reduce filesize. Those that do re-encode typically do a crappy job. Enocde only once for best results, or as few times as possible.

[matvangogh]

wil nero recode burn to a disc all by itself while compressing?
and will nero encode covert several hours of avi directly to dvd folder compressed to fit on one DVD5?
remember i have limited hard drive space

[greymalkin]

to keep from running into all sorts of other weird sync issues you really need a second large drive for doing this type of video conversion. It will also dramatically speed up the time they take.

[guns1inger]

This has progressed from 6 hours of high quality, down to using Nero to encode for DVD - pretty much the opposite end of the quality spectrum.

[matvangogh]

well i was tryig to avoid getting another hard drive
if i did that i then i wouldnt have needed to make this post
the whole reason for this post is becuase i ran out of har drive space while making a DVD folder from these high quality avis
i already know how to make a dvd and shrink it but i have little hard drive space
which is amazing becuase i have 28 G free! and its kinda odd that it uses it all and the program gets a low hard drive space error.
maybe i need to defrag so the free space is all together?
it looks like i will have to get a new external hard drive after all then
if u are right grey,
anyone know of any USB external drives that are 40 gig that are cheap?
hoe come some files i burn to dvd can fit several hours on one dvd with no problem aqnd then others use up my whole hard drive space
is that from being a high bit rate?

[ZippyP.]

If you have a DVD recorder and consider 6-hour mode fine, then I just wasted my time typing.

That pretty much sums it up!

[guns1inger]

If you are using 28GB creating a single 4.38gb DVD then you are definately doing something very wrong. You should be able to that is 14gb from Divx/Xvid source files.

[matvangogh]

no what i am doing is taking either 4-6 hour avi file and try to use sonic dvd and create a dvd folder on my hard drive
but it seems to use all that space when i do it~
now if it didnt use all that space, i would simply then take dvd shrink and compress it enought to fit in a single dvd5 ( making a 2nd dv folder this time 4.38G ) then i just use a stander dvd burner program to copy that 2nd folder to dvd but i keep running out of hard drive space
do u know anything abotu external hard drives
do u know any cheap ones that are at least 40GB and maybe bus powered( no ac cord)?

[guns1inger]

Didtch sonic as it obviously isn't doing what you need. Use a decent encoder such as tmpgenc or procoder express or similar. This will take you avi files and create a 4.38 gb mpeg file for authoring. Use TDA or similar to author, and worst case it should use no more than twice that space again - 4.38 for work area, and 4.38 for the authored disc files.

LaCie produce good external HDD that power off the USB or FW ports. I don't think anything less than around 80GB would be value for money. I have no idea where you are from, so specific pricing is worthless at the moment.

The problem is your process and the software you are attempting to use. You have more than enough disc space to achieve what you want to achieve, if you do it properly.

[matvangogh]

thank you gunslinger ill try the encoding tools first if it doesnt work still then ill get another hard drive
thanks again

[FulciLives]

Some thoughts ...

If you use TMPGEnc Plus and use the NTSC/PAL Low Resolution DVD template it will create a DVD compliant file with "VCD" resolution (352x240 NTSC or 352x288 PAL) and you will get compliant 16-bit 48k Stereo MP2 or PCM WAV audio. If you use MP2 then use a MP2 bitrate of 224kbps. My suggestion though would be to use PCM WAV audio then afterwards convert the PCM WAV to AC-3 format. With AC-3 you can go as low as 192kbps and still get acceptable audio quality (in fact AC-3 at 192kbps is better than MP2 at 224kbps).

Using that as a guide you can "easily" fit 4 hours of video per DVD disc. At 4 hours and 224kbps MP2 audio you can use a video bitrate of 2200kbps. At 4 hours and 192kbps AC-3 audio you can use a video bitrate of 2250kbps.

In my opinion this bitrate (2200kbps) at "VCD" resolution will most likely provide quality that you will be happy with (considering your request). In fact you might even be able to push it to 4 1/2 hours (lower the video bitrate down to about 2000/2050 in this case).

Please note that the TMPGEnc Plus NTSC/PAL Low Resolution template uses MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-1 which in my opinion is better than trying to do a "high-bitrate" MPEG-1 VCD kinda thing (I saw this questioned earlier in the thread).

Anyways this 4 hour (maybe 4 1/2 hour) mark is really about the most you would want to put on your DVD. Putting more running time means you would have to lower the bitrate to the point of ... YUCK !!!

However as has been suggested by other people in this thread already ... you would be better to use Half D1 resolution (which is 352x480 NTSC or 352x576 PAL) along with a much higher bitrate. Using this resolution you should be able to get 3 hours of video per DVD disc in quality that will be MUCH better than the 4 or 4 1/2 hours I mentioned above.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Nelson37]

Sonic is not a very good encoder, among other things it will convert your audio to PCM which is very large, though not large enough to explain your problem.

28 GB is enough to do what you want, you just need to avoid creation of too many intermediate files. This requires programs which you control, and requires you to control them.

Get TMPGenc. Encode 1 file at a time. Use another tool (Sonic is OK for just authoring, IF the file is already muxed with AC3 audio). You will need either another tool for AC3 creation, the TMPGenc AC3 plugin, or an authoring tool which accepts MPG2 audio.

You have enough space. The tools are available. Detailed instructions easy to find. You may have to put forth some effort.

[matvangogh]

how do i convert it
from avi to mpg?
and then use sonic??
i have tmpgenc plus 2.5

gunslinger i tried to install procode 2.0 and it didnt work
it kept saying need hasp driver i couldnt run it

[FulciLives]

how do i convert it
from avi to mpg?
and then use sonic??
i have tmpgenc plus 2.5

gunslinger i tried to install procode 2.0 and it didnt work
it kept saying need hasp driver i couldnt run it

There are many guides on this website on how to convert from this format to that format using this tool etc.

Look at the HOW TO section on the left hand side.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[matvangogh]

if if use OSS video converter ot tmpgenc and convert the avi to MPEG-2 and THEN use sonic would it use less hard drive space? then to make a dvd folder
i set the biterate to 1950
does that sound about right? for the OSS video converter
for some reasonw hen i try to convery the file for tmpgenc, this movie ( which is only a little over an hour long, reads as being over 2 hours by tmpgenc and says it cant do it in the project wizard screen

[jagabo]

TMPGEnc gets confused by VBR MP3 audio.

[matvangogh]

ok well if i just use OSS video converter to encode an avi to mpeg-2 at a bitrate of about 2000 , would that make it so it doesnt use up ALL my hard drive ( 28G) when i use my sonic dvd? becuase when i take about 4 hrs of avi it uses so much hard drive space

i have tmpgenc and oss video converter and nero burning rom 6.6 ( i think) and tda
can someone explain to me one step at a time how to make the quality good enough but the bitrate or whatever low enough so when i create at least 4 hours of video from an AVI it wont take up any more than 20 G of hard drive space while making the dvd folder ? and it doens have to be the highest quality

[FulciLives]

... can someone explain to me one step at a time how to make ...

No.

That is why there are guides.

The process is long and complicated for anyone to guide you through it in a thread.

That's why we have guides here.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman