Can i put a 140 minute MPEG 4 onto a DVD?

[KingRoLo]

I have a 120 min Single Layer disc but my encoded content lasts for about 140 mins. Is it possible to still fit this onto a standard disc using a recoder? or am i simply restricted by its length in time (this always confuses me).

Thankyou.

[jman98]

Is it possible? Yes it is. I've gotten over 5 hours of video onto a single layer DVD. Others have done 6 hours or more. The lower the bit rate of the video, the less the quality but the more you can fit on a disc.

Using a DVD recorder is the easiest way to go for a new guy, but not the best choice for quality. It would be better to encode the video on your PC and burn it there, but the process is much more complicated and time consuming. If you can find a DVD recorder with either a 3 hour or 4 hour recording setting (if you have both, use the 3 hour setting) then that would be one way to do it.

[Cornucopia]

KingRolo,

You have a finite amount of space on a disc. Since,

• LengthOfTime * Bitrate = Filesize

and you know the limit to your filesize, all you have to do is know the length of your show(s) to determine the bitrate constraints.

and since

• Bitrate / Resolution & Complexity ~= Relative Quality

you know that you want to maximize the bitrate to get the best quality for a given show.

**That's why DVRs drop to 1/2 D1 or 1/4 D1 resolution for longer shows.

Note: In all the above cases, VBR encoding will extend EITHER the length-for-given-quality or quality-for-given-length capability.

Scott

[theewizard]

what is the size of the current 'source'

just because its 140 minutes doesn't mean it won't fit, if the file is meg2 or vob and less than 4400 meg / 4.4 gig it should fit

i what is the current file format meg, vob, avi , mp4

just convert to DVD using a bit rate that will create a set of files the correct size, i normally set my limit at 4200 to avoid burning to the edge of the media and let the conversion program set the bitrate accordingly

[Gforce598]

In the strictest sence of the question the answer would normaly be no; however anything is possible if you use you mind and tools given here. While under normal circumstances while using the absolute correct resolution IE.. bitrate of encoding and screen size a normal dvd single layer may only fit 120 minutes of video with chapters and scene selection. I have personally made dvds containing say all 13 episodes of an entire season of a tv show with chapters and menus or say a dvd containing six full length movies with chapters and scene selection using numerous different programs to achieve my total file size of the 4.6 or so gig barrier. What truely matters most when re encoding files is the type of outcome you wish to go for a number of things need to be answered first like are you doing chapters, scene selection, menus, ect. But if you just want it to play in the dvd player you do not need all those extra things taking you vital space on the disk. You can I belive put up to about 10 hours at most onto one single layer dvd with very nice results!! If lets say you are going from an avi that is not encoded in true dvd quality resolution then it makes no real sence to then re encode the file into some ungodly high resolution if you wish to fit more onto the disk. For instance if you have an avi that was lets say Divx or Xvid full length movie and you wish to put it onto disk and you don't care about all the extra things like menus or scene selection then I would have suggest such programs for re encoding as VSO Divx to DVD or WinAvi but are good programs, I personally like VSO myself I think the results are better, clearer video and such some programs have batch encoding so you can select mutiple parts or segments to put into the disk and they will be played in the order which you put them into the encoder program with very little pause between files. If you do a batch encode and the resulting size was too big to fit within I would say less then one gig then you can use DVD Shrink to shrink the size to fit onto the disk without too much loss in quality unless you have allready adjusted the encoding process settings to make the most of your space then in which case the resolution settings of each of the files was so low that any more loss in quality due to compression would make the quality of the end resulting disk suffer greatly.
Hope this hasn't made the confusion worse then when you started and I also hope that I stated all of the above rant in a way that was understandable. Happy encoding
Gforce598

modshoptitletest.bmp

[rumplestiltskin]

The topic title indicates MPEG4. So the answer is "yes, if the size of the file is smaller than 4.3GB (more or less)" but "no, not if you want to play it in a DVD player unless the unit knows how to play a discrete MPEG4 file (not authored - in which case it wouldn't be MPEG4 but MPEG2) and you use a file system that your DVD player can accept on a DVD."