With Nero 7 Ultra, why are imported dvd files so big?

[wisny]

I know I've seen this asked, but when I read the question, I didn't understand enough to understand what they were talking about. And now that I think I could understand the topic, I can't find the question again. So, I hope it's okay if I ask again. Here goes ~

I have copied a VHS to a DVD+RW, and chosen 'Make a DVD Movie', using Nero 7 Ultra's NeroVision 4 program. The recording is a 55-minute VHS tape recorded in SP to a DVD+RW disc on a Toshiba standalone recorder hooked up to the VCR, which, when done, leaves just over an hour of time left to record on the DVD disc.

When I use the Nero program to bring in the movie to edit, the file ends up with video quality 'excellent', but it uses up over 3 gigs of the 4.xx gigs available on the disc. Why does it end up so huge? How come it wouldn't end up using up a bit less than half the disc space, as it did when recorded with a standalone Toshiba dvd recorder?

Someone gave me the Nero program to use, to learn about burning and editing DVDs. It does do what I want it to (ie make title menus with chapter submenus), but I don't understand why the product takes up so much dvd space.

I was very excited when I finally made my own output dvd movie from an AVI that someone gave me, with chapters and everything , so I moved next to copying my own vhs to dvd, then I thought I'd output a new dvd with chapters, but I'm stumped as to why it's taking up so much more space than the dvd I started with took up.

I'm moving next to GUIfordvdauthor, which someone suggested to me for making titles with chapter submenus, I just wanted to finish understanding this part first, before I moved on. I think the GUI program is really what I want, and will take much less time, because of less um, encoding? transcoding? not sure what is the right terminology.

Apologies if my question was too wordy/confusing.

[redwudz]

I suspect it's as simple as Nero just wanting to fill up the disc as much as possible. How long did this operation take? If quite a while, it likely re-encoded the whole file, which would have lowered the quality if it kept a similar file size as the original. Making the file larger would have kept more quality after the re-encode, so that would be a good thing. But if the file was already DVD compliant, sounds like just a waste of time to re-encode a perfectly good file.

If you look to the top left on this page, under 'WHAT IS' DVD, you will see the DVD specifications, format and structure. If your video file is compliant with these, then no reason to re-encode, just author it.

GUIfordvdAuthor would be a better choice, IMO. But you may have to put a bit more work into using it than Nero. But you will have a lot more control over the finished DVD.

[wisny]

TY for reply, redwudz

Yes, it definitely re-encoded the whole file. Took a bunch of time. I know that this is not what I need - takes wayyyy too much time to convert, as you said. I'm moving next to the GUIfordvdAuthor program you mentioned. usually_quiet also recommended it to me a bit ago in another thread. I wanted to finish learning the task someone else gave me to learn (turning AVI into movie), before I moved to the that program. It's so hard when all the terminology is new. I was so damn happy when Good Will Hunting AVI (actually divx) finally ended up as a playable movie on my DVD player. WITH chapters! lol (That took me a few days to figure out - not the chapters, but why I couldn't make a title menu and a chapter submenu, even though it said you could in the manual, and there was a drop down selector saying to choose 'title menu only', 'title and chapter menus', or 'no menu'. Turned out you CAN make title and chapter submenus, but only when there's more than one top title. A couple of days that took me to figure out - sad, I know. hehehehe)

It seemed like Nero was more basic, and would be a good step for beginning to understand all the terminolgy. But that dvdAuthor is definitely next on my learn-to-do list. It really does sound like just what I'm looking for.

[usually_quiet]

TY for reply, redwudz

Yes, it definitely re-encoded the whole file. Took a bunch of time. I know that this is not what I need - takes wayyyy too much time to convert, as you said. I'm moving next to the GUIfordvdAuthor program you mentioned. usually_quiet also recommended it to me a bit ago in another thread. I wanted to finish learning the task someone else gave me to learn (turning AVI into movie), before I moved to the that program. It's so hard when all the terminology is new. I was so damn happy when Good Will Hunting AVI (actually divx) finally ended up as a playable movie on my DVD player. WITH chapters! lol (That took me a few days to figure out - not the chapters, but why I couldn't make a title menu and a chapter submenu, even though it said you could in the manual, and there was a drop down selector saying to choose 'title menu only', 'title and chapter menus', or 'no menu'. Turned out you CAN make title and chapter submenus, but only when there's more than one top title. A couple of days that took me to figure out - sad, I know. hehehehe)

It seemed like Nero was more basic, and would be a good step for beginning to understand all the terminolgy. But that dvdAuthor is definitely next on my learn-to-do list. It really does sound like just what I'm looking for.

You could likely find a used DVD of this movie for only a few dollars or a new one for about $12.

[wisny]

You could likely find a used DVD of this movie for only a few dollars or a new one for about $12.

Oh, yes, I actually already own the movie "Good Will Hunting" on dvd. Someone gave it to me as an avi to help me learn about making/burning dvd movies. It was just a sample task to work on.

The other recordings are all exercise vhs's that I'm transferring over from vhs to dvd. I stopped my archiving project while I learned some of the basics of burning dvds on the computer, and making menus. I had been just archiving from vcr to dvd, but I wanted to be able to make menus, so began the process of learning dvd making/editing/authoring on the pc.

[pirej]

I was using Nero7 some time ago, and it had a "smart encoding" feature, i.e. if the input file is dvd compliant.. it wont re-encode the video unless you set it up to re-encode , and the authoring of a DVD with menu and chapters would finish in about 5-15 minutes for a whole movie.. depending of the complexity of the menu you are making.
So, you(wisny) are probably authoring DVD directly from AVI(this means full re-encoding), that's why it took soo much time.
When full re-encoding , i think there was an option for basic editing the encoding profile, so that it wont use up all of the dvd-disc space, but im not 100%sure of this, im not using nero for a long time.

[Nelson37]

There are Better encoders than Nero, and Better authoring programs, such as Gfd. One of the reasons Gfd is Better than Nero is that it will NOT re-encode your movie. It Authors DVDs, that's ALL it does.

One of the things you may be missing is that Nero will DECIDE, BY ITSELF, whether or not your movie Needs re-encoding. There are certain parameters that will cause Nero to do this even though they will author and play just fine.

Bad program. BAD, Bad program. Be gone with this crap.

Next thing you need is a good burning program. ImageBurn, that's it. There is no other. It Burns, that's ALL it does.

Encoding is a whole separate area which is best handled by a dedicated program that Encodes, that's it. Are you noticing a trend? This is by far the most complicated and involved step, you are right to concentrate on authoring and burning first. Get these nailed down before getting into the encoding step.

[wisny]

I was using Nero7 some time ago, and it had a "smart encoding" feature, i.e. if the input file is dvd compliant.. it wont re-encode the video unless you set it up to re-encode , and the authoring of a DVD with menu and chapters would finish in about 5-15 minutes for a whole movie.. depending of the complexity of the menu you are making.
So, you(wisny) are probably authoring DVD directly from AVI(this means full re-encoding), that's why it took soo much time.
When full re-encoding , i think there was an option for basic editing the encoding profile, so that it wont use up all of the dvd-disc space, but im not 100%sure of this, im not using nero for a long time.

Thankyou, pirej Hey, I didn't know about that feature (smart encoding). Both of the projects I did were originally on a dvd disc. One was the movie "Good Will Hunting", it was definitely AVI (divx). The person who gave me the Nero 7 gave me the AVI as a project to work on to learn. The second one was an exercise VHS I recorded onto a DVD+RW with my recorder. I thought it was DVD compliant b/c it was recorded on the recorder, but I'll check on that, using the link on this site. Thx for the info.

[wisny]

There are Better encoders than Nero, and Better authoring programs, such as Gfd. One of the reasons Gfd is Better than Nero is that it will NOT re-encode your movie. It Authors DVDs, that's ALL it does.

One of the things you may be missing is that Nero will DECIDE, BY ITSELF, whether or not your movie Needs re-encoding. There are certain parameters that will cause Nero to do this even though they will author and play just fine.

Bad program. BAD, Bad program. Be gone with this crap.

Next thing you need is a good burning program. ImageBurn, that's it. There is no other. It Burns, that's ALL it does.

Encoding is a whole separate area which is best handled by a dedicated program that Encodes, that's it. Are you noticing a trend? This is by far the most complicated and involved step, you are right to concentrate on authoring and burning first. Get these nailed down before getting into the encoding step.

Thankyou, Nelson . Yes, I am starting to notice a trend.
"Get a program dedicated to the thing you want to do."
Burning program for burning, authoring program for authoring, encoding program for encoding.

You mentioned that Nero will decide on its own to re-encode a movie. Is that the 'smart-encoding' feature that pirej mentioned? I'm taking your advice and being gone with the Nero crap.

I have been clicking around and reading alot of the threads in the editing, authoring, and newbie forums, particularly. I have seen the program that you referenced, ImageBurn, mentioned several times. I saved a link to post on it, putting it on my to do list, right after the GFD program for authoring/making menus that you and others mentioned. Those two are what I need, I think you're right. Hey, as long as I'm jotting on my list, when I get to ripping, what is the program best to learn that with? I don't think I'll need that for awhile, as what I'm working with first is a bunch of VHS tapes. But hey, after I start to get the hang of it, I might want to put some of the exercise workouts on DVD in a new order on a different DVD. That could come in handy - put abs workouts together, etc.

[yoda313]

dvdfabdecrypter for ripping. There is a free version available.

[wisny]

dvdfabdecrypter for ripping. There is a free version available.

Thanks, yoda

*adds it to my list*

[yoda313]

dvdfabdecrypter for ripping. There is a free version available.

Thanks, yoda

*adds it to my list*

You're welcome.

I see you are looking to make your own dvds as well. I do see guifordvdauthor has been mentioned. I'd like to mention avstodvd as another good program to consider. Its free so thats a good start. It can encode the file if its not already dvd compliant and it has its own menu wizard too. It uses hcenc or quenc, two very good mpeg encoders.

[wisny]

You're welcome.

I see you are looking to make your own dvds as well. I do see guifordvdauthor has been mentioned. I'd like to mention avstodvd as another good program to consider. Its free so thats a good start. It can encode the file if its not already dvd compliant and it has its own menu wizard too. It uses hcenc or quenc, two very good mpeg encoders.

Thankyou again, yoda . Is that a recommendation for when I am ready to learn encoding? Or is that a recommendation to consider as an alternative to gfd?

[yoda313]

Is that a recommendation for when I am ready to learn encoding? Or is that a recommendation to consider as an alternative to gfd?

One or the other or both.

You see avstodvd can encode a file to mpeg2 for you and you can use that in another authoring application. Or you can encode directly to a fully functional dvd with a menu (it has an internal menu wizard) and then burn to disc. But you have full control over the entire process or you can use presets if you want.