put two m2v's and ac3's on one dvd-r

[Bic]

Can I combine two rips and put them on one dvd-r? Each m2v is 2.3 gig.
Or instead of putting them on a dvd-r can I put them on a vcd. I don't want to waste a $3.50 dvd-rfor each rip. I would only be using half of it. What programs would let me do this?

[q1aqza]

You could fit them on one dvd-r if you re-encode to make them smaller. The max for a dvd-r is 4.37 Gb. You need to use a bitrate calculator and subtract the size of the audio from the 4.37Gb and then the calculator will work out the bitrate for re-encoding your m2v's.

[miketree]

I think what Bic wanted to know was HOW to do it.... not just if it can be done.

[Bic]

Yes, I want to put the two of them on one dvd-r. I've done a couple of burns using rempeg2 when I used one m2v over 4.3gig. I want to put two m2v files that add up to a little more than 4.3 gig.

[q1aqza]

There are good guides on www.doom9.org that could be adapted to fit 2 movies on one disk. I have never done this before but this is what I would do, at a summary level - the doom9 guides will cover each step in more detail:

Tools:
1. Smartripper
2. Bitrate calculator (see tools section on this site)
3. Your preferred MPEG2 encoder (e.g. CCE, TMPG or ReMPEG as you've already mentioned).
4. DVD2AVI and AVISynth if you need to frameserve.
5. An authoring program that handles AC3, e.g. SpruceUp, Maestro or DVD Workshop, etc.

Steps:
1. Stream rip the m2v and ac3 files
2. Use a bitrate calculator to work out the required bitrate to re-encode to create the smaller file sizes that will fit on a 4.37 DVDR - this will need to take into account the size of the AC3s and the duration of the movies.
3. Re-encode the m2vs using your preferred encoder. CCE will need frameserving but TMPG won't if you already have an MPEG2 decoder e.g. PowerDVD,.
4. Import the m2vs and AC3s into your authoring program and create your chapters and menus, then compile the DVD. Maestro will enable you to import the original chapter points using Chapter Extractor to retrieve them.
5. I recommend that you burn to a -RW as a test before burning to a -R.

I hope this helps.