i give up,i need advice

[billy beard]

i've made the avi's etc in to svcd and vcd ,i've got em all working but im having problems with how big to edit [cut] the file to so it fits on a disc.
for a 800meg disc i need to know how much time in svcd is the limit i.e 40 mins of film
and for an 800meg disc the limit of filesize [time] for a vcd conversion,i've tried loads but are either slightly too big or way to small.
Help please.

[VidGuy]

Time isn't really the issue - size is. about 819 MB (MB as measured by Window's Explorer) will fit on an 80 minute CD.

For a standard VCD, an 80 minute CD will hold an 80 minute VCD if you stuck to 1150 kbps video and 224 kbps audio. Once you leave standard VCD, though, you need to use a bitrate calculator if you want to figure out ahead of time (vcdhelp has a nice one in their TOOLS section). However, for "after the fact" cutting, I use BBMPeg and just tell it to cut at 790 MB.

If I don't like exactly where it cut - I fudge back and forth a bit till it cuts where I like it - not exactly quick, but I get good cuts that way.

I've seen SVCDs with as many as 80 or 90 minutes on a disc and as few as 35 minutes on a disk - all depends on the average bitrate of the media (obviously, if the average bitrate is 1150 kbps, you get 80 minutes - if it's 2300, you get 40 minutes - you do the math).