Using MF2 to fit a file onto a DVD?

[EwanG]

I have some AVIs I created as MPEG-4 V2 at fairly high quality and at 720x480. Normally this isn't a problem with Ulead MovieFactory 2 as it reencodes the files as MPEG2s and writes to my external firewire Pioneer 105.

However, I have a couple files that are larger than a single DVD. I had "assumed" I could use the change mpeg encoding option of MF2 to sacrifice a little quality to get the convience of getting everything on one disk. But the options given don't seem to include "reencode to fit".

Suggestions for what else I might be able to do?

Thanks,
Ewan

[BowlPacker]

Can you use TMPGEnc Plus? I let the wizard determine bitrate to make the MPEG-2 the right size. If never fed MPEG4's into TMPGEnc, so I can't say for sure that it will take them.

In MF2, the only way I've found to do it is to keep manually adjusting the bitrate until the estimated file size comes down to an acceptable size. I use the bitrate calc from this site to get a starting value, then manually adjust from that.

[EwanG]

Having already spent some bucks on the recorder and the MF software, getting the Plus version of TMPGEnc isn't high on my list of things to do

The freeware version doesn't seem to like MPEG-4 inputs, though I suppose I could try to coax it into believing it's really getting a DiVX or something.

I do have a copy of ArcSoft's ShowBiz software, and may try running a file through that - although I have been less than impressed with the tool for previous things I've tried to use it for.

Thanks,
Ewan

[Duchess]

Why not get MF2 to create the DVD files, then use DVDshrink to reduce to the 4.3Gb limit and then burn using MF2 or some other burning software?

[EwanG]

Why not get MF2 to create the DVD files, then use DVDshrink to reduce to the 4.3Gb limit and then burn using MF2 or some other burning software?

Probably the fact I'd never heard of the tool before

I'll give your suggest solution a try and report back.

Thanks,
Ewan

[mgh]

In MF
Do not check the-Do not convert compliant box
Change the encoding bitrate and check file size. Repeat till size is OK
Encode

[EwanG]

Well I learned a couple things last night

First, if you direct MF2 to create DVD folders, it takes FOREVER to do so. After four hours of crunching on a 5.6 Gig file it was only 8% done. As such, using DVD Shrink did not appear to be a good idea.

Playing with the settings in MF itself to change bit rates and that did not seem to create usable file sizes - or required so much change as to very visibly affect the final product.

Finally went back to Virtualdub and ran a reencode changing the MPEG-4 settings from 90 and 6000 to 75 and 3000. That made the 5.6 Gig file a 3.9 Gig file with only minimal change to the actual video output.

That's still not as clean a solution as I would like, but it's "good enough" at this point.

FWIW,
Ewan

[Duchess]

> First, if you direct MF2 to create DVD folders, it takes
> FOREVER to do so. After four hours of crunching on
> a 5.6 Gig file it was only 8% done. As such, using
> DVD Shrink did not appear to be a good idea.

Did you think to tell MF2 not to recompile compliant files? I ask because I use this method and it only takes about 20 minutes on my 1.8GHz Athlone.

[FOO]

In your first post you said you let MF2 encode your movie,
and in the last one you said it takes too long. Why would
it be different ?

How do you get Vdub to encode a movie ? It can't

[EwanG]

OK, to clear up some confusion evidenced by the last two questions...

My files are all stored as MS MPEG-4 V2 AVIs. My experience has been that this gives me good quality and reasonable compression while still being editable in Virtualdub and other programs. For burning a DVD I assume that I will have to allow for time for the Authoring software to reencode into MPEG-2. Since my AVIs are at 720x480 this usually isn't a horribly lengthy process.

When I tried to let MF2 create the DVD folders to be able to use DVD Shrink it did have to recompile since they weren't really compliant files. However I've NEVER had it take that long when I was just creating a DVD. I don't know what was different about the process, and the HD I was writing to had over 100 Gigs free. I just know that whereas normally the encode and burn will take about 2.5 to 3 hours, the encode alone had gone for over four hours by the time I stopped it. FWIW the machine I use is a PIII 1 GhZ with 512 megs RAM and Win XP Pro.

Again, my main hope was that I was missing some option in MF 2 that would let me essentially say "click here to have MF reencode the file to fit on a single DVD automagically". From a programming standpoint I can think of how I would write such a utility. From a time standpoint, there's no way I would do so. Which is why I had hoped someone else had.

Thanks again,
Ewan

[FOO]

You seem to believe there is a difference between
"creating DVD folders" and some other option to
make a DVD.
MF2 has 3 options for output.
1. Create a VIDEO_TS folder with all the needed files
2. Create an ISO image
3. Burn directly

ALL of these options do the SAME encode operation, the only difference
is the output format. # 3 above creates a temp ISO like #2 and then burns.
The encode is 99.9% of the effort, so they should all take the same time
(minus burning time). If you can make an ISO in 3 hours, you can make
a VIDEO_TS folder in 3 hours.

If this is not the the case, there is something wrong.

[EwanG]

You seem to believe there is a difference between
"creating DVD folders" and some other option to
make a DVD
...
If this is not the the case, there is something wrong.

Well, I certainly would have ASSUMED that was the case as well. Which is why I was surprised that an operation that normally takes only 3 hours to complete (including burning the DVD) had gone for four hours and was only 8% complete.

Again, I can only tell you what I saw. If there is something else I should have "known" to do I'd be happy to hear about it. Otherwise I have to assume that something was different about clicking the "creating DVD folders" way of handling files compared to the normal (for me) clicking to just burn the DVD.

FWIW,
Ewan

[FOO]

Beats me. I aint seen that one. Good luck.
(post if you find out )