240 Min Video on one DVD

[XanaXManX]

Hello, I have almost all the Simpsons captured. I would like to put them all on DVD with menu's using DVD Workshop. How ever it seems that I can only fit 4-6 on each DVD with out reducing the quality to pure crap.

Anyone have a great way to do something like this?

Is there such a thing as say, VCD on a DVD?

All my Simpsons captures are AVI's and are about 200MB each.

[GKar]

I made a few 4 hour DVD's before. I captured MPEG2 using VBR which kept the quality up and the file size down, but they were still too big so then I used DVDShrink to bring it down to DVD size. They looked okay all things considered.

[SLK001]

Anyone have a great way to do something like this?

I thought that you didn't want crap.

All my Simpsons captures are AVI's and are about 200MB each.

But you just said that you could only get 4 to 6 on a DVD. A MPEG2 file should be smaller than your .AVI (or at least the same size).

You can use 352x480 as your encoded size for your .M2V files, but only you can tell if the results are crap or not.

Since these are caps, you should also IVTC them, to pick up extra space.

[FulciLives]

All my Simpsons captures are AVI's and are about 200MB each.

Exactly what format are they in? As you know an AVI file can be a bunch of different codecs such as DivX or Xvid or HuffyUV or PICVideo MJPEG or DV etc.

Also what is the resolution of the AVI files you have?

Tell us these things and we can perhaps help you with exactly what settings you should be using.

Also what MPEG encoder will you be using? Most of us use either TMPGEnc or CCE (which comes in a Basic version and the more expensive CCE SP version) and then there is even the MainConcepts MPEG encoder.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[XanaXManX]

Lets see, all of them are in Divx. The Res is 352 X 240. My Mpeg encoder is TMPGenc Plus. But I can just throw them into DVD Workshop and it accepts the AVI's. Also AVI's seem to be much smaller than MPEG-2, so what do you mean SLK001?

I've done alot of this stuff before but cant seem to get something like this project done right.

I mean come on, 200MB Video File, 4.3GB Disk I should be able to fit a crap load of them on there. Now I know the format has to change and thats why, but come on there has to be a way to fit say, 10 Episodes on each DVD with decent quality. Cant there?

[FulciLives]

Lets see, all of them are in Divx. The Res is 352 X 240. My Mpeg encoder is TMPGenc Plus. But I can just throw them into DVD Workshop and it accepts the AVI's. Also AVI's seem to be much smaller than MPEG-2, so what do you mean SLK001?

I've done alot of this stuff before but cant seem to get something like this project done right.

I mean come on, 200MB Video File, 4.3GB Disk I should be able to fit a crap load of them on there. Now I know the format has to change and thats why, but come on there has to be a way to fit say, 10 Episodes on each DVD with decent quality. Cant there?

Here is what you do ...

Use TMPGEnc and start up the WIZARD MODE and use the DVD NTSC (LOW RESOLUTION) Template which uses MPEG-2 but at the resolution of 352x240 thus creating a DVD compliant MPEG-2 file. VCD uses the same resolution but is MPEG-1 and is not really a compliant DVD file.

For the audio you can use either MP2 or LPCM. If you know your DVD player supports MP2 then use that otherwise either use LPCM or AC-3 which will require using something like BeSweet

As for the VIDEO bitrate I'm not sure what you need for this resolution to get a decent picture. I normally don't use such a low resolution but I guess there is no reason to use a higher one since the source files are only 352x240 but anyways I would try something like maybe 2500kbps and MP2 of 224kbps Stereo.

That should fit about 9 episodes on a single disc (using 224kbps MP2 or 224kbps AC-3). If you use the same 2500kbps video bitrate but instead use LPCM audio then you are looking at only 6 episodes on a single disc.

Also you might want to try a bitrate lower than 2500kbps because you MIGHT be able to go lower though I doubt you would want to go lower than maybe 2000kbps.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[XanaXManX]

I will give that a try first, Thanks!

[Gees]

For the audio you can use either MP2 or LPCM. If you know your DVD player supports MP2 then use that otherwise either use LPCM or AC-3 which will require using something like BeSweet

FulciLives - Do some US players support MP2? I always assumed (which I know is always a bad thing to do) :c) that none did. Is it mainly newly players that do? I've been telling all US people PCM or AC3 only. :co

Should I track them all down and add corrections? :cD That's my weekend filled up!

[FulciLives]

For the audio you can use either MP2 or LPCM. If you know your DVD player supports MP2 then use that otherwise either use LPCM or AC-3 which will require using something like BeSweet

FulciLives - Do some US players support MP2? I always assumed (which I know is always a bad thing to do) :c) that none did. Is it mainly newly players that do? I've been telling all US people PCM or AC3 only. :co

Should I track them all down and add corrections? :cD That's my weekend filled up!

Well this is sort of one of those UP IN THE AIR things.

It does seem that MOST USA model DVD players can play back a DVD with MP2 audio. Of course there are models (mostly very old models) that will not. But my experience has been most will BUT here is the catch ...

Although they will play back MP2 they might not "handle" it very well. I've heard people complain about the sound not "being correct" such as the levels being either too low and/or too high amoung other problems.

So I still think it is much more safe to stick to LPCM or AC-3 but again you even have problems there. LPCM often just takes up WAY too much space. I have used it from time to time but unless you have something that is very short it's not worth the "hit" you take on the VIDEO bitrate (since it must be MUCH lower). AC-3 is GREAT but the only freeware AC-3 is BeSweet and BeSweet AC-3 produced files DO NOT work with ALL stand alone DVD players.

I'm lucky in that I have access to the AC-3 ENCODER that comes with Scenarist ... it's an excellent AC-3 encoder ... but not eveyone has access to that since Scenarist is SUCH an expensive program (and I've really given up on using it other than using the AC-3 encoder part of it).

I'm really not aware of a another program (other than BeSweet) that can do AC-3 encoding at a CHEAP price. The only one that comes to mind is NeoDVD but it re-encodes any video you input into it (even DVD complaint MPEG-2 files) so that pretty much makes it useless.

The DVD hobbyist really needs an inexpensive AC-3 encoding solution. As far as I can tell one does not really exist.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[You_Are_Alive]

Just browsing but here's some quick facts. My Sony dvd player has no problem reading the mp2 audio. The other Sonic products also encode AC-3 audio, like Reel DVD, very similiar to functionality as Scenarist but not as hard to learn, well maybe. The other is DVDit PE. Hope I've contributed something to your questions/doubts.