I'm a newbie...AVI to MPEG conversion??

[lcfrancisco]

Hi everyone...I'm definitely new to this all this. I've learned so much from everyone here. I'm amazed by all the knowedge shared in these forums!

Anyways, on to my question. I just captured about 4 hrs of video from VHS to AVI using VirtualDub, and proceeded to cut it down to 3 1/2 hours after removing commercials. I used Huffyuv v2.1.1 for compression. So the result is 30.6 GB of AVI files. I converted the AVIs to MPEG using TMPGEnc Plus and the result was 12.4 GB of MPEG files. I'd like to burn the entire thing to DVD but obviously this is almost 3 times the size of a 4.7 GB DVD. Anyone out there have suggestions on how to do this? Thanks!

[jemz]

Try to use dvd shrink.. it shrinks the dvd a lot!

-jemz

[feenix]

.........or Rejig (you won't have to author it first) or just re-encode with a lower bitrate.

[bugster]

Or for best possible quality, re-encode at a lower bitrate.

3 1/2 hours is quite a lot to fit on one DVDr, especailly at full D1 resolution (720 * 480/576).
I would suggest using 1/2 D1, esp as the source is VHS. Use a bitrate calculator to determine the best bitrate and use 2-pass VBR with motion serach precision normal or fast.

Bitrate caculator Here

[ZippyP.]

3 1/2 hrs = avg bitrate of 2600 kbps video (approx.), 224 audio for 1 DVD. Use 2-pass and 500 min, 8000 max and it should look good if you use 1/2 DVD res (352x480/576).

There's a bitrate calculator here.

[lcfrancisco]

Thanks for the info everybody! So does a lower bitrate harm the quality of the video? If so, by how much?

[ZippyP.]

Thanks for the info everybody! So does a lower bitrate harm the quality of the video? If so, by how much?

Bitrate and quality are directly related. You need to test your own tolerance for bitrate and quality, everybody has a different standard. There is a point where increasing the bitrate does not make that great a difference but you need to judge for yourself, some people are just more fussy than others.

[bugster]

Thanks for the info everybody! So does a lower bitrate harm the quality of the video? If so, by how much?

ZippyP is perfectly correct but as an addition to his remarks you also have to take into account the kind of material. Talking head type shots require very little bitrate as there is little motion. High action scenes with fast motion and/or flashing lights require higher bitrates to encode well. So look at the kind of movie you have when deciding what bitrate may be required.