dvd2svcd image too large for dvdr

[bchball]

Hi. I am new to dvd burning and i'm trying to backup a dvd (movie only) with dvd2svcd and even after reducing the cd mb size and the max average bitrate (after previous failed attempts to reduce size) I always get an image file which is 4.87 gig, which is too big for my dvd+or-r blank media.

I'm using the original ac3 soundtrack (dts makes the file even bigger).
dvd2svcd ver. 1.2.2b1
TMPGEnc ver. 2.57.41.146

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

I have used dvd2svcd many times before creating svcd's and it has worked a treat, it is a fantastic program. Without it I would have never moved on from divx to svcd.

btw. what's the story with dvd capacity? The dvd says it's 4.7 gig and the burning software sees it as 4.4 gig. Does this mean I can only burn 4.4 gig of data or anything?

Thanks

[bchball]

Obviously not many ppl use dvd2svcd for their movie backups.
I can understand, it takes me atleast 15 hours to compress a dvd this way but i'm experimenting at the moment.
I found that by trial and error, reducing the max bitrate as well as the max average bitrate I could get the movie down to 4.38gig. The cd (mb) size entered makes no difference to the bitrate values, maybe it's a bug.
If anyone knows of a mpeg2 bitrate calculator that would be great.

I have tried DVDshrink in combination with DVDdecrypter for ripping and burning and the movie works great on both my dvd players. But the movie i'm compressing with dvd2svcd I have loaned to a friend but it's ripped (movie only) onto my hd.

When I get this movie back i'm going to DVDshrink it and compare them both to see if there is any difference.

BTW. The manufacturers of blank dvd's use the metric system to buffer up the size of their dvd's from real world 4.38 binary to 4.7 metric. Cheats.

[iooi]

I have loaned to a friend but it's ripped (movie only) onto my hd.

You can still use shrink to compress it from your h/d, or dvd2one, or clonedvd......
I would guess at the reason you arnt getting any answers is the fact you arnt using the correct tool for the correct process.

[bchball]

Thanks for the reply iooi.

But when I try to load folder into shrink it says it can't find video_ts.ifo, which I don't think came over when I ripped movie only using smartripper. I probably need to rip whole disk to get that file.

And I agree with you that i'm using the wrong tool especially for this movie (i have it back now) which only runs for 110 min. I did not need any compression at all using shrink and I was able to add a preview and a music video that was available on the disk also.

DVD's are definately the go now seeing as the blank media is soooo cheap.

Happy dvd'ing everybody.