How to get the best quality MPEG2 for DVD?

[forbidden shani]

Here is my situation:

Basically I want to know whats the easiest way to convert mutiple avi into dvd which will be always close to filling the DVD's entire 4.7GB capacity.

I have 13 avi files which are 24 minutes each which I want to convert them into mpeg2 then author into a dvd. The source files are 640x360 XVID with MP3 audio (about 90-100MB each)

The problem is if I do it with TMPGENC as MPEG1 VCD these comes out 200MB each, wasting half of a DVD. However if I make it MPEG2, they are 700MB each, 6 of them already makes a disc full.

I tried the dvd video type conversion to tell it using only 7% of the disc per file, but it somehow decide to analyze the video and it estimate 5 hours to complete a 24 minute avi.

[jimmalenko]

What you need to do is use a bitrate calculator. Change the type to DVD and plug in the total running time of all episodes combined. Select an audio bitrate. This will tell you what Video bitrate you will need to use. I normally subtract a little off this to allow for a menu so I'll quote it as 1700 instead of 1725.

The next area where you might find troubles is the MP3 audio. Open each AVI in virtualdub. If they come up with a warning about VBR audio then it is recommend that you do the following:

Go to Audio > Full Processing. Go to Audio > Compression and make sure that No Compression (PCM) is selected. Go to File > Save as WAV.

Once you have this information, open TMPGEnc and load your AVI as the video source. Load the WAV file you created as your audio source. Load the DVD template for your region (PAL or NTSC). Load the unlock template. Change the frame size to 352 X 288 (PAL) or 352 X 240 (NTSC), MPEG-2 Video CBR 1700kbps, Audio 48KHz 192kbps.

Load these MPGs into authoring software and create a menu if desired.