copy multiple DVDs to a single DVD

[vcd_user]

I want to send a collection of home make DVDs to a friend oversea. I want to reduce the number of discs that I have to ship. Can some one tell me what is the fastest way to get a number of DVDs onto a single one. I don't mind reducing the picture quality to SVCD or VCD.
I think I probably can rip a DVD to VCD, convert the VCD to mpeg and author a new DVD with as many mpeg file as I can fit onto it. This may takes long time and not sure if it will work. Any other suggestion ?

[Cunhambebe]

First questions are: how many DVDs are you going to set onto a single one? It's going to be a DL or a SL DVD? If you are going to send a Sl DVD, you can compress the files with DVD Shrink, but you have to take care with the compression settings for the files (no more than 20% of compression, that means up to 80% of its original size). If I can suggest you do something, why not sendind a data DVD to your friend? Convert all files as MPEG4 (*.Divx or *.Xvid - sound files included).

[vcd_user]

The result DVD has to be playable on a very standard regular DVD player. This is a place where DVD player or computer are luxury items. That's why even VCD quality is good enough. Data DVD is out of question because it needs a computer.

[jimmalenko]

how much playing time do you wish to get per DVD ?

[vcd_user]

no definite requirement. I had combined 7 to 8 VCDs (close to 7 hours of video) on a DVD before. The resulting DVD plays well on my DVD player (an under $50 machine). That's why I had the original idea of ripping the DVDs to VCD first and reauthor them. But this takes too long.
That's why I am looking for other suggestions. The bottom line is as much as I can with minimum at VCD quality.

[jimmalenko]

You could possibly try transcoding with DVDShrink, but you're going to hit a "limit" as to how far you can shrink down before pixelations and stuff become too apparent. If you're going to lower the res then you're gonna have to re-encode irregardless, so I'd probably bite the bullet and get your favorite MPEG encoder set up to do batch processing, set up all your jobs and just let it do it's thing for the next few days. There's no easy away around it AFAIK

[vcd_user]

Thanks jimmallenko, any reocmmendation on a " favorite MPEG encoder' that can do the batch work properly ? Free is better than fee for budget reason.

[jimmalenko]

I'd use TMPGEnc Free