How to fit 3-4hours of avis into 1 dvd

[trash]

I have couple of avis each 1hour with subtitles. what I have been doing is converting the audio and video separately to make dvd compliant. Video I have been using HCencoder, audio I have been ffmpeggi0. Then I put them together with DVDAuthorGui, and then they are burned using ImgToolClassic with DVDDecrypter. I am able successfully burn 2 hours on 1 dvd with no problem. However I would like to burn more than 2 hours onto one single DVD. Is there a program I can used I would still like to use DVDDerypter to burn my DVD. Would this jeopardize the quality of the video by fitting more than 2 hours into a DVD?

Thanks in advance

[guns1inger]

Yes, it will affect quality. Practically, the best method for putting 4 hours on a single layer disc is to use half-D1 resolution. This reduces the horizontal resolution by 50% when encoding, allowing you to use a lower bitrate, and consequently get more on a disc. The player will restore the video to full width on playback. The usually difference in quality is a softer image. Depending on the source, this may not be very noticable (at present I am doing a box set of an old English TV series originally shot on 16mm. I am putting 4 eipsodes - 200+ minutes runtime - to a disc in half-D1. Because the source is already a little soft, the difference is negligable).

The bigger problem with half-D1 is the subtitle. Some authoring tools don't always do well with half-D1 and subs, so you should experiment with one avi first, to see if your tools work.

Your other choice is to go dual layer and not compromise the quality at all, or simply stick with 2 hours to a disc.

[trash]

Thanks for your advise. I have also read something like DVD shrink? what do you think?

Also when would I use half -d1 or DVD shrink at what stage. After converting audio and video separately into dvd compliant before authoring?

[redwudz]

You would use 1/2 D1 when you encode to MPEG-2 with HCencoder. For the specs for DVD, look to the upper left for 'What is' DVD. From there, the allowable DVD resolutions:

720 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)
704 x 480 pixels MPEG2
352 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Half-D1, same as the CVD Standard)
352 x 240 pixels MPEG2
352 x 240 pixels MPEG1 (Same as the VCD Standard)

Other than changing to the 1/2 D1 settings, everything else should be able to use the same settings, just lower the bitrate so the whole thing fits on the DVD. You're on your own for subtitles, it might take some experimenting. But you can try a 5-10 representative clip at the lower resolution and see what it looks like.