Getting a 12gig, 4hr mpeg2 onto 1 DVD-R?

[bagelche]

I have a 12gig, almost 4 hour mpeg2 file that I need to make a dvd-r of. Obviously, it is too large a file. How do I go about compressing it and burning a dvd-r of it? If possible, I'd also like to save a disc image for future copies.

I have nero express and alcohol 120% on hand and have used dvdshrink a couple of times in the past, but I'm not sure where to proceed here.

thanks much.

[jman98]

DVDShrink is probably the easiest way to do it and still preserve video quality as much as possible. I would avoid Nero for this job. There are more advanced tools such as DVD Rebuilder, which requires you to have a functional version of CCE (Cinema Craft Encoder) or TMPGenc or a similar MPEG encoding program. http://www.doom9.net has some guides on DVD Rebuilder and similar programs. Go to Guides -> DVD/miniDVD -> DVD Backup Guides and then look for the "quality over speed" guides.

If you can get the VIDEO_TS subdirectory files created that you need to burn a DVD, it's very easy to use PgcEdit to make an ISO image. Guides to this are available on the main PgcEdit website.

[bagelche]

I guess I'm pretty much a total newbie at this. I figure if I can get it to a disc image, with the appropriate setup (VIDEO_TS files sorted out, etc.), I can then shrink it from there. I'm just not clear on how to get to that point and my searches have not made it any clearer to me.

It's just video of a (long) meeting, so there's no crazy action shots other than some mild pans and I need it to fit on a single-layer disc.

With a DVD recorder I can record it on a lower quality and fit it on the disk. I'd like to develop a system where I don't have to go through the hassle of real time encoding with setting up equipment, etc.

If this is any help to helping me, great!

thanks again.

[greymalkin]

first of all you are asking ALOT of a single layer disc to sqeeze 4 hours on it. You will be better off re-encoding the video with a bitrate of about 2400kbps which is very low even for little or no movement. Even though that is the better solution, the results will still be very poor. Is there no other option?

If you can make it fit on a disc this way, setting a camera up to feed the video directly into a dvd-recorder is about as hassle free as you are going to get. The next quickest solution would be a transcoder like DVD-Shrink, but programs like this use a "quick and dirty" method of squeezing a file down and are really only meant for light "shrinkage". To get it that small you would have to run it through dvd-shrink several times and the output quality would be very very bad.

The other option of re-encoding (and probably re-sizing as well) is even more of a hassle and will take longer than dvd-shrink.

[teegee420]

first of all you are asking ALOT of a single layer disc to sqeeze 4 hours on it. You will be better off re-encoding the video with a bitrate of about 2400kbps which is very low even for little or no movement. Even though that is the better solution, the results will still be very poor.

It wouldn't look so bad at 352x480 using variable bitrate.

[bagelche]

To give a little more context: I recently started working at a small public access TV center. People request copies of meetings that have been taped/aired. Normally what happens is someone here makes a copy from the original miniDV tapes to a DVD recorder, pausing for a tape change. This is obviously frustrating when there are 4 hour-long tapes involved and it is happening in real time. Their current method involves airing the program and using the DVD burner to capture it off air on a single SL disc.

We recently upgraded to digital content servers that stream mpeg2 files. These mpeg2 files are created by a Canopus box fed from a miniDV deck.

Now, I figure there must be a way to take the mpeg2 files and burn them to a disc at a quality that shouldn't be worse than the current method. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

I just found a thread that mentioned ReJig, which I am currently running a test on to compress the file for burning. I'll see how the quality of that comes out.

Hope this helps. thanks.

[Cornucopia]

Is this a file that you're going to want to watch on a settop DVD player?

If so, transcode (DVDShrink, etc.), or re-encode to lower bitrate (TMPGEnc, etc.), or chop into DVD-R sized pieces (Womble MPG-VCR, Cuttermaran, etc.) and then author and burn.

If it's NOT for a settop, and you just want to save the file. Use any standard filesplitter--set to 4GB--and burn the pieces each.

Scott

[bagelche]

Yep, the end goal is a single disc to be viewed on a settop dvd unit.

I didn't realize dvdshrink could transcode. I'll take a look at that.

My first experience with ReJig didn't go so well. after a 2-pass scan to make it fit on a SL disc, I ended up with a file that seemed to have no audio, showed a length of only an hour, and crippled my system when I tried to play it in WinAmp.

I'll experiment more with both of those programs and see if I can come up with something.

I appreciate all the help so far and am open to anything else you might have.

thanks.

[Cornucopia]

Remember, you're trying to squeeze 12Gig down to 4.37Gig. That's only 36% of the size (and would likely only be able to be 36% of the quality).

Better to squeeze it onto a Dual-Layer disc instead of Single-Layer. Then your only having to squeeze to 7.95GB or 66%. That's still not great, but workable. If you need to, get a DL burner.

Scott