Cramming 7hrs of video onto 1 DVD? Impossible?

[malicoire]

When it comes to DVD authoring, video compression and soforth, I am the quintessential noob.

So, I have 9 files, avi, each weighing in at 360mb, each running near to 45 minutes.

Would there be a way to compress these files onto a single dvd. Unfortunately my player does not recognize avi format.

Thanks for any suggestions as to the possibilities, what programs I might look into, or what steps I might need to take.

[nick_gr]

There are people here who can help you with the process you have to follow better than me but I know that 7 hours in a single DVD means bad quality. You can do it though...

[mats.hogberg]

Use TMPGEnc to encode each avi to VCD mpg (use the VCD template)
Author as DVD with TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Done.

[guns1inger]

Get a Divx capable player and burn them as data. No quality loss.

[AlanHK]

I've done a bunch of 10x 43 min episodes on a DVD. Quite watchable, better than broadcast TV here anyway.

Tools -- all freeware:

Video:
Avisynth
FitCD (make an AVS file for the AVI to resize)
HCEnc (Load the AVS and thus use Avisynth; encode to MPEG2. Set a bit rate of about 1100 or 1200)

Audio: BeSweet (Can directly load most AVI files and generate an MP2)
(128 kps is good enough for dramas.)

Authoring: GuiForDVDAuthor

Burn: ImgBurn

[guns1inger]

Your TV must be really crap. VCD is about as low as you can go with watching YouTube

[AlanHK]

Your TV must be really crap. VCD is about as low as you can go with watching YouTube

If you're referring to me, the TV is a fine, and so are the videos. It's certainly much better than Youtube. It's about the same as a good VCD, but my theory is that MPEG2 with VBR gives a better result than VCD with CBR, for a file of about the same size. Never done a blind trial, but when I monitor an encode and see the instantaneous rates going way above average for complex, fast scenes and down for simple ones, I think it must use the bits more effectively. In any case, this is mainly for melodramas, not music videos.

For more "cinematic" shows, like costume dramas, I'd do maybe 6 episodes/disc. Many quality series are 12 or 13 eps/year, so that neatly fits on two discs. And this look as good as commercial box sets. Scoff if you will.

[rijulHKG]

I'm having a similar problem, I have a whole series, and tonnes of dvd-r discs, I want to compress as much as possible and fit as may files as I can onto one dvd-r. My files are AVI (maybe divx/xvid encoded (i probably dont know what im talking about) , AlanHK, you say that your method is tested, could you possibly explain it again in a little more detail, preferably step-by-step, I am in Hong kong as well btw,

plz help me out guys, this is really important, its a christmas present lol

thx

rijul

[mats.hogberg]

Many quality series are 12 or 13 eps/year, so that neatly fits on two discs. And this look as good as commercial box sets. Scoff if you will.

No, I won't scoff, but I find it very hard to believe that you can squeeze 3-4 times as much video onto the same space (=1/3 - 1/4 of original bitrate), and maintain the video quality, while staying within the Video DVD specifications.

/Mats

[AlanHK]

Many quality series are 12 or 13 eps/year, so that neatly fits on two discs. And this look as good as commercial box sets. Scoff if you will.

No, I won't scoff, but I find it very hard to believe that you can squeeze 3-4 times as much video onto the same space (=1/3 - 1/4 of original bitrate), and maintain the video quality, while staying within the Video DVD specifications./Mats

That sounds rather like a scoff to me.
Anyway, I'd rather have a compact collection than one that takes up twice as much room and gives me no better experience. I did try encodes of the same source at various rates and made direct comparisons. Of course, it does depend somewhat on the kind of show.

[psx_pirate]

7 hours of video on a single layer dvdr is gonna look crap no matter how its encoded (mpeg 1 / mpeg 2 cbr or vbr etc) ... after all a 4.7gb dvd is designed for 2 hours of video ... ok we all know that its possible to get more than 2 hours of video on a disc and still have it reasonable quality (i have done 3 hours and it still looks good but i personally wouldn't go more than 3 hours).... however i have also seen some dvdr's with 4,5,6,7 and even 8 hours of video ... not action films or similar ... just a stand up commedian on stage and even they all look crap ..

7 hours on a dvdr dual layer might just work but deffinately not on a single layer

[AlanHK]

7 hours of video on a single layer dvdr is gonna look crap no matter

Five hours is fine, six hours is about my limit; for TV episodes, not movies.
I'm not blind, my TV is okay, and my DVDs aren't crap.
Thanks for your opinion. I'll give it due weight.

[lacywest]

Forget all this ...
Video:
Avisynth
FitCD (make an AVS file for the AVI to resize)
HCEnc (Load the AVS and thus use Avisynth; encode to MPEG2. Set a bit rate of about 1100 or 1200)

Audio: BeSweet (Can directly load most AVI files and generate an MP2)
(128 kps is good enough for dramas.)

Authoring: GuiForDVDAuthor

Burn: ImgBurn

Just go get the Phillips DVP 5960 ... 50 bucks on Ebay ... works great ... do a search for the DVD Player ... plays DIVX movies on my Sony 51" HD TV ... very very nicely.

[rijulHKG]

OMG i JUST DID THIS, YAY!!!

I used ConvertXtoDVD, IT WORKS GREAT!!

14 episodes of approx half hour each of fresh prince of bel air fits on one single layer dvd with actually little difference in quality for some reason, maybe i was jus lucky but this worked lol

[FulciLives]

They must make some shit ass televisions in Hong Kong man

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lacywest]

OMG i JUST DID THIS, YAY!!!

I used ConvertXtoDVD, IT WORKS GREAT!!

14 episodes of approx half hour each of fresh prince of bel air fits on one single layer dvd with actually little difference in quality for some reason, maybe i was jus lucky but this worked lol

How about taking all those episodes ... use ConvertXtoDVD and specify a large size like 8.5 Gigs or more ... than use DVD-Rebuilder Pro ... [to Shrink it] and set CCE to 9 Passes ... start DVD-RB before going to bed and when u wake up ... it might be done.

[Pinstripes23]

How about taking all those episodes ... use ConvertXtoDVD and specify a large size like 8.5 Gigs or more ... than use DVD-Rebuilder Pro ... [to Shrink it] and set CCE to 9 Passes ... start DVD-RB before going to bed and when u wake up ... it might be done.

Why would you convert twice in order to achieve the same goal? There's not a better source than the original, and he already did the conversion once using the original.

[guns1inger]

@LacyWest - so you recommend taking a reasonable source (Divx - not great, just reasonable), encoding with ConvertXtoDVD (which produces average to lower than average mpeg encodes, depending on source and running time), then using a good mpeg encoder to encode a second time ?

Why not simple encode them correctly with CCE in the first place ?

And 9 passes in CCE ? anything more than 4 is simply wanking for the sake of it.

[machf]

Let's see... if we apply some basic math, 7 hours=420 minutes. A DVD-5 has about 4.36GB, so that would give you a maximum of about 10.63MB per minute. The VCD standard gives 10MB per minute, so that would give you a good estimate of the quality you'd expect. A little more math, and we get about 1.417Mbit/s, or about 1451kbps. Let's say you use 224kbps for good stereo audio (if your AVIs have AC3 5.1 audio, then you'd use 448kbps instead for maximum quality). Bring it down to 192kbps or even 128kbps if you want to save bandwidth for the video. That leaves you about 1323kbps for the video. Even if you encode it as VBR MPEG, it's very doubtful there will be little difference in quality. Unless your videos were of very low quality in the first place, of course (doubtful, if they are 360MB each for some 45 minutes of video they should be "regular").

[Scorpion King]

The tv makes a big difference too. I once encoded a project - burned the dvd - and out the door. I played it at a relatives house on a 19" tv and it looked excellent. On my big tv and also my monitor the video looked like real crap, but on that 19" it looked like Hollywood man....

My experiences says mpeg-1 VBR 1850max 0min 1323average 352x240 2pass encoded with tmpgenc -slow- from an excellent source will look pretty decent. The same file done in mpeg2 won't look as good. My experience says 1323average is too low for mpeg2 to shine and mpeg1 kicks its a@@ down there.

You can put 7hrs on one dvd.... but why? If its worth burning......duh

[machf]

Hmmm... right, for low bitrates, MPEG-1 usually works better than MPEG-2, I had forgotten about that. And since VCD-compliant MPEG-1 video is also part of the DVD standard...

Why not encode 3 files per DVD, for 3 DVDs instead of a single one?

[AlanHK]

You can put 7hrs on one dvd.... but why? If its worth burning......duh

A lot of stuff I probably will only ever watch once. But just in case I do want to go back, or perhaps loan someone, I keep compilation discs. But they build up, and I have a limited space. So I maximise the hours/disc.
I'm not talking about Lawrence of Arabia.
Star Trek Enterprise, I'm quite happy to get the entire run of 98 on 10 discs, instead of 25.
Firely though I do 5/disc, because that's worth watching more than once.

I know how to crank up the quality, but it's pointless having quality that is not apparent on my TV that if it costs me convenience.

Those I'm really sure I only want to watch once I just burn to a DVDRW, recycle. If my DVD player breaks I'll get one that plays AVI, till then I can cope.

[guns1inger]

I'm not blind, my TV is okay, and my DVDs aren't crap

but it's pointless having quality that is not apparent on my TV

Happy you have a solution that works for you, but at VCD quality I cannot reconcile your two statements (above)

[AlanHK]

Happy you have a solution that works for you, but at VCD quality I cannot reconcile your two statements (above)

For most TV shows I have access to (which is not HD), there is no difference between "VCD quality" (though I submit my encodes are better than that) and encodes with double or triple the bit rate. On my 29" Hitachi CRT, it looks no better.

I'm not telling you how to make your discs. So enough with implying that I'm making crap and am too stupid to know the difference.

[v-sharp]

I also fit 2-3 movies (5-6 hrs) into 1 dvd disc by converting the dvd movies into mpeg-1 and authoring them into new dvd. The tools I use are DVDShrink, DVDx and Ulead DVD MovieFactory2. I'm quite satisfied with the result.