Adobe Premiere Elements 4, file too small?

[dredle1]

I just upgraded my software editing program from Pinnacle Studio 8 to Adobe Premiere Elements 4. The program is easy enough to upload video, cut and edit scenes and add a menu. Here's my question. I have about 12 gb's of footage and I want to create a 8.5 folder that I will burn later. So I select my choices (fit content to available space) and it says I only need 3.25 gb of space. This doesn't seem right if my avi files are that big and I really didn't do that much editing, why is my project not closer to 8.5 gb's? Maybe my settings aren't right? Any ideas please.

[Baldrick]

Are you going to make a dvd-video?

Increase the video and audio bitrate to get bigger file size = better quality.

[dredle1]

Yes, I take the resulting video_ts folder and create an iso file and then burn that in imgburn on my dual layer drive. I guess I don't yet know where I can select higher quality. If I uncheck (fit to space availble) and slide the toggle to highest quality, it still has the 3.25 gb size at 8.0 mbps.

[Baldrick]

How many minutes is the clip? You are reconverting to dvd mpeg2 and the dvd max bitrate is 9.8mbps(most encoders limits to 8mbps). So if you have a 60 minutes clip with 8mbps it will just be around 3.5GB.

[dredle1]

Boy you do know your stuff! My movie is just under 55 minutes. I have my answer. I guess it just seemed too small, but it sounds like it's right on the money. Thank you so very much!