Newbee - MPEG 1 to DVD question

[Chris Mureen]

I have spent a long time reading and think I have figured out some of this but need a bit of help to finish gluing this together.

I have a DVD+RW drive that I want to use to transfer home VHS movies to. I then want to be able to watch them on my Sony DVP-CX860 player. The lookup guide says it will play DVD+RW disks so I decided to start with a 2 hour VHS tape, transfered onto my computer hard disk via my AVerTV card. I chose the MPEG 1 format and got a file that is 1 gig in size for the 2 hours. When I try to turn it into a DVD, the size ballons up to 7 gigs so won't fit on my 4.7 gig drive.

How do I go about compressing the size either before I copy the tape or when I try to make the DVD files to burn? I want to get all 2 hours on 1 disk.

I have downloaded TMPGEnc and used it a bit. I also use MyDVD to burn the disk as it came with the computer. Are there optimum bit rates to use for moving from a low quality VHS tape that will preserve the existing quality but allow me to get 2 hours on a single DVD?

Thanks for the help!

Chris

[bugster]

It looks to me as if MyDvd is re-encoding your video to Full D1 resolution at a high bitrate and almost certainly converting the audio to uncompressed PCM. It shouldn't need to do this. I would suggest trying Spruce up for authoring with your mpeg-1. Assuming they are in VCD resolution (352 * 240/288 (NTSC/PAL)) then you will just need to ensure that the audio is at 48Khz and everything should be ok. There is a trial version available via the tools section of this site plus several guides on using it. Unfortunatley the full version of Spruce is no longer available retail.

[Chris Mureen]

I think you are probably right. The original MPEG is stored with a video bit rate of 2000. So it must be assuming a much better quality original. The version that came with my machine doesn't seem to have any way to change settings either. I downloaded InstantCD+DVD and to see if that would help. Started it going last night at 11:00 and it was only 1/2 through by 7:00 this morning!

I have a 1.6 gig machine with 512 of main memory. I basically followed it's instructions where I told it I had 1 meg of MPEG-1 that needed to fit on one DVD. Took only a few key strokes and off it went. Should it take so long? I have dozens of tapes to do so this isn't a good option.

Thanks for the help.

Chris

[bugster]

Try downloading the Spruce up trial available here, with this you shouldn't need to re-encode. If it works for you then you may want to consider purchasing another authoring package that will accept your mpeg-1's as Spruce is no longer available retail and the trial will only let you author 2 DVD's.

I Think Dazzle DVD complete will accept them, I have used it for VCD standard mpeg-1's on DVD and it costs $100 I think. Other authoring packages may also let you do what you want.

[Chris Mureen]

Sorry to be dense, but are you saying that with Spruce as an Authoring tool (or something similar), MyDVD will not attempt to encode it or are your saying that with Spruce I can burn my DVD directly so won't need MyDVD?

Thanks

Chris

[bugster]

Use Spruce as a replacement for MyDvd, Author your DVD and when you are ready, export it as a title set. This will leave you with all the required files for your DVD on your HD. You can then burn with Nero (using the DVD-video or DFO/ISO mode, see guides for details) or whatever your favourite DVD burning app is. Unfortunatley I don't think SPruce will write directly to your (or any) DVD burner.

[Dayv]

I want to do the same thing but since you can’t buy Spruce anymore is there any other programs that will let you do it. I’m looking for something that will do simple menus and chapters too.

[bugster]

Dayv, many of the authoring programs available 'should' be able to do this. I suggested Spruce as I know a demo version is available and there are several guides on using it. I have also use MyDVD 2.3 with mpeg-1 video succesfully (Note this is old, the current version is 3.5 or something and it seems to have changed massivley somehwhere along the line). Also Dazzle DVD complete will accept mpeg-1 files in VCD resolution, though it can be quite picky about anything not quite perfect in its mpeg encoding. I am sure other DVd authoring apps will do it also. In all these case it is advisable if net essential to transcode the audio to 48Khz before importing into the Authoring proggy.

Hope this helps