Kill me, kill me now!

[Will Hay]

I'm at a stage where I'm happy at my vcd/svcd knowledge, but having just bought a dvd writer hope I'm not back at the beginning.
Having created many a vcd, I tended to sacrifice a little quality to fit my productions on a maximum of two disks.
Now I've bought a dvd writer I'd like to do the same, albeit limiting myself to one dvd-r disk.
If I have to lose a little quality, so be it.
I've heard I can fit 120mins of excellent quality film on one 4.3gb dvd-r, so does that mean I can fit 180mins at a lower quality?
Also, in the past, if I had a clip at 40 mins I'd go with svcd over vcd and fit on one disk, for obvious reasons.
Can I do the same with dvd and change the settings depending on the length of my movie?
Thanks,
Will
--
CladDVDXP, DVD2AVI, TMPGenc Plus

[tonyp12]

Can I do the same with dvd and change the settings depending on the length of my movie?

DVD does not have a set bandwidth you have to use.

You can use anything from 2000 to 8000 kbits/second.

The times I do have to re-encode, I always calculate a bitrate so
the final movie is 4.3Gb (e.g 99% of a DVDR)

With a 2 hour movie I have to use around 3900 kbits/second.

Here is a video-only templete for tmpgenc to get the wizard to
calculate a video size file around 3.7GB
Right click, save target as...
http://bellsouthpwp.net/t/o/tonyp12/MyDVD.mcf

[jj1k]

From my knowledge,

I backup a 189min movie (The Green Mile) on one DVD. Still thik its great quality. I have backing up to two dvd's.

I also dont fool around with menus.

Just take the movie, re-enconde it to fit a 4.3GB dvd, rip the ace (6ch sound) and author using ifoedit. burn baby burn

backed up over 15 movies so far, 0 coasters.

[Doggiedaddy]

DVD your in whole a new world now. Its all about the bitrate.

This is only for DVD 9's that can not be reduced to a workable 4.5 GB by ripping just the main movie, if so It is just a straight rip and burn with (DVDDecrypter) another good freeware program, or whatever program you prefer,
I have had great success with this method on DVD 9 to 5. It is not all freeware but I have spent many nights and countless time on a lot of software and found this method flawless, if followed precisely, on each attempt. You have to decide for your self what works for you time, cost ect. I have made many many copy's of my DVD's and no costers since I started using this process. None of this is my software nor do I have any affiliation with the software providers I just know it makes great DVD's and it is all still available unlike most of the guides I tried that get you half way through the process and then you find out some of the software or other necessary component does not exist any more or costs an arm and a leg.

Not free but cheap

SmartRipper
DVD2AVI
TMPGEncPro
Dazzle DVD Complete or choose what you like to Author with.