How to compress more ?

[macmithos]

Hi Pals...
I'm authoring a DVD with DVDSP and I need to fit it on the media. I had an AVI movie which I opened in QuickTime and exported it to MPEG2 with the following settings: VIDEO-NTSC, drop frame CHECKED, Aspect ratio 4:3, Field Order AUTO, Export Audio CHECKED, Write Parsing CHECKED. QUALITY- Encoding ONE PASS VBR, Target Bitrate 4.0 Mbps, Max Bitrate 7.0 Mbps, Motion Estimation BEST. It's resolution was 352X240 and changed to 720X480. I didn't pay attention on the announcement that it would have an "Estimated File Size" of 4.9 GB. During the authoring of the DVD I got surprised when I looked to the estimated file size to be Built and Burned of 5.7 GB after I put all other elemments like background, bottons and etc. Will I have to re-open and re-export the video through QuickTime ? Which settings should I make to make it smaller without lossing much quality? Can I open the MPEG2 file in Compressor to make the file smaller? Should I export the file with QuickTime to an undestandable file for Compressor and there make the compression to MPEG2? Thanks in advance.......

[Case]

0.8 GB of menu items is a lot!
Since you're upscaling anyway, maybe Half-D1 (352x480) is a better option, which can do with a lower target bitrate, even down to 2.3 Mbps if needed.

[macmithos]

Upscalling with 352X480 will make any difference playing back on a regular TV? I meant, it will fullfil the screeen and just make the resolution not as good as the previous settings? Sorry if I'm making an stupid question..haha .

[Case]

Yes it should stretch to full screen, like below. Not sure how to do that in DVDSP, tho'.

[macmithos]

well, I guess I will have to export the movie again from QuickTime, but when I open it to make the exportation with MPEG2 (to be available for DVD's), it doen't let me to make changes on the resolution. QuickTime shows the actual resolution and how it will be and in this case it is written 720X480. I guess for being a file to author a DVD it has to be 720X480......

[schmeg]

If you have DVD2OneX (or don't mind spending US$50 for it), you can create your completed VIDEO_TS folders in DVDSP without worrying too much about the exact file sizes, the compress the whole thing with DVD2ONEX.

Works like a charm, and saves time trying to zero in on the optimum bit rate for your video.

If that's not a good option for you, then try lowering the bitrate when you export. You can usually open the new m2v file in Quicktime while it's still encoding just to check the quality of the thing.

Also worth double-checking the size of the graphics you've imported into DVDSP. A 1600 x 1200 full-color TIFF file, for example, will use a lot of filespace without any improvement over a file sized correctly for your screen.

[macmithos]

Hey everybody,
I solved the problem. Without having to re-encod the movie, which has 3.51GB, I opened the sound file, whyich was an .AIF with 1.35GB (2 hours and 07 m), in A.Pack and encoded it with 192Mbts and it turned to a file with 139MB. That let me to ad more songs also in .A3.
Thanks you all for your help and attention.
PS:schmeg, I will check the DVD2OneX. I don't know what it does.

[sjk]

schmeg: DVD2oneX is currently $49.99 Euro, which is ~$65 USD.