Several of the discs that I've backed up recently have been a hair over the limit for fitting on a DVD-5. Here are two techniques I used to get the main movie to fit on a new disc -- nothing earth-shattering, but a reminder that a little inventiveness can save you some time.

1) Re-code only one or two chapters using a lower bitrate.

Rip main title using OSeX, setting it to split the chapters into individual .m2v/.ac3 pairs. Pick a likely chapter -- the opening or closing credits are usually good, because diminished quality won't greatly affect them. Re-code using your favorite program (I like MediaPipe for this) setting at a lower bitrate/quality level. Assemble all the chapters together using Sizzle, create disc, and burn.

2) Use A-Pack to convert huge Dolby Surround audio files into standard 2-channel stereo.

You need the A-Pack program that comes with DVD Studio Pro, and obviously not everyone's got that. But if you do, this is a technique that I hadn't thought of before, and worked well on a film that only had a Dolby 5.1 track. I find video artifacting much more distracting that 2-channel stereo (my TV/stereo ain't the fanciest) and so it was worth experimenting with downconverting the audio for a change.


And don't forget the tip posted here a while ago, that's my absolutely favorite for DVDs with useless extras and menus. Rip the main titleset using DVDBackup and write new index files using tocgen. For titlesets that fit on a disc, this is a great way to preserve all the audio and subtitle options and discard the rest. Instructions below:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=138014