more space on cd-r

[Nosier]

I am trying to get as much on a cd-r as I can. I have sucessfully created cd's upto 2hr6min, these are pretty much vhs quality, which is fine with me.

my question is possiable to reduce the leadin and leadout tracks, the leadin is 25meg and the leadout is 15meg. I'm not creating anything special, basicly just converting my wife's old vhs tapes to dvd and recording off my sat dish shows that she misses due to watching another show.

she is 36 and disabled and it is hard for her to get out of bed and change cd's every hour, hense fitting as much on a cd as possiable.

I have looked at bestbuy and compusa for 90min cd-r's but they don't seem to sell them.

any help would be grateful...

[Conquest10]

you can try http://www.kvcd.net you can fit up to 360 minutes on a cd with those templates.

[Nosier]

I'm trying to avoid re-encoding, I have a simple process:

1. record using windvr (doing scheduled recording so I have stuff before and after, or it's off network and have commericals)

2. load into tmpgenc to edit

3. create the final file

4. record using vcdeasy


total time is only about 15-30 minutes to go from recorded file to ready to play cd...

unless I am missing something, to use those templates, you have to encode and that would take hours for a 2 hour movie..

[Conquest10]

well, if you use tmpgenc what you're doing is encoding. kvcd is just a template that will allow 360 minutes on a cd.

[EddyH]

Tried overburning, yes/no?

Usually can squeeze an extra minute out of CDR80s, two or two and a half if you're lucky, if you absolutely have to get the maximum out of each disc. Or just shave a bit off the rez (an 8 or 16 pixel black strip along the top & bottom and sides should usually get cut by most TVs for example) and/or take a couple percents off the encoding quality... if your player supports such shenanigans of course.

(well it'll support the borders, the bitrate maybe not)

[Nosier]

here is what my settings are right now, I get about 2hr6min out of it, and I do overburn.. right now I get 836?? meg out of a philips 48x 80min cdr..

again, the quality is vhs or just below, I get a few frames that don't come out right, but for the most part for what I want to do, it works great...

after I record, I take it to tpmgenc and under mpeg tools I edit so I get just the show and then save as a non-compliant mpeg1 and then burn in vcdeasy..



Format: MPEG-1

Audio:
Format: MPEG-1 Layer II
Sampling Rate: 44.1 kHz 16-bit Stereo
Bit Rate: 224 KBits/sec

Video:
Size: 352x240
Frame Rate: 29.97 frames/sec
Bit Rate: 650 KBits/sec

Total:
Bit Rate: 903 KBits/sec

[Conquest10]

you could lower the audio bitrate. that could help fit even more on the disc.

[Bob W]

You can buy 870MB (99min) CDR's here http://www.allmediaoutlet.com/9099minutes.html

[EddyH]

836mb, that's damn good, i'll have to try that brand

Well if you're already encoding the video to a lower rate, you may as well try VBR / CQ (which should help you squeeze in a few more minutes while simultaneously making it all a bit more watchable - I'd say max of cq 70, or more realistically mid 60s is what you're after*).. and put the audio to 128kbit joint stereo. TMPGEnc isn't the best all round for high quality audio but it does a good enough job of 128js.. or 96/112k mono even.

But if continuous playing time is all you're after, have you considered getting a TV-out card (or investigating whether or not your DVD player puts macrovision on VCDs) and recording to 3 or 4-hour cassettes or something? Which can then hold 6-8 hours with long play/9-12 with EP... with, discounting the noise, similar quality to "long"(er)-playing VCDs..


* if you, eg, find that your player can support up to 2x speed XVCD playback, maybe set quality to CQ65, maximum bitrate to ~2300k (minimum to, i dunno, 150k, it varies player to player as to what they choke on), then it'll be uniformly "OK" all the way through (which you'll get used to), with some bits of "good", rather than mostly ok-to-good with some patches of "good" and "very good", and other patches of "bad", "very bad", and "horrendous". At VCD resolution, 2300k is enough to cope with everything except the most nightmarishly complex material; certainly the compression level shouldn't significantly "blip" much over the 3.0-4.0 quantiser of that CQ. If it does, generally the scene will be too complex to the eye, or too fast moving, to make it obvious.