HELP!!!!! Question Regarding Making a DVD that is very long

[hawthorn]

I have been trying to make a dvd that if I was to put all the stuff on it that I want to, it would be about 900 minutes long, but I know you can't fit that much on a dvd-r. I have burnt DVD-r but it only holds like 2 hours of video so I need to use heaps of dvd-r to fit all that time on, is there any program, or any way I can make it either so the dvd-r are burnt dual layer so that more time can fit on, or make it so that more of my captured MPEG files can fit on one DVD-r without losing too much quality, as it already isn't great quality as I've captured off old home vhs tapes?
If you have any suggestions atall that I can try please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[vitmai]

is your MPEG about VCD or SVCD quality? You can put about 450 min of VCD on a DVD. check out the SVCD2DVD forum.

[ZippyP.]

I have burnt DVD-r but it only holds like 2 hours of video.

And how are you creating your mpeg files?

The capacity of a DVD depends on the size of the mpeg(s) that you create. The size of the mpeg depends on the bitrate (Kb/s) that you use and the length of the clip in minutes. As was pointed out, you can get many minutes on a DVD but at a very low bitrate compared to what you have (apparently) been doing in the past. Low bitrates mean that you probably need to lower the resolution as well, perhaps down to VCD standard from full DVD standard, or somewhere in between. You will need to do some testing of resolutions and bitrate to see what is acceptable to you.

Suggested resolutons: 352x240 (VCD standard) or 352x480 (1/2 D1).

[ZippyP.]

I just did a bit of calculating with the excellent DVDRhelp bitrate calculator found in the Tools section.

If you use 352x480 resolution, 2-pass VBR encoding with TMPGEnc, 500 minimum, 3200 average and 8000 maximum bitrate, then you should fit your 15 hours of footage on 5 DVD's. I would think that the quality would be acceptable.

[hawthorn]

The quality is VCD Quality, and I am creating the MPEG, firstly by capturing it using MGI VideoWave 3, and then re-encoding them in TMPGEnc, because the file size after capturing is over 4 Gigabytes. The final size of the MPEG files are between 400 and 470 Megabytes each but there is like 22 of them. The length of the clips are between about 44 and 46 minutes each clip.

When using TMPGEnc, I have MPEG 1 Video set, 352x288, 1:1(VGA), 25fps, Constant Bit Rate(CBR), Bitrate 1150, VBV Buffer Size 40kb, Motion Search Precision Highest Quality (very slow) there all the settings I can change in the Video tab.

I have noticed that when it does the burn process in Ulead DVD MovieFactory Studio Suite Deluxe, it firstly seems to re-encode the MPEG Files again, which takes a long long time, but when the dvd is finally created it certainly isn't dvd quality, it is about the same quality as a download file off the net in other words watchable, but not overly clear. When it was getting captured, it lost about 1 frame for every 4 frames captured, so that's probably got something to do with the quality that it is.

Which part of the settings that I have put above, should be changed, and to what should they be changed to?

Thanks for the help so far.

[RabidDog]

but there is like 22 of them

what is like 22?
many plings (!!!!) puts people off.

[ZippyP.]

Which part of the settings that I have put above, should be changed, and to what should they be changed to?

Don't use Ulead to convert the file. Your files are DVD compliant and should be authored and burned to disk as is. Any further conversion of your files will only degrade the quality. I'm not a DVD expert but you should be able to easily get eight of your files on to one DVD. Try a different program to author like maybe TMPGEnc DVD author, or look up a guide in the Author section, or look up VCD to DVD under format conversion in the Guides section.

You're getting closer....

[vitmai]

my VCD is about 40 min each and I put 11 of them on one DVD. I use this guide
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/159399.php

1- run the VCD thru SVCD2DVDMPG+ to make sure it is compliant
2- use ULead DVD MF2 to author and create dvd folder
3- use ImgTool to make the image and burn using DVD Decrypter

(3) is not need if you burn from ULead DVD MF2.

[presto]

I agree with ZippyP. I routinely use TmpgencDVD Author to put 7 or 8 hours of Television on a DVD using VCD settings.

[hawthorn]

what is like 22?

The 22, is how many MPEG Files I have that I'm trying to put on as few dvd's as possible without losing too much more quality.

Thanks guys for all your help, I'll give your suggestions a go.