Can't fit a 2 hour movie on a DVD, do I need better encoder

[j33dow]

Hi, I'm somewhat of a newbie. I am trying to record old VHS tapes to DVD. I purchased a ADS Instant DVD, an HP 300i DVD Writer and have multiple DVD software packages (Ulead VideoStudio 7.0, CapWiz, Sonic DVD). I have been capturing fine and editing ok and creating DVD files ok BUT... My MPEG files (3.0GB) blow up to 5.5GB when I try to burn them. My research shows I need a better encoder but where does this fit into my process? What sw product do I replace? Do I capture the movie then encode it? Th e other question is when I try to play my movie and send it out to a VCR for recording, VideoStudio just hangs... any advice. I'll even start over again with a Capture hardware/software product and editing software you people can recommend (as long as it doesn't break the bank, I'm only doing this as a hobby). Thanks for any help... John

[bugster]

The reason your movie increases in size when you try to 'burn' it is that something is converting the audio to uncompressed PCM.

DVD requires the audio to be in either PCM, Ac3 or (in Europe) mp2. I see you are using Sonic (My)Dvd to author and burn. This only supports PCM audio. In order to use compressed audio you will need a new authoring app. Ones to look at are Ulead MovieFactory or DVD workshop, DVD-Lab, TmpGenc DVD author. This is just a few , there are others.

[snafu099]

Here is url for forum specificallyy dealing with ads IDVD ver 1 and 2. Also ulead vs5-6-7se

http://pub9.ezboard.com/fpyro1394frm8

my guess is that you are using proper settings, one of which is "do not re-encode compliant mpeg" or something of that order. The other is that the project settings need to match the capture settings.

That is the product/software I use and have done over 200 achieve's with out problem using MF2-direct to disc-no menus-auto chapters