Problems converting/shrinking 6.9gb avi file.

[harley2ride]

I have done quite a bit of work converting avi to dvd, but never with a file this large. I ran it through encoding with adobe premier, and it's still this big. Tried encoding with Ulead Studio 7 and converted it to an mpg file, and it still comes up 6+ gb. I know that dvdshrink can shrink movie files, but I'm not sure what to use to shrink a avi or mpg and still end up with a quality dvd. I normally adobe premier or Studio 7 to capture and encode, and then studio 7 to burn to dvd. I've dug through the forums and can't seem to find exactly what I need to fix this. I'm sure it's something simple. Any help would be appreciated. I've googled and seen that dvdcrypter will do this, but I can't figure out how.

[steveryan]

Author it first then use DVD Shrink or convert it again using a lower bitrate www.videohelp.com/calc

[harley2ride]

author it with what? I've tried to see if Nero, Sonic, and a few other programs would take an avi or mpg as input, and cant see where or how to author it. Maybe with TMPGenc?

[mats.hogberg]

No. Do a proper encode with a dedicated mpeg encoder like TMPGEnc, MainConcept, ProCoder or even free QuEnc. Use a bitrate calculator to find what bitrate to use, to make your mpeg fit a DVD. Encoding to some random bitrate, then fixing it by transcoding (DVDShrink) is never the best option, specially if you have to encode to mpeg anyway.
And to author, there are a # of good apps like TMPGEnc DVD Author, DVDAuthorGUI, DVD-Lab...
/Mats

[harley2ride]

Thanks.. I'll try that. I'll have to do some searching on how to calculate the bitrate, but at least I know what I need to look at now.

[mats.hogberg]

searching on how to calculate the bitrate

Look no further...

/Mats

[harley2ride]

Awesum... Thanks!