A quick question...

[[B]|ood[A]gent]

Hello,
I am using ffmpegx to convert some AVI's to .MOV, and from there I'm using iDVD to burn them onto DVD. My question is, why does my .MOV file go from being around 175mb originally, to 1.5gb after I import it to iDVD? I searched the forums, but couldn't find any satisfactory answers. Thanks in advance for the help.^^

[OmegaSupreme]

iDVD converts the file into a format that is DVD compliant, MPEG2 video and PCM audio. MPEG2 is an older codec and requires a much higher bitrate than mp4 or divx files. PCM is uncompressed audio and generally requires a file size 10x larger than that of a standard mp3 file.

[[B]|ood[A]gent]

Thanks for the reply. Is there another route I can go to keep the file size down? Previously, I was using ffmpegx to convert the .AVIs to MPEG2 directly, but I would always get a video w/o sound. At least with the iDVD route, everything works. I'm just limited to three 20 minute episodes per disc.><

[OmegaSupreme]

I don't know what version of iDVD you have, but the latest version allows for about 2 hours of video if you use the "best performance" option in the preferences menu.

Toast does a pretty good job of creating basic DVDs (menus are rather plain) and since it uses compressed Dolby Audio, it will fit about 2.5 hrs on a DVD.

DVD Studio Pro offers great menus and maximum flexibility, but it is also the most expensive and has a steeper learning curve than either iDVD or Toast.