How do I backup more than one movie on a regular DVD?

[fiftyplus]

I have seen folks with DVD's that have 2 or 3 movies on one DVD and the picture quality was not that bad. I have some old VHS tapes with movies that I have captured into my hard drive using Nero. How can I put 2 or 3 of these old movies on one 4.7 GB DVD? Thanks for your help.

[harley2ride]

Just import all of them into the timeline with a editing software, encode, and burn. But your quality will suffer alot, unless you encode it 1/2 D1. A little searching in this forum will give results with multiple ways to join video files. It really isn't worth it, quality wise.. DVD's are cheap. Just put 1 1/2 hours on each dvd. If you don't want to get up to change the dvd's, get a carousel player..

[bendixG15]

Why not ask the folks that have 2 or 3 movies on one DVD ??

Generally, MPEG-2 will get you ONE decent quality movie on one DVD. But then, quality is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it ?

[daamon]

Generally, MPEG-2 will get you ONE decent quality movie on one DVD. But then, quality is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it ?

That's a very broad and inaccurate statement - on a number of levels:

* MPEG-2 is a format that allows flexibility in resolution and bitrate.

* Then there's DVD compliant MPEG-2. This is normal MPEG-2 but conforming to defined specifications. These can be found under the "What Is... DVD" link (top left of the page).

* Within those specs, you can use the VCD resolution at 1,150kbps and MP2 or AC3 audio at 192kbps (make sure it's 48KHz). This will give around 7 hours of video on a single layer DVD disc - and the quality, to my mind, would be watchable.

* The chosen resolution and bitrate is driven by the quality of the original source. The OP has said that they are VCR captures - therefore low resolution. Why encode to full D1 from a low-res source? A lower resoution encode requires lower bitrate and hence allows more time.

* End filesize is also determined by the running time of the movie, as well as by the bitrate. If the OP's VHS movies are short then more can be put on a disc.

@ fiftyplus: Get yourself a re-writeable DVD+/-RW and experiment with lower resolutions which allow for lower bitrates which allow for longer running times which equals more films on one disc.

The key word in there is "experiment". Good luck...

[fiftyplus]

Thank you everyone for your replies and information. I will experiment.