fitting more than 1 film on a dvd - help!

[welshgal]

hi all, lovely site here, hope im here for the long haul

i have been backing up my original dvds for some time now (mainly kids stuff) to avoid my little un ruining the originals. the problem now is i got too many!

i have seen 'multi' films doing the rounds before and would like a few tips on how i would go about making them myself.

i have a few tools at my disposal..
dvdlab pro
dvd shrink
convertx2dvd
nero
winAVI
(if any other programs are needed that can be bought for a reasonable price then please dont leave them of any guides)

the quality of the 'multis' i have seen is quite good considering there are 3 full length films per dvd, plenty good enough for daughter not to moan about it anyway

i have made menus etc for home movies, so i am not a complete noob

ANY advise would be greatly appreciated

thanks

ps sorry if this was the wrong section, i wasnt sure where to put it

[steveryan]

Hi Welshgal, have a read of this - https://forum.videohelp.com/topic284279.html

[redwudz]

You will have to re-encode your videos to a lower bitrate to enable you to fit three of them onto one DVD. First you want to find the total running time of all three videos. Lets say they add up to 6 hours. Then you input that into a bitrate calculator. The VH calculator is here: https://www.videohelp.com/tools/VideoHelp_Bitrate_calculator

Inputing 6 hours shows a calculated bitrate of 1464Kbps for standard DVD-5 media. This will probably create a DVD that looks terrible. With that low of calculated bitrate, I would use 1/2 D1 format or VCD format. 1/2 D1 is 352 x 480 pixels MPEG-2 as compared to full D1 which your DVDs probably use, 720 x 480 pixels MPEG-2.

This info is available in 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left on this page, along with the DVD specifications and format.

Most MPEG-2 encoders can use the 1/2 D1 format. I use TMPGEnc for that. You can set it up as a custom template if you plan to use it often. There are other encoders that should be able to do this also. Look to our 'Tools' section.

You can extract the MPEGs from your DVDs that you want to convert with VOB2MPG or similar programs. Then using the bitrate from the calculator, set your encoder to 1/2 D1 and set the bitrate. When all three are encoded, add them into a authoring program, create your menus, etc., and burn.

If may be easier to use a program like ConvertXToDVD and add the three MPEGs extracted with VOB2MPG and let that program handle the conversions and authoring.

There are lots of other ways to do all this and many programs that may work for what you want to do. This is just my method.

Another method is to purchase a Divx set top player and convert your decrypted DVDs to Divx or Xvid. You should be able to easily get 3 to 5 converted DVD videos on one DVD data disc. For that type of conversion, AutoGk, or my favorite, FairUse Wizard work well. There are other converters as well that will do this.

And welcome to our forums.

[AlanHK]

Inputing 6 hours shows a calculated bitrate of 1464Kbps for standard DVD-5 media. This will probably create a DVD that looks terrible.

Experiment with a lower rate for audio, you can trade some audio quality for video.

Also you might omit opening and closing credits, your kids won't miss them; again more bits for the movie itself. In DVDshrink I think you can select some chapters to omit, usually credits are a separate chapter.

Or use DL discs and double the rate.
Cost a bit more, but save space.


An aside:

Here in Hong Kong I saw some compilation DVDs, DL with seven movies on them, in a discount video store.

I bought one just to see the quality, which was as expected, low. The title headlines were almost illegible. It was just watchable, for talking head-style drama, but would be very disappointing for action or landscape. Quite annoying to consider that the cost of discs being what it is, double the quality would only add 10% to the cost (most of which was probably the quite nicely printed and made box), which I would have gladly paid. As it was, a curiosity. I'll keep the box and replace the discs with my own versions as I find them.

[welshgal]

wow, didnt expect so many replies so soon!

i will have a go with the info i have been given and report back.

i dont think 3 kids films will total 6 hours, a lot of them are quite short (1-1.5hrs) so i should get a slightly better bitrate.

Thanks for the help

[sanjayk]

You can use the latest version of TMPGEnc Xpress 4 to encode the output file to a specific percentage of the disk space.

Lets say you want to put 3 movies in a DVD-5. Encode each movie to 33% of the disk space. The encoder will automatically adjust the bitrate and resolution. Three movies will therefore occupy 99% of DVD-5. Remaining 1% can be used for menus etc. Use your favorite DVD authoring program to then create your DVD. You will have 3 movies in a DVD. You have to judge whether the quality you will get for the movies is acceptable to you or not.