DVD size problem

[ranchhand]

I have a movie in DivX.avi format; plays great on my computer. I want to burn to a DVD for use in my standalone Sony player, so I brought it into Nero Vision. NV reports that it "can do", using 4.37 out of 4.38 gigs. Okay, says I, that's weird since my file size reports at 849,896 megs. Oh well, let's see what it can do anyway. Nero takes 1.5 hrs. to set it up, and then halts messaging there is not enough room. I tried DVD shrink but, of course, it won't recognize the file at all. Any suggestions on how I can remove some credits, etc. so this will burn onto a DVD?

BTW-I am not a Nero fan for this kind of thing, but it seemed the fastest way, keeping the learning curve low. I am open to any suggestions for other tools to us. Oh-and I have tried searching the forum etc. but can't find a discussion on this exact topic. It could also be that I don't know the proper questions to ask, so be gentle, ok??

Thanks as always.

[mats.hogberg]

convertx2dvd, or its (free) predecessor divx2dvd, or favc or svcd2dvd or... There are many better apps for this task than NV.

/Mats

[ranchhand]

thanks Mats, I will give some of those a whirl. BTW-you were posting at the same time I was editing my question (trying to make it clearer).

[ranchhand]

Okay, here's my problem. I get ripped movie files in .avi, Divx, etc. These files are 600-700 megs on average. I run them through Nero Vision4 and come up with files of 4.3 GIGS. I tried FAVC and came in around 3 gigs. I tried VSO DivxToDVD, came in with couple of gigs. Every time I try to load ANY file into NeroVision, it messages me that I am using 4.3 out of 4.7 gigs for that file, regardless of the initial file size. Then after couple of hours it finishes and messages me that the DVD I have is not big enough. I tried reducing to large disk burn and Nero figured that it was only 3 gigs now. I also enabled "auto fit to disk if file is too large" or words to that effect. No good, it will not burn the file.

Can anyone suggest a burning utility (hopefully free) that I can burn these with, and why am I getting these insanely huge files from smaller files well under 1 gig?? I have searched the How Tos and the forum search but can't find anyone that had this problem. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks

[Bjs]

There not "insanely huge file's" when considering the conversion process includes "time length" vs "bitrate" vs "scale" .

Dvdshrink only recognizes dvd spec files ... and a few bugs to watch out for ... applicable to joining / slicing .
Virtualdub in direct stream copy can remove credits , split , ect , from avi's it can open ... joining via append mode .

Gspot is the first tool to start with , giving you time length , bitrates , compression used , video scale .

From here you can work out what the output will be and any changes you need to apply before hand to get required outcome .

Max accumulatively file size for dvd sl is 4.3gig ... best be a little shy of the maximum capacity .

===

Nve > make dvd > dvd-video > add dvd compliant vobs > add menu (basic at best)
Go though the motions till you get to "burn options" screen
Click "more" down below
Click "video options" below
Click "dvd video" tab
Select custom in transcoding options , and set bitrate according to video calculator
Beware of the audio options .

https://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm

Set video bitrate a little shorter than what this calculator reports ... nve has weird idea's .
If calc reports 5985 or other odd number , drop down to whole number ... 5900

This should guarantee the max file output will be short of the full 4.3gig max for dvdr sl , provided the information supplied is checked and compared to nve settings .

[mats.hogberg]

I tried FAVC and came in around 3 gigs. I tried VSO DivxToDVD, came in with couple of gigs.

So, your problem is? Just burn the output from one of these (if they don't burn themselves) with ImgBurn to disk and you're done. A rough rule of thumb is that your average DivX/XviD AVI needs 4 times the bitrate (=4 times the file size) when converted to Video DVD, to maintain quality.

/Mats

[bhouseman2004]

I think that was the communication problem here. It sounds like he expects the AVI/DIVX/XVID file to stay around 1GB after being converted to MPEG2 (which we know won't happen unless you want very inferior quality).

[Alexstarfire]

Which is something I really don't understand. I'm kinda confused on how I can fit over 10 hours of DivX video on a DVD, yet putting more than 2 hours of MPEG on DVD is like nearly impossible without quality loss.

[anosis]

Which is something I really don't understand. I'm kinda confused on how I can fit over 10 hours of DivX video on a DVD, yet putting more than 2 hours of MPEG on DVD is like nearly impossible without quality loss.

Basically it all comes down to the algorythm that compresses the audio and video. Zip and Rar's are a similar comparison where you have two different ways of compressing any file into a smaller file. Rar's usually are smaller because it uses different and more advanced math to look for bytes it can reduce to less.

Example: Lets assume this first compression is MPEG-2
AA AA AA BB BB BB AA AA AA BB BB BB
converted this could be
AA 03 BB 03 AA 03 BB 03
So it reduced the raw stream form 12 bytes to 8 bytes (BTW this would be lossless since non of the info is gone)

now lets assume again that this next compression is DIVX
AA AA AA BB BB BB AA AA AA BB BB BB
A6 B6 A6 B6
Now we reduced the original 12 bytes down to a mere 4 bytes.

Video and audio compression works even more sophisticates as it eleminates for examples audio that the human hear cannot destinguish because the following tone overshadows/over power;s it.

Hope this kinda helps with the understanding.
Again my examples above are drastic simplifications of actual video or audio compression, but at least it gives you an idea why. Now since there is a lot of math used to compress media it also takes more and more powerful processors and GPU's to deal with the decompression - AVC/H.264 HD being a perfect example.

[ranchhand]

Okay, Okay, the sun is coming up over the mountains. I got two good burns from FAVC following the principles you guys posted. This is fun - I'm going to waste a lot of DVD blanks experimenting, but I think I am over the hump with this thing. I think that the big problem with Nero is that it is a little more tricky to control bitrate with it; I really like that FAVC seems to give me more control. Nero does a good job of burning VOBs, but I don't trust it with converting. Thanks guys, this forum came through for me again!

[dadrab]

Nero does a good job of burning VOBs, but I don't trust it with converting.

Don't trust it with your heart and soul for burning either.

As mentioned above, use IMGBurn. It's a good burning engine.