Compressing ISO files for DVD?

[mr_goodbomb]

I've got a number of movies I've ripped that I'm looking to burn to DVD. Problem is, I've already ripped them, and they're over 4.7GB as ISO files, so I can't shrink them AS I rip, since... well, I've already done it. Can I compress these files down to a usable size somehow and still burn them to DVD? Is there a way to do this without affecting the quality of the transfer, video and sound? Most around around 7 or 8GB, none over 9 as far as I know, some are just slightly over the 4.7GB limit. Please help. Thank you very much.

[yoda313]

so I can't shrink them AS I rip, since... well, I've already done it.

Ah but that's the beauty of dvd shrink. You can open them in file mode. Just open dvd shrink and choose "open files". Then you can load the iso or video_ts folder and shrink on the harddrive. EDIT - of course that means you'll need extra space since you have the 8gb or so file that you want to shrink already on the drive and you need a 4gb open spot on the drive for the destination folder of the rip.

Of course if you have a dual layer burner and some dual layer blanks you can burn as they are right now with no shrinking. Dual layer blanks are still a bit pricy compared to singles. BUT dual layer burners go for as low as 30.00-35.00 new online from places like newegg or amazon.

[jman98]

Is there a way to do this without affecting the quality of the transfer, video and sound?

No.

Compressing a DVD involves possibilities such as throwing away unwanted audio (such as DTS, which takes up a lot of space on the disc, and foreign language files) and re-encoding the video through various means to a lower bit rate. The best case scenario would be to have a file around, say, 5.2 GB in size that has a DTS soundtrack, in which case you could remove the DTS soundtrack without having to re-encode the video to get it to fit on a single layer DVD. That would involve no quality loss, just a loss of a soundtrack to save space. But in almost all cases with dual layer DVDs, you have to re-encode the video. In a best case scenario, you won't be able to tell the difference between the original DVD and the re-encoded one, but the re-encoded one is ALWAYS of lower quality, even if you can't tell it. Just as a tip, subtitle files take up almost no space on disc (they take up less than 1% of the disc space), so you gain nothing by removing them when trying to compress from dual layer to single layer size.

If you decided at some point to burn dual layer discs, around here we very strongly recommend that you use ONLY Verbatim DVD+R DL media for best results. If you try to save money by using another brand, you'll regret it when you start burning coasters. Verbatim makes the only reliable DL media.