Why does Sony DVD architect blow up movie files so largely?

[smythotech]

I was using Sony DVD Architect to burn a DVD movie today and the movie file I was working with is about ONLY 500 MB and it is .avi format.

So I do all my menu titles and what have you, drag the movie file over only to find out it takes up 5.6 GB of the 4.7 GB DVD.

Why is this?

I find this very weird because both in: Nero 9 Vision and Windows DVD Maker, a movie file of that size will not even fill up the whole disc. Maybe 4 GB at most.

And yes, you can still create the menu's and so on and everything fits. Just the encoding for those two programs above is a real pain.

[Baldrick]

Lower the bitrate for smaller file size. I guess you choose custom under encoding template and you can change it.


And mpeg2 dvd requires higher bitrate than an avi divx/xvid/h264 if you want to keep similar quality.

[aedipuss]

try avstodvd. it's free and will do a fine job converting avi to dvd. sony dvda is an authoring tool not an editor/encoder.

[Cornucopia]

Why? Because Filesize = Bitrate * ProgramLength. Your "500MB" file has a bitrate and a program length. Your AUTHORED DVD title has the same length, but a much higher bitrate (>11 times higher). Why? because your 500MB file could be any type resolution and codec (say, 320x240 and DivX, or 640x480 and h.264), but DVD uses MPEG2 at 720x480, and it's bitrate requirements for that (with an equivalent quality to a same resolution DivX or h.264) are much greater for the same level of quality.
Also, your typical DVDA template has a standard profile (say 4 or 6 or 8Mbps), while Nero9 or Windows DVDMaker may have much lower default encoding templates. Those are still DEFAULTS, which you can override. You can make it any size you want, but you'll also have to accept the quality at whatever you've asked for (unless you can do a few minor tweaks). This is preferrably done NOT from within DVDA, but as an export/render from your video editor/converter.

If this is your only title on the disc, best thing to do is to use the above equation to find the bitrate you NEED to encode to to just fit on the disc. Then encode it at that bitrate, and then import it into DVDA WITHOUT re-encoding.

Scott

...Doh, Baldrick & aedipuss beat me to the punch!