Need help with video compression

[jrru2]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right section, but here goes:

I am in the process of capturing some vhs tapes. I am capturing the video uncompressed, so the file is very large. I compressed it post-capture with H.264 using Quicktime 7, and the resulting file was 15.7GB with no noticeable loss of quality. The problem is, it's only a two hour video, a two hour vhs-sourced video at that. There's no way 15.7GB should be the smallest it can get, so I'm looking for advice about how to better compress the captured video such that it will fit at least on a dual-layer DVD, if not a normal DVD. Thanks.

P.S. I put the thread in this section as oppose to the Capture section because my question isn't really about capturing, but about compression, which is a kind of conversion.

[Baldrick]

Adjust the bitrate for lower file size.

In quicktime I think can you adjust the h264 quality settings or set the data rate/bitrate directly for lower file size.

Does it look like this?

[hech54]

I'm looking for advice about how to better compress the captured video such that it will fit at least on a dual-layer DVD, if not a normal DVD. Thanks.

H264 is fine if you are creating a DATA DVD in order to store the compressed file....but that file is NOT going to play on a plain old DVD player attached to your television. DVD is MPEG2 and only MPEG2 and needs to be authored as a DVD. Simply burning files to a DVD doesn't make it a "DVD".
Just some FYI.

[dragonkeeper]

Typically VHS is noisy meaning it has a lot of artifacts, (noise, grain etc) that effect the ability of the encoder to compress the file. The only way to increase the compressibility is to use filtering techniques to reduce the amount of noise. It's been a while since i used QT but as i remember it does offer you very much in the way of tweaking your settings. If your looking to keep as much detail as possible in a small package you may want to look at other encoding tools, perhaps handbrake or ripbot264.

Also the audio format could be a contributing factor to your file size. What format is the audio being encoded to?