Reducing file size for dvd

[midweb]

I take videos for a folk group and upload them to YouTube some of the videos are only 4 or 5 minutes long, but are over 500mb, so what is the best way to put them onto a DVD without loosing quality, I thought a DVD would hold a full length film, so how do they do it, may be a silly question, but please any help appreciated.

My videos are .mov files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyjvqAOf-9g&list=PLsYwiO-goKW304nkgWjD15B_oSLBYkNcQ&index=14
Many thanks
Mick

[Baldrick]

As a DVD-Video that should work on most DVD/Blu-ray players? Then use a dvd converter like avstodvd or dvd styler.

Or just as data files? Then shrink them with for example handbrake. Outpus as mp4 files and they will work on many devices (not most standalone dvd players though).

And this is not any streaming. Moving you.

[jagabo]

Movie DVDs are limited to 720x576 resolution, a maximum bitrate of about 10000 kbps total, and require MPEG 2 compression with specific limitations. If you want to make a DVD that will play on every DVD player you need to conform to that specification. If you just want to store your files on DVD media you can leave your files as they are. But no DVD will play them.

[midweb]

Thanks for a quick reply, appreciated.
Mick

[jagabo]

Also, commercial pressed discs can be dual layer -- meaning they can hold twice as much as single layer DVDR media. Of course, you can buy dual layer DVDR media but it costs more and can be more problematic to deal with.

[SameSelf]

I take videos for a folk group and upload them to YouTube some of the videos are only 4 or 5 minutes long, but are over 500mb, so what is the best way to put them onto a DVD without loosing quality, I thought a DVD would hold a full length film, so how do they do it, may be a silly question, but please any help appreciated.

My videos are .mov files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyjvqAOf-9g&list=PLsYwiO-goKW304nkgWjD15B_oSLBYkNcQ&index=14
Many thanks
Mick

Hi Mick, welcome to the forum!

First off, it looks like your videos are hi definition or HD. As has been stated, DVDs are only for standard definition or SD. Therefore, there is no way of putting your HD video on DVD without losing quality because you will have to downscale the resolution to SD, and that always involves a loss of quality, sadly.

Secondly, yes, DVDs can hold a full length feature film, but that is because, in addition to SD versus HD, the bitrate is compressed. For example, your 5 minute video is 500 MB. Therefore, the bitrate is roughly 13 mega-bits-per-second (Mbps). DVDs are constrained to ~9 Mbps. You will lose some quality to get the bitrate inside the limits of DVD. So now your video is taking two whammies, HD -> SD and 13 Mbps -> 9 Mbps.

Also, the capacity of a single layer (SL) DVD is only about 4 GB. Therefore, a movie using the full 9 Mbps would max out the capacity of a SL DVD at around 1 hour which is hardly a full length feature film. Thus, to fit 90 minutes on a SL DVD, the bitrate needs to be lowered to about 6 Mbps. This lower bitrate results in a loss of quality versus the higher bitrate of 9 Mbps. So triple whammy! 1) HD -> SD, 2) 13 Mbps -> 9 Mbps, and 3) 9 Mbps -> 6 Mbps. Of course, you could always avoid the third whammy by only putting an hour's worth of content on your DVD.

If quality is of utmost importance, then the only way to maintain HD quality with high bitrates is Bluray discs. However, you will need:

1) a bluray authoring program
2) a bluray burner
3) blank bluray discs

It gets expensive fast. Good luck!

[jagabo]

the only way to maintain HD quality with high bitrates is Bluray discs.

This isn't strictly true. One can use AVCHD on DVDs up to about 18 Mb/s. But you will need a player that supports AVCHD (pretty much limited to some Blu-ray players as DVD players don't have AVC decoding) and you will be limited to 30 minutes at the highest bitrate. So you might as well use BD media.

[SameSelf]

Sounds pretty esoteric to me. Do you have any steps for him to follow should he want to pursue that path?

[manono]

Sounds pretty esoteric to me. Do you have any steps for him to follow should he want to pursue that path?

Not esoteric at all.

MultiAVCHD

There are guides for its use near the bottom of the page. Most, but not all, Blu-Ray players will play AVCHD burned to DVD disc .

[netmask56]

I take videos for a folk group and upload them to YouTube some of the videos are only 4 or 5 minutes long, but are over 500mb, so what is the best way to put them onto a DVD without loosing quality, I thought a DVD would hold a full length film, so how do they do it, may be a silly question, but please any help appreciated.

My videos are .mov files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyjvqAOf-9g&list=PLsYwiO-goKW304nkgWjD15B_oSLBYkNcQ&index=14
Many thanks
Mick

Have a chat to your group members if there are not too many to get an idea of the video playback gear they have then you can decide to either Author a DVD, with the quality reduced to DVD standard or if they have newer standalone DVD players then you could burn your videos as data ie no menu's etc, the quality would be the same as the original file. You could burn one trial data disc and hand it around for testing. Likewise you could make a AVCHD using multiAVCHD and test for compatibility with the group.