HELP! with video length

[bigorangekitty]

i'm using sonic mydvd with hp200e dvd burner...using memorex dvd+r@4.7gb...trying to burn home movies... but the length is too long...i changed the bitrate in TMPGEnc to 940... will this help in making the file smaller to fit on to the dvd? i know i will suffer some quality loss... but what else could i do to get it on one disc? if not, any suggestions?
HELP, PLEASE!
thanks in advance!

[Craig Tucker]

MYDVD only supports PCM audio, so it decompresses the mpeg audio from the mpg file you created with TMPGEnc. As pcm audio is about 10mb/min this means that a lot of the space on your DVD-R is being taken up by audio which is unneccesary. This dramatically reduces the amount of video that you can fit on a disc.

Basically use a better authoring application that will accept mpeg audio.

i changed the bitrate in TMPGEnc to 940

What is the length of video you are trying to fit on this disc, that bitrate is lower than VCD. If you are tring to fit several hours, just think that with PCM audio each hour is 600mb (just for the audio) no matter how much you reduce the bitrate in TMPGEnc.

[bigorangekitty]

what is a good free ware program, or program i can buy for my dvd burner that i can burn my home movies with? after i encode, a friend suggested that i burn with nero, but i don't know anything about nero... is that true? sorry, i'm new to this.
BASICALLY...what's the best and most user friendly for a newbie?
thank you very much!

[Craig Tucker]

There is a difference between burning and authoring. Nero can burn DVD's but they need to be authored first. I use nero to burn the ISO images I create with my authoring application.

MYDVD is authoring software, and really isn't very good for the reason I detailed. I use ulead DVD workshop for authoring, but it isnt cheap. Ulead also make DVD moviefactory which is cheaper but has less authoring options such as animated menus.

For other authoring packages check the tools section of this site, ifoedit is free but very limited you cant have menus or chapters or anything fancy