Auth DVD Workshop final disk size

[stationx]

I’m trying to author an Mpeg2 with Ulead DVD workshop. The source Mpeg2 is 3,973,759Kb but the result is 7 VOB files in the VIDEO_TS dir way oversize for one DVD. I had adjusted the AVB to around 4100ish to bring the file size down to under 4Gb thinking this would be enough to add the menus and fit onto one disk. The source file was Divx with AC3 audio. I converted the audio with virtualdub and HeadAc3he to a Wav 48Khz 16 bit. Used TMPGenc with the DVD NTSC template (2pass) and added the new wav as audio. The resulting output plays fine (no sync prob). In DVD workshop I have selected “do not convert compliant files”. This last stage takes hours which I hadn’t expected as DWS shouldn’t be re-encoding. Is there anyway of calculating the overhead added by authoring the Mpeg file? Or look at it the other way, know how big the mpeg should be to allow the menus to fit. Obviously the complexity of the menu structure will affect the VOB size but I’m only looking to have 4 menu’s of chapter selection

Thanks for any help
Stationx

[silentbill]

From the Ulead site:

Q: When creating titles using the Make Disc command, why does Ulead DVD Workshop always re-encode my MPEG files?
A: DVD Workshop will re-encode the MPEG file when the specified encoding bit rate in Make Disc is lower than the encoding bit rate used by the original file. If you want to retain the original encoding scheme of your file, you must specify a higher encoding bit rate than your original encoding bit rate in Make Disc.

Not sure if this is your answer or not, but might be worth checking.