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G5Unit

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 3, 2005
2,107
10
I'm calling the cops
G5Unit said:
Dont want to thread crap or anything but I have a little over 5 hours of footage. It's all at 352 by 240. Anyway to make it fit on a sigle layer DVD? It's almost 2 gigs of stuff but I want to view it on my tv.

I posted this elsewhere and I was just wondering if it was possible. The thread that I posted it in is now dead.
 

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
When you realize optical media like CD/DVDs are just data storage devices, it will become clear.

Whereas on a CD you can only put 80min of audio on it, that is only because the format CD players read is WAV/AIF and they are ~10MB per minute. So it always works out to be 80minutes maximum.

Now with a DVD you have variable encoding rates and the possibility to use MPEG1 and MPEG2. MPEG1 is of course crappier quality but filesize for the same MPG2 file is halved.

MPEG1 is encoded at 320x240 I believe and enlarged to fullscreen upon playback. So for your small sized files, this is the best bet cuz MPEG2 will just increase the file size dramtically and u wont gain any quality. 2GB of .avis or whatever you have is not going to shrink, it will only grow. Because there is a bottom level of how big MPEG1 files are per frame. 1 hour of MPEG1 is about 700MB. A DVD can hold 4.4GB. BUT since you also have audio, you wont be holding 5+ hrs. Because even if you encode the audio into .ac3 an hour is still 80MB.

With what you have it seems you wont ever get 5hrs onto one DVD, thats just NOT going to happen.

Cartoons and the like are smaller files usually because they contain fields of color and are easier to compress.
Trial and error is the best way to test quality and filesize. Crop a small part of the video out, encode it in different ways and compare the quality/sizes and go with what is best for you.

OH and the other solution is having a Dual Layer burner.
 

G5Unit

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 3, 2005
2,107
10
I'm calling the cops
What I have are all of the Red vs Blue Episodes on my computer (57) not sure if you have heard about it. I just need at least 24 fps and 128 kps audio. The Resolutioncan be 320 by 240. Also if anyone has seen the show it has to huge blocks on the top nad bottom. So maybe if I encoded it at like 320 by 176 it would probably take up less space. I could fit all of the videos on a DVD but how would I play it in a DVD player? And what software would I use if I just wanted to put more then 2 hours on a DVD. iDVD just does 2.


Thanks in advance
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,491
1,573
East Coast
G5Unit said:
I posted this elsewhere and I was just wondering if it was possible. The thread that I posted it in is now dead.
What kind of files are they? .avi, .mp4, etc??? Second question, can your DVD player play these kinds of files? Many newer DVD players can play divx encoded avi files (even the cheapo $40 DVD players).

Otherwise, break them up over 2 or 3 DVDs.
 

G5Unit

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 3, 2005
2,107
10
I'm calling the cops
They are .mov files but I could download them in divx or avi it would just take very long to find them all. I have an old maybe 3-4 year old sorta top of the line when it came out dvd player. It has never let me down. And yes I could span it over 3 dvds but that's what I am trying to avoid.
 

Sdashiki

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2005
3,529
11
Behind the lens
You cant decide what size you encode files for a DVD, its not a computer that can play anything.

A DVD has a standard.

To conform, meaning play on any set top player, you need to encode the files into:

* Resolution
o 720 × 480, 704 × 480, 352 × 480, 352 × 240 pixel (NTSC)
o 720 × 576, 704 × 576, 352 × 576, 352 × 288 pixel (PAL)
* Aspect ratio
o 4:3
o 16:9
* Frame rate
o 29.97 frame/s (NTSC)
o 25 frame/s (PAL)

only the bold ones truly count.
thats it.

And here is a tidbit no one really knows, WIDESCREEN 16x9 video is still 720x480. It is encoded anamorphically and if you viewed a 16x9 video as 4:3, it would look squashed on the sides. When you tag a video as 16x9 it then "un anamorphsizes" it and you see a widescreen video.

When you create the DVD from those half size MPEG1 files, they get blown up while watching by the dvd player.

The only thing that can be done to make DVD video files smaller is:

shorter duration, length of video
encode at lower bit rate

So to lay it all out:

take your video files. encode them as MPEG1 for the video and Dolby 2.0 for the audio, using compressor (or whatever you use). With MPEG1 u cant mess with the bit rates, its always 1.85mbps.

Then using DVDSP import the files, will be 1 video 1 audio file for each track. Make your DVD.

I made the Justice League Unlimited Season 1, 13 episodes at 22minutes each, on one DVD. Still under 5hrs. And the DVD was maxed out at 4.4GB.

What everyone else in the thread seems to be talking about is burning just a DATA DVD and not a true Digital Video Disc like what you rent at Blockbuster. You can put anything you want onto a DVD, just like a CD. But it wont play in a DVD player, it would just be a disc that shows up on your computer.
 
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