How can I get videos to fit on the target media?

SteveB

I'm attempting to make some DVDs for road trips. I don't want to take my original DVDs and my vehicle only plays DVDs, not BluRay, so I'd like to convert a few to DVDs. I don't need the best quality as the car DVD screen is not HD. I'd also like to use single layer DVDs.

What is the best method for doing this? I've tried coverting a BluRay into an mkv with lower resolution. For instance, my ripped Epic in mkv is 2.2GB. However when I add this mkv to the DVD Creator, it shows 4434MB and won't let me burn it to a DVD5. This isn't an isolated case... just about everything when I add it to DVD Creator shows far larger required space on the DVD.

Why are small files being bloated out when going to DVD and how can I fix it?

TIA.

--SB

90312

You can try changing the DVD-5 size to 4000 but even that doesn't always make them small enough. Just make a backup of the original would be my advice. Or try the two step method save it to the HDD and then use DVDCopy on it.

SteveB

Thank you for the reply. I'm confused on where I set the DVD5 size. I can't find any settings that would let me adjust the size. Can you point me in the direction of how to change this in the DVD Creator area?

I'm also curious as to why DVD Creator shows DVD5 size is 4300MB when the DVD discs I'm using say 4.7GB on them.

--SB

90312

First off the blank shows the size in actual base 10 bytes, the computer uses binary math to calculate file size so as far as the computer is concerned the blank size is 4482MB. 4300MB provides a margin of safety so data is not written too close to the outer edge where errors most often occur.

Customize the size here:

Wilson.Wang

Hi,

Add "Fit to disc" option in DVD Creator, please wait next build and have a try.

Wilson

SteveB

Ok that would be great - looking forward to the new option!

SteveB

[QUOTE=90312;150556]First off the blank shows the size in actual base 10 bytes, the computer uses binary math to calculate file size so as far as the computer is concerned the blank size is 4482MB. 4300MB provides a margin of safety so data is not written to close to the outer edge where errors most often occur.

Customize the size here:[/QUOTE]

Thanks, that's what I couldn't find. I'll play with that to see if I can write ones that are just over by a little bit.

Wilson.Wang

Please download the latest version V9101 and have a try.

Wilson

timmymac123

Similar scenario...I am trying to put four movies on one DVD-5 for my car.
the screen is 800x480 so I really do not need anything larger.

I ripped the movie to to 800x332 with DVDfab and resulted in a 904MB MP4 file (The Heat)

I did the same with EPIC (800x332) and 791MB was the resulting size.

HOWEVER, when I add just those two to a DVD-5 (thats 904 +791 = 1695MB, just over 1/3rd DVD-5 capacity) they show as nearly filling the disk. If I add a third & fourth movie, the total of the ram images is 4481MB. A little over the 4300MB for a DVD. When it create the media image though, it is way over and even with "fit to disc" checked, it generates a media image that is way over the allowed limit of 4300MB...to the tune of 7.03GB. No way that is fitting on a DVD-5!

What else can be done?

GregiBoy

Very little the way you are doing it.

MP4/H264 is a far more efficient codec than the standard MPEG2 one that the DVD authoring standard requires which Creator is turning them into, hence the size increase.

As most modern players will support the direct playing of MP4's/AVI's I would be attempting this (This works on my car player but I play from an 8Gb SD card instead of a disk). A general indication that the player MAY support this is if it will play MP3 music files:-

Just create a DATA disk from normal burning software that should have came with your DVD burner and add the MP4's that you want on it.

Burn it and try it in your car player.

timmymac123

Well, as much as liked the idea...

I placed four mp4 files on a disc and burned it.

Neither my InVision nor my ROsen Entertainment system liked
the non-video based disc.

It can only read apparently MP3's and a standard VOB-based video disc.

Any other ideas?

Take four mp4 files who total is less than 4300MB and somehow put them on a DVD while maintaining a resolution of about 800x332?

GregiBoy

Not possible..

timmymac123

why not?

GregiBoy

As I explained previously:-

"MP4/H264 is a far more efficient codec than the standard MPEG2 one that the DVD authoring standard requires which Creator is turning them into, hence the size increase."

When you wish to create DVD Standard MPEG2 from these, they are "EXPANDED", to be simplistic, to the size they were on the original DVD.

Axel Slingerland

Could that be the "other reason" why a 464Mb .MP4 file won't fit on a DVD5 disk? That would make sense, where as a simple one to one comparison of the number of pixels does not...

GregiBoy

It is a combination of both.

Axel Slingerland

Here's a thought for you, timmymac123. What I was referring to in my post was I was trying to burn a DVD of a 464Mb .MP4 file, but it would not fit on a standard DVD5 disk. The problem is that DVD Creator does not compress or resize movies. I thought about this for awhile and it occurred to me that DVD Copy does compress or resize movies, and DVD Creator will make .ISO files. So here's what I did to solve this problem...

I opened DVDfab 9.0.6.3 and selected the DVD Creator module and set it to create a DVD9 .ISO file from the 464Mb .MP4 file. The resulting file was over 6Gb, and took a long time to create. (Pay attention to where it puts the file, as I did not and had to search for it.) Once it was finished I then opened DVDfab again and selected the DVD Copy module and set it to burn the .ISO file to a DVD5 disk as a Main Movie copy.

So if I wanted to do what you want, I would try making .ISO files out of each of the movies you want and use the DVD Merge option to create the single DVD you want. Try that and see if it works... :)

GregiBoy

@Axel

What did the quality turn out like?

PS: Good workaround...

Axel Slingerland

It turned out perfect as far as I can tell. But this is not a regular "movie studio" thing, it's a help video my business partner put together to help me learn the finer qualities of one of our products. So any flaws that are in it could also be in the original file. But at first glance it looks pretty good, and the process that I used to make the DVD is good.

After my last post in this thread (for timmymac123), I remembered that I had actually done that before. I have a DVD called Joe Bonamassa: Live From The Royal Albert Hall, which is an over two hour long show that according to Amazon.com is "a twelve-camera high definition, surround sound shoot" on two DVD's. The resolution of the video is 1920x1080.

When I made a copy to watch and keep the original in mint condition, I made an .ISO of each disk and burned them both onto one disk in the manner I described in my last post. I was shocked (and very pleased) to see that the video looked as good as the original. Someone with a better eye for video quality might disagree on that assumption, but I think it looks great. :)