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]

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:

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...