Fit to disc with VRO files question

[plasma_video]

When making a DVD, if you have files too large to fit on the disc, there is an option to fit to disc.

My question is, does this fit to disc option work like the shrink program where the video is analyzed and a high quality recoding performed, or does it merely take your mpg files and re-encode them at a different bitrate, thus adding artifacts to artifacts?

Part two, and the reason for asking. I have several VRO files from a set top recorder on several DVD RAM discs that I want to shrink and put on one DVD. I also have several large MPG program stream files that I would like to do the same thing with.

What is the best way to do this? The long way would be to import them, create and "burn" an oversized DVD file folder (VIDEO_TS) on the hard drive and then use the shrink DVD tweak and fit program to resize it to fit on a standard DVD, but that seems like too many steps.

I've found no way for the high quality tweak and fit program to directly import VRO or MPG files, unless I'm missing something.

Can anyone enlighten me as to the best way to do this and retain maximum quality?

Thanks!

[maddrummer3301]

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[plasma_video]

Thanks.

I am curious how MF would handle this. DVD Shrink does not natively work with VRO files, nor apparently does Nero Recode - at least I haven't found an easy way yet.

So I assume that the fit to disc option in MF4 Make DVD does not use the same principle as Recode or DVD Shrink, but insteads re-encodes the mpg video with standard lower rate mpg encoding.

These files, BTW, would not be edited in the future. They are some family videos that will be sent to other family members for viewing only. The originals will be obtained in full quality. They were dubbed from an S-VHS player onto a Panasonic desktop recorder at the highest quality setting - 1 hr mode - and I'd like to condense them down for viewing only, fitting 2 hours or more on one DVD. Of course I could always do a second pass and re-record them in SP, but I'm also trying to learn how to best do this for the future as well and learn all of the tools and tricks at my disposal.

I had a case where one of the tapes literally fell to pieces after one pass, so re-recording it is not an option at this point !

I know it would be better to save these in a less lossy format, but for now this is my best option for several reasons.

[maddrummer3301]

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[plasma_video]

Great suggestions. I do use the realtime copy function in the Panasonic to do exactly as you mention.

I've had great success with DVD Shrink with large amounts of compression using a regular DVD burned off the Panasonic, that's why I was asking about how to possibly accomplish the same with VRO files. To my eye, the finished video looks better using DVD Shrink compared to downsampling with the Panasonic.

I haven't fully explored the export function in MF yet except to convert a couple of mpg files to DV for use in my editor. I'll check the quality of that vs the Panasonic. Again, just exploring options. Too many choices sometimes! Right now, I'm playing with a 3D noise reduction plug-in used within Sony Vegas on my editor to compare it with the NR in the Panasonic.

Thanks again - see ya on the boards!