File Size

[yearofthespider2k3]

Hey everbody. New guy here. When I selected the video I wanted to burn onto a dvd I have two files one is 1.17 GB .avi file. The other is 702 MB .avi file. Both of these files should fit on the 4.7 GB dvd I am trying to burn but for some reason it will only let me do one. I am selecting the 1.17 GB size file and it says it is way bigger than 1.17 GB. Why is DVD MovieFactory showing a larger size than the file really is?

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!!

Well, I'm guessing here since you don't provide enough information for a more informed comment. But there are over 800 different formats which use .avi as their extension. And I am again guessing that your files are amongst the more compressed versions, such as DivX or XVid. Those are in reality mpeg-4 files, and use special algorithms which highly compress video, reducing its size enormously while retaining good quality.

The problem for you is that a video DVD requires DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which is far less compressed. MPEG-2 is the international standard for DVDs. So your AVIs might be small, but when uncompressed out to mpeg-2 will greatly increase in size. To give you an example, typically, a movie which will fill a 4.3 GB DVD can be compressed to about 800 MB and fit on a CD when using DivX/XVid.

You can, of course, burn DivX to a DVD in its original avi format -- in fact about 5 or 6 DivX movies to one DVD -- but not as a video DVD nor using Movie Factory (or Video Studio). Instead, you burn them as simple data files. Most DVD players will recognise DivX videos and play them. But to repeat, you do not burn them as video, but as data files. And you cannot use MF for that since it is made to burn video DVDs.

[teknisyan]

Hello yearofthespider2k3,

If you are using DVD Movie Factory, you are most likely trying to create a DVD which is different from creating a data disc. If you are creating a DVD that you can play on a regular DVD player, then you need to consider the time of the video and the quality, since a regular 4.7 GB dvd can hold up to 3 hours of video and that will still depends on video and audio quality of your file. The larger the file that higher the quality. That is the reason why you both of you files does not fit on one DVD. Unless you lower the quality of the video and audio, that way you can fit both video on one DVD. But if you are creating a data disc, then 1 DVD is more than enough to copy or burn both of your files.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry Abiel, but I disagree with almost everything you say in your post.

a regular 4.7 GB dvd can hold up to 3 hours of video and that will still depends on video and audio quality of your file

A regular DVD could probably hold even more than 3 hours, but that would mean using an unacceptably low video bitrate, and quality would be pretty poor.

The larger the file that higher the quality.

How long is a piece of string? Your comment needs further explanation. A file can be larger simply because it *is* larger -- a video could be one hour, and another two hours. The second file -- if in the same format and using the same properties -- will obviously be larger.

That is the reason why you both of you files does not fit on one DVD.

Since we don't know what format and properties the original video used in the project have, we don't in fact have any exact idea of the "reason why both files do not fit". As I said in my post, I am assuming they are in fact in another, highly compressed format such as DivX/mpeg-4. In which case, they would have to be converted, and decompressed, to make them into DVD-compatible mpeg-2. And it is that process which will make them much larger files -- probably also with quality loss -- and thus unable to be burned to one 4.3 GB DVD "Unless you lower the quality of the video and audio" -- a statement with which I *do* agree...

[yearofthespider2k3]

thanks guys so far. I found the button in MF that lets you choose the several different options being DVD standard quality, dvd good quality, dvd, high quality. I set it work in standard form and the files fit. However the video was pixelated. Using Winx AVI to Mpeg I converted them to mpeg-II, with audio quality of 128 KBPS, and a sample rate of 3200. The quality of the video is set at a frame rate of 29.97 and 4000 KBPS quality. It is still grainy. How do I fix this problem? I can go up to 5000 KBPS on the video quality. With the other program I used I could not tell a whole of difference in the 4000 and 5000 KBPS video quality. I am really considering getting a refund on this program because it is starting to seem like more of a pain in the *** than anything.

[DVDDoug]

Here is an online bitrate calculator.

I guess it depends on what you feed-into it, but if you feed-in good quality MPEG-2, or DV/AVI (13GB per hour), you should be able to get nearly commercial-DVD quality at 6000kbps which allows about 90 minutes of video and Dolby audio on a single-layer DVD.

Using Winx AVI to Mpeg I converted them to mpeg-II, with audio quality of 128 KBPS, and a sample rate of 3200. The quality of the video is set at a frame rate of 29.97 and 4000 KBPS quality...

... With the other program I used I could not tell a whole of difference in the 4000 and 5000 KBPS video quality.

You are using Winx for the conversion, so you shouldn't blame Movie Factory for the quality! If you use a 3rd-party conversion program, make sure to check the box that says Do Not Convert Compliant files (or something like that) so that Movie Factory doens't make another conversion and further degrade the video.

[Ken Berry]

Plus you missed my point that when expanding out to mpeg-2 from a much more highly compressed format is always going to result in loss of quality. And that cannot be compensated for by using higher quality settings for your DVD -- it can only ensure you don't lose any further quality. Moreover, using a bitrate of 4000 is always going to result in lower quality anyway, regardless of the quality of the original video. You only use that bitrate if fitting more onto a DVD is more important than quality. That bitrate will allow 2 hours or a little more to be burned to a DVD but the quality will be at best average. Raising the bitrate will potentially raise the quality -- depending on how good the original video was before conversion -- but only if the entire video is less that 2 hours (6000 kbps = 90 minutes mpeg-2; 8000 kbps = 1 hour). But if your video was originally SD DivX/XVid, then there is probably little point in using higher than 6000 kbps.