Reducing VIDEO file size

[VeeCee]

Hi,

I made a 8GB video in PAL sometime ago. Some of my relatives in Canada cannot view it. As I do not have the original footage, I imported the DVD into X3 and tried to create a DVD in NTSC format. The final size came to 9.3 GB and it appears X3 will not burn or create VIDEO_TS folders if the size is more than 9GB.
I was hoping I could use DVDShrink to reduce the file size to fit a 8GB disc once the VIDEO_TS folder is created on the computer. Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[BrianCee]

Hello and welcome

Could you please put the NTSC video in your timeline and then Right click on it and choose 'Prpoperties' from the pop up - then copy those properties and post them on here - this will allow as to see if a reduction in bit-rate is possible which will reduce the file size.

As an alternative it is very easy to split a video into two and burn to two discs.

[Black Lab]

You say you were "hoping" to use DVDShrink to reduce it. You tried it and it didn't work?

[VeeCee]

Thank you,

I do not know much about video files.
The NTSC file size seems to be bigger than the capacity of the original PAL DVD.

I have copied the file properties as shown below:
File:
File name: c:\Pari\NTSC.mpg
File format: NTSC DVD
File size: 10,610,802 KB
Duration: 12389.256

Video:
Type: MPEG-2 Video, Lower field first
Total Frames: 371,306
Attributes: 24 bits, 720 x 480, 16:9
Frame rate: 29,970 frames/sec
Data Rate: Variable bit rate (Max. 6000 kpbs)

Audio:
Type: LPCM Audio
Total samples: 594,684,284 Samples
Attributes:48000 Hz, 16 Bit Stereo
Layer:
Bit rate:

I could not use VideoShrink because X3 did not create a folder as it was more than 9GB.
I do not want to split the DVD. If possible I'll settle for a is a slight loss in quality.

Thank you.

[Ron P.]

First I see that your video is over 3 hrs long. The lower video bitrate of 6000kbps should help. Since it seems that it is using a variable bitrate, have you tried using the 2-pass encoding? Sometimes this will help reduce the file size. You are also using a Raw form of audio, PCM. Try changing your audio compression to Dolby Digital. That should also help with the file size. If it doesn't you may have to make a couple of discs. First I'd try using Dolby for the audio compression. It still provides good quality audio, while compressing the size.

[Black Lab]

I have not used DVDShrink in quite a while, but if you copy the DVD to your hard drive, does it not create a folder that Shrink can use?

[VeeCee]

Thanks.
I converted the PAL files to mpg and then converted them to NTSC. Using the NTSC file I tried creating the DVD which was 9.3 GB

I'll try the audio compression. I am not sure whether it will reduce the bulk by at least 0.3 GB.
I'll also try shrinking the PAL dvd onto the Hard drive with VideoShrink and then convert the smaller files to NTSC
I'll let you know the results.
Thanks again for your input

[DVDDoug]

I'll try the audio compression. I am not sure whether it will reduce the bulk by at least 0.3 GB.

Bitrate is megabits or kilobits-per-second (kbps). So, it's just a matter of converting bits to bytes and seconds to minutes or hours...

File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140
(This requires the comnined average audio & video bitrate. It's not exact, as there is some rounding & slight unknown file overhead for the varoius formats.)

If the NTSC & PAL versions have the same (average) bitrate, the will be the same size.

As Black Lab mentioned, LPCM audio is 1536 kbps (slightly higher than an audio CD). That means that you need over half a gigabyte for each hour of audio. You can get very good Dolby audio in less than 1/5th of the disc space.