Fitting large mpg files into one DVD !

[Vasan]

Dear forum members,

I use VS9 and wanted to fit 7GB of MPG file into one DVD. I understand you could do it after creating video_TS file in HD. Reduce the size using DVD shrink and then burn to the disc. I also understand that the shrinking does not significantly affect the quality.

I need someone's help to tell me the steps I need to follow to accomplish the above task.

thank you
Vasan

[mxyzptlk]

The steps are pretty straight-forward.

In the Create Disc step in VS9, be sure to uncheck "Burn to disc" and check the box "Create DVD folders". In the box next to "Create DVD folders", type in where you want the output to go. Let VS9 do its work. When it's finished, you will have AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders created and populated, although the AUDIO_TS folder is usually empty. These folder will be located where you said you wanted the VS9 output to go. You're now finished with VS9.

On to DVDShrink. Click "Open Files" and choose the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders that were created by VS9. DVDShrink will do its customary analysis, after which you can click "Backup!". I'd recommend letting DVDShrink do its automatic compression for you, but that's up to you. Choose where you want DVDShrink to write its completed folders, also named AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS (don't choose the same location as what you used for VS9). Click "OK" and wait for DVDShrink to do its magic. This might take a while.

When DVDShrink is done, use your favorite program to burn the DVDShrink AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders to a DVD. When finished, pop the DVD into your DVD player and enjoy!

[Vasan]

Dear mxyzptlk,

Thank you so much for your help. I just have one more question about burning the compressed Video_TS and Audio_TS. Can I get Nero to burn ?

For burning regular wav or mp3 audio files, I add the wanted files and then burn. Is it the same or does it require any other steps ?

Your help is greatly appreciated !


regards
Vasan

[mxyzptlk]

You're welcome, Vasan. I don't use Nero for my final burn to DVD, so in the DVDShrink Preferences I disable this feature. If you're going to use Nero, be sure that you've checked the "Enable burning with Nero" in DVDShrink Preferences File I/O. And yes, the burn to DVD proceeds the same way as you would use to burn music files to a CD or DVD. I use Ulead's BurnStar program to to burn my DVD and the file system that's used is UDF/ISO 9660, so you may want to make sure that your burning program is set up similarly. After you've gone through this whole process once, you'll be an expert! Good luck.

[Ken Berry]

You can certainly do it with Nero as a separate exercise as well. I always use DVD Shrink this way -- only to produce the Video_TS file. I disable Shrink's burn connection to Nero. But I then open Nero, make sure it is set to DVD, select the 'Photo and Video' tab (the one with the big and little film clip icon), and go to the very end and select the icon 'Burn DVD-Video Files'. When that opens, select where your file is on your computer in the third pane of the screen, drag and drop the 'Video_TS' file to the red 'Video_TS' icon in the second pane and press 'burn'. I do this because on the screen that then comes up, you can check a box down towards the bottom left, to ensure that the burn that occurs is verified against your Video_TS file. You can check that box after burning starts ... It adds 5 - 7 minutes on the overall burning process, but I feel better knowing that my final DVD has been verified....

[Vasan]

Dear Ken Berry & mxyzptlk,

Thanks fore your help. I got stuck in the first step itself while converting the project to video file. I have 7 files converted to mpg separately. I then assembled them, create menu, make chapter marks, and then in the final step I unchecked the write to disc and selected the video file and select the folder to save. When I click the “burn now” , I immediately get an error message which read
“ Project content over the limit”

I use VS9 and have windows XP, 1GB Ram and more than 75 GB free space. The total file size is 13.0 GB.

I would like make these files into one DVD.


Please help !!!!!!

Vasan

[rcurzon]

I'm curious about DVD Shrink... does it do anything more (or better!) than burning at a reduced bit rate with Ulead products would to?

--Richard

[THoff]

Not really, except for the convenience of it adapting the compression just enough to make the content fit.

I recently compared a DVD created from a two-hour DV AVI using UVS 9 against one created using DVD Shrink. I initially burned the DVD onto a dual-layer disk, but then decided to create another version that would fit a single-layer disk.

For a quick solution, I ran the dual-layer disk through DVD Shrink, and it used almost all of the available space (4.3GB) on the disk. I also started another encoding using UVS 9 and a manually calculated (OK, guessed) bitrate which was actually overly agressive -- the disk came in at about 3.8GB used.

Starting with the full-quality DV AVI file and encoding with UVS 9 to a lower bitrate produced noticeably better-looking video than DVD Shrink did when it had to start with already compressed MPEG.

[Ken Berry]

Vasan -- when you open the burning engine, click on the little Options icon in the bottom left of screen and make sure you have the Project box set to the highest size -- I think the default is 4.37 GB, and you would need to set it to 8.5 GB or whatever it is (sorry I can't be more precise, but I am away from home and using a computer which does not have VS9 on it).

[THoff]

If you output to disk, it's safe to ignore the "Project may not fit" warning and proceed. You shouldn't have to change the media type to a 8.5GB disk if you will create an ISO file or VIDEO_TS folder and then postprocess using DVD Shrink.

[Vasan]

Dear Ken Berry & THoff,

Thanks for your help. I will once again make an attempt to burn my project and keep you informed.

Vasan