Need help reducing burned DVD file size

[newfrickinshow]

I begin by confessing to being a little bit of a newb so bear with me. My C:/ drive is getting rather full and I have a lot of video files that I've decided to burn to disc so that I can play them in my DVD player which will me to delete some of it and free up a lot of space Only problem is the DVDs I have are limited to about 4.3 GB and the file I have is just over 5. I can break it up and make it a two disc set but would really rather not so I was wondering if there was some way to get around it.

I see something called, "Current Project type," and if I change it to 8.76 there's suddenly plenty of room but I have no idea what that is. If I change it to that will it still be playable in conventional DVD players, gaming platforms, etc and if I do switch it to that what difference will there be in said playback? Any advice, tips, information, or assistance is greatly appreciated.

[Ken Berry]

Starting with the second part first, that refers to dual layer DVDs which can take roughly twice as much as your single layer 4.3 GB discs. However, frankly, few of us here have had any success burning dual layer discs with Video Studio (any version).

So that takes us back to your first question. The only way of making a project fit on a single layer disc, apart from your idea of splitting the video in two, is to reduce the bitrate used in the conversion or burning process. As a rough guide, the default bitrate which is preset in VS is 8000 kbps, which will allow you to burn a little over an hour of video, using Dolby audio, to a single layer disc (approx. 70 - 75 minutes, depending on how complex your menu is). This will be top quality. Reducing the bitrate allows more video to be burned to disc. So a bitrate of 6000 kbps will allow 90 - 100 minutes to be burned, with the quality still being very good. A bitrate of 4000 kbps will allow a bit over two hours of video to be burned, though the quality is likely to be no better than VHS tape.

I am assuming in all this that the video on your C:\ drive is already DVD-compatible mpeg-2. If not, please let us know. But if it is mpeg-2, then in the burning module you would need to click on the Options cogwheel icon in the bottom left of the burning screen, and untick the box beside "Do not convert compliant MPEG files". Then above that, click on 'Change MPEG Settings' and choose Customize. Then reduce the bitrate on the Compression tab to what you think will be roughly correct according to the rough size guide I set out above.

[newfrickinshow]

@Ken Berry.

That sir, is just what I needed to know. Reducing bit rate to 6,000 fit the file just short of the green, "safe" zone and it should now burn onto the disc without any problem. You are awesome and have been very helpful. Thank you.