Movie too large for DVD?

[Guest]

Maybe I just don't yet understand DVD burning yet.

I have a 1.23GB wmv movie, edited with MM2, authored with Sonic MyDVD demo (until I find the software that works for me). It became 300MB too large to fit on a 4.7GB DVD. So I had to save the image to hard drive, use DVD Shrink, then use a demo version of Nero to burn to DVD.

Way too much software involved for what seemed to be a simple process.

Why did the movie become too large for a 4.7GB DVD? What capture size settings should be used? Did I miss something in Sonic MyDVD? Does the newest non-demo version fit the project size to the media size?

 

[print_maker]

No matter what GB size the movie is that you re-render for DVD - it is
going to be re-encoded as MPEG2, so the final size will be whatever bitrate
the DVD software encodes the MPEG2 as. If MyDVD says it takes 60 minutes or
90 minutes or whatever it takes - that's all it will do because of the
bitrate it re-encodes as.

DVD shrink is just using a lower bitrate (higher compression) to give you
more time on the disc.

Maybe I just don't yet understand DVD burning yet.

I have a 1.23GB wmv movie, edited with MM2, authored with Sonic MyDVD demo

(until I find the software that works for me). It became 300MB too large to
fit on a 4.7GB DVD. So I had to save the image to hard drive, use DVD
Shrink, then use a demo version of Nero to burn to DVD.

Way too much software involved for what seemed to be a simple process.

Why did the movie become too large for a 4.7GB DVD? What capture size

settings should be used? Did I miss something in Sonic MyDVD? Does the
newest non-demo version fit the project size to the media size?

 

[Digger]

In addition to the response from "print_maker", one must remember that
1.23GB is compressed file size. When Sonic converts the compressed WMV to
MPEG, it first decodes (reads) the wmv, which sends the uncompressed
(decoded and now fully expanded) data stream to Sonic's MPEG encoder. Sonic
doesn't care what filesize the wmv is, it only sees the uncompressed (RAW)
data stream, which is actually many times larger than the compressed
filesize would suggest.

Hope that makes some sense, even though perhaps not clearly written...

What may also be helpful is to experiment with some of the freely available
"bitrate calculators", or look for bitrate format conversion charts. My
guess is that Sonic probably includes an Output format/ bitrate conversion
chart as part of their help documentation somewhere; most commercial video
editors and authoring suites do. Don't forget, Goggle is currently
everyone's best friend.

 

[Guest]

Great info.

So, in order to fit a WMV (which is a compressed file format), after conversion to MPEG, onto a DVD, I need to calculate the maximum size that I can capture in MPEG, and calculate the size it will be after editing in MM2 and saving in WMV?

My brain hurts.

I think I'll use Nero instead. One piece of software; less calculation.