Resizing/reprocessing videofiles to adjust total size being <= 4.7gb

Question

How could I resize or reprocess bunch of videofiles (tv show series) to be able write it on DVD? Total size of all files should be less or equal to the max size of dvd - 4.7G. Is there any kind of program which allows conversion with total filesize adjustement up to defined limit? Is there way to be sure quality will not suffer noticeably after video files adjustments? Maybe there is a software which allows adjusting quality and creating DVD video disk with nifty menu automatically?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

If you are using Windows and don't mind paying for it then TMPGEnc Authoring Works ($99.95) does everything you want.

Transcode feature. Never worry about running out of space.

Sometimes you might have so much content that you can't fit it on the DVD. What do you do? You can get rid of some clips, or you can use the transcode feature which can automatically adjust the bitrate of your movie so that it will fit on your target media. Simply set your target media (DVD, Blu-ray Disc) or set a custom output size and TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 will do the rest.

Multiple tracks. Up to 99 tracks per project.

Got a lot of footage? Add up to 99 video tracks to your project. That's 99 episodes, 99 home videos, 99 slideshows, 99 tracks of whatever video you've got! So go ahead and an extra track or two...or three...or four...

Create interactive menus. Use templates or customize them yourself.

What's a DVD, Blu-ray, or DivX ULTRA disc without a nice menu? The menu wizard will guide you through the menu-making process, allowing you to create menus in standard and high definition with aspect ratios of 4:3 or 16:9. You can even create pop-up menus with your Blu-ray Disc projects. Of course, you can choose not to create a menu at all as well.

Answer 2

you have to calculate the average bitrate first, because that is what limits you in this case (total size <= X). you can use http://www.silverjuke.net/forum/topic-213.html for example.

after you have calculated the average bitrate, you have to pick a size to scale the videos to. to which size you pick determines the bits per pixel you end up with. with the link above you can also calculate this ratio, essentially if:

• < 0.10: Don't do it.
• 0.10 - 0.15: It will look bad.
• 0.15 - 0.20: You will notice blocks, but it will look okay.
• 0.20 - 0.25: It will look really good.
• 0.25 - 0.30: It won't really improve visually.
• > 0.30: Don't do that either - try a bigger resolution instead.

you can then use ANY software which lets you define bitrate for audio and video and resizing to encode your videos and you will have a total size of not more than X (4gb in your case).

good luck :)

Answer 3

Are the files already DVD formatted?

If so then DVDShrink is a neat free, but slightly difficult to find, tool that can lose some small amount of quality in the DVD files without having to transcode in order to get it down to the size needed to burn onto a rewritable disk.

In order to save space on a DVD it can strip out alternate audio streams, replace pointless trailers with a simple picture to save space and a load of other bits and bobs.

A nice guide is here.