How to fit a very very long movie onto 1 DVD using DVDSP and Compressor

F

funkmusicinstitute

Active member
Hi,
Wondering if anyone might have any advice on how to fit a 7 hour QT movie file onto one DVD.
Unfortunately, the client wants the footage on only one DVD, otherwise I would break it up.
Using FCP7, I exported the movie file (sequence: dvcpro hd 720/24p) to Compressor. In Compressor
I used the DVD 150 min. Fast Encode settings, as that seems to be the longest Compressor offers.
The result was an mpeg-2 video file that 10.72 GB, and an AC3 audio file that's 560 MB. Obviously
these are two big to fit on a normal DVD, too big to fit on a DL DVD. Also, Blu-Ray isn't an option.
Anyone know how I might be able compress this enough to make it work?
Many thanks!
 
First, if at all possible, use a dual-layer DVD disc. That will give you almost 9GB of space, which will help with a 7 hour movie. Outside of that, tweak the bitrate settings in order to get it to fit, don't just use the template (obviously 150 minutes is a lot less than 7 hours of content, so it's no surprise that it wouldn't work). It will hurt the image quality, but you should be able to get it on there.

Also, don't worry about audio. The typical 2 channel AC3 (Dolby Digital) track is only going to be 192kps, so leave that alone.
 
Thanks for the suggestions Gary, truly appreciate it. So if I'm in DVD SP I simply set the bitrate to the lowest setting to see if it will all fit? In this case it looks like the lowest I can go is 2.0 for bitrate and 5.0 for max bitrate in DVDSP encoding settings. However messing with those settings doesn't seem to change (or at least I don't know where to look) the overall size, which is initially stated at 12.5 GB for the mpeg2 file. I have also exported the original HD QT file (146 GB). Now, in the past I've actually taken quite a large QT file (275 GB) of a different movie into compressor and then DVDSP and did a basic burn and that was no problem. That resultant file's size was only 1.5 GB. The difference was that that movie was only 34 min long (it was a HD transfer of a film). However, I don't remember how I did it. So just wondering if there is a way to see how encoding settings change the size of the data on the Dvd. Thanks.
 
Yeah I know it'll take quite a hit but they don't seem to care. Basically it will mostly be elderly folk watching it, who don't apparently view anything online--(I've already uploaded the entire piece so people can download and watch it however they want; I did this downrezzing it to 720x405 mp4 file, which was about 4.5 GB in size. It def took a quality hit then but they don't seem to notice. When I tried to bring this file into DVDSP it also won't work, says it way too big for 1 DVD, and doesn't like the mp4 encode it seems)--and want a DVD, as apparently that's what most of their viewers will watch. They also want a DVD menu to navigate. This is what they're comfortable with. I guess I could break it into several movies and make several DVDs but that will definitely be more work for me, and will definitely potentially confuse them. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!
 
that's just an average estimation:


7 gigs / 7 hours, 1GB/per hour, 17MB/per minute, 290KB/ per second,

"2320Kbps" or "2.2Mbps"

that's the maximum bit rate for 7GB and 7hours.

good luck.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. So I've picked up DVD DLs to use. However, in Compressor, I can't seem to find a customizable DVD setting in the DVD folder settings. The most compressed seems to be the Fast Encode 150 min. but as stated before, the resulting file size was still too big. Is this something I try to tweak under the MPEG-2 folder in Compressor, which offers 'Elementary Stream' 'Program Stream' or 'Transport Stream'? Or is this something I tweak in the encode settings w/ DVDSP? The lowest it seems I set there is 2.0 mbps. However, that doesn't seem to change the file size stated in my first post. Please excuse my ignorance!
 
Update (yes, I'm sure everyone can't wait to hear it). Was able to encode via Compressor a file small enough to fit onto a DVD DL, overall size of mpeg2 and audio about 7 GB. However now when trying to do a test burn in DVDSP, I get the following error message: "Formatting failed. Formatting was not successful. Layer 0 exceeds the maximum layer size allowed. Please choose a suitable marker location that will support this condition."
I've burned many DVDs in the past and have yet to see this. Anyone experience this before? Many thanks.
 
This is why DVD-SP has a manual. It's in the "Help" menu. Look up how to place the layer break point in the manual. You need to move it a little earlier in your show.
 
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