Hi Everyone,

I'm having some trouble getting my file size to the right size for dvdsp.I've been scanning post after post and have not been able to find an answer I was hoping for. I've exported my files (m2v. and ac3.) from FCP6 using compressor and the resulting file sizes should fit on a dvd (4.36gb m2v and 112.4mb ac3). For some reason dvdsp is calculating the total size differently and showing 4.9gb in total. It's a 1:21:03 video and the bit rate is already down to 5.4. I wouldn't want to cut that much more since I'm sure the final dvd's quality won't be so hot. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do. It's pretty frustrating to say the least. I've encoded twice already trying to make a smaller file. It taking around 6hrs through compressor makes for a looooong day. Are there any specific setting I should be using in compressor to help with this? Should I just import the .mov file straight into dvdsp and hope for the best? I'm just at a loss so I was hoping someone could give me a hand. Have a good night.

Thank you,
Ryan

If the final data rate is too large for a DVD-5 (single layer) then step-up to a dual-layer (DVD-9). That's your only option other than cutting down your original edit.

Dual layer DVDs are grossly incompatible with many DVD players in the market. It's so bad that I won't use them because most of my customers would not be able to play them. DVD-R DL is a major no-no. DVD+R DL works on 'some' but by no means all players.

So, your choices are compress for single layer or split between two DVDs unless you KNOW your target players will play your dual layer discs.

How much do you have in the way of menus, moving menus etc? Remember that when DVDSP renders the menus it's creating more video, which can easily take a lot of space - although 600MB does seem a lot.

Have you looked at the verbose logging in DVDSP? Can you copy/paste to here so that we can see what it says?

Dave is right with the menus. I just had 2 - 2hr DVD's to do & had to trash all of the transitions & cut out the motion loop in the menus to get it to fit. I think I actually saved about 300 Mbs + - with 6 chapter menus

The file size issue is a little wonky. computers are based on 1000 Mbs per Gb & DVD's are on one Kbs = 1024 bits, so a DVD can only hold 4.37 Gbs. I seem to recall having this issue with FCS1. I wouldn't even have brought this up, but your discrepancy of 4.9 Gbs & 4.47 from your files is pretty close to that ratio if you are not loosing it in your menus.

I just burned a 1:18:24 with 5 menus with transitions in DVDSP, it was 4.2 GBs.

Settings in compressor were DVD best Quality (6.2Mbps) with frame controls on & detail levels set to 20.

It was HDV 30p from a self contained movie, so don't know why you're having problems.

Try to build it once first, and then see if the Video TS folder is still 4.9 GB big. I once had it that DVD Studio Pro displayed it wrongly.

That being said, indeed, adding moving menu's etc. all add up.

I'm sure this isn't the problem but I once had an issue with a 80 minute program that compressed to larger than the DVD could fit. And I was using the simplest menu possible. The issue was that in the rush to finish I overlooked a 5 minute clip that got shoved down the timeline past the 2 hour mark during editing and there was nothing in between for 50 minutes. That was 50 minutes of blank that got compressed which still takes up a bit of room.

Thanks everyone for the replies! I actually wound up just putting it on two seperate dvds. I didn't want to sacrifice to much in the way bit rate because the footage was a bit noisy. I was afraid it would make for an ugly dvd if I cut it. I sent the file through FCP to compressor. The video was pro res. I didn't even have menus in there yet and it was over the size limit. The client said the two dvds was fine so I'll do that. Thanks again for all of you help. I will keep all that in mind for future projects.