Brief Encounter

Today I received a DVD from a forum member, it is 51 minutes long. I wanted to add this to another programme I already have, which is 35 minutes, to put both on the same DVD-R. They are both transferred from 1980s TV broadcasts to DVD.

I use TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 on my PC, and had already added the 35min programme which was approx 1500MB. However the 51min prog is approx 3300MB (taking it over the disc limit), and this fits in with the forum member telling me it filled up the whole disc - I can only assume it was transferred onto a HDD at 'HQ' or 'HSP'. Surely there's no need, as transferring at 'SP' is equivalent to VHS - another member actually told me that 'LP' also is, though I still prefer to use 'SP'.

But I'm worried that if I burnt a DVD with both programmes, it would need to compress both, which might cause a noticeable reduction in quality... any thoughts?

Harbottle

I'm using Tmpgenc Authoring Works 4 which has a built in compression feature I can't recall if the version you are using has this option. I think probably not?

If not an excellent method to get this onto a DVD-R is to create the DVD in the Authoring prog you are using, then use free prog DVD Shrink to compress the DVD you have created on your Hard Disk. You also have the option to compress one of the recordings more than the other if you so choose.

Brief Encounter

My copy of the programme does compress to fit onto a disc, not sure if it will do it to one Track and not the other though...

But would the quality be noticeably decreased?

Harbottle

Unlikely I would think, my guess is that the recording was made using an unnecessarily high bitrate. Hence my suggestion you use DVD Shrink, as you can compress that recording more than the other one which is probably just right.

GoggleboxUK

Copy the files from both discs to your PC then open a new file in your authoring software.

Create a folder on your desktop then open the folder containing the files from Disc A. Copy the files with the names VIDEO TS 1.1, 1.2. 1.3 etc to your new folder then relabel them as 1, 2, 3 and so on/

Repaeat the process with Disc b but don't relabel the files.

In the folder containing the files from both discs select all then drag and drop into your authoring software.

Merge the files labelled 1, 2, 3 then merge those l;abelled VIDEO TS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 .

This will give you both programmes as complete chapters. Add your menu and birn.

"There's always something"

autolycus

How about burning to a double-sided (8GB) disc? I use infiniti which have been very reliable and work out around 50p each if you buy 25.

Brief Encounter

Apparently the longer programme was transferred from VHS to DVD at Panasonic 'XP' quality... if it was compressed, would it be noticeable?

GoggleboxUK

The more you compress a video file the lower the quality gets but on anything up to three hours it's barely noticeable.

In the past I've burned almost 6 hours of video to one 4.35 Gb DVDR and it's still been better quality than VHS.

"There's always something"