hello i`m using nero express 6se
is it possible to burn 3 or 4 films on to one dvd
if so whats the best programe out there to use
thanks for all your help
paul

If yuor talking DVD compliant mpeg format no - the bit rate would be way under the minimum specification (and it would look pretty crook as well).

If your just storing movies onto DVD, AVI format (divX) will allow you to store 5 or 6 movies at the average size people compress movies down to in DivX format.

I dont see why you couldn't, just as long as you have enough disk space....
The program I use is dvdsanta and it lets you enque files, it then converts them and then burns them all in very easy steps...
Nero would more than likely do this as well, but I haven't use the program so I cant be sure...

There is a demo version of dvdsanta you can try this is the link, have a look and see if you like it....

http://www.dvdsanta.com

If you're refering to fitting them onto a dvd-5 format 4.7 GB (4.37 GB) disk, then you'd be struggling. I just opened my FCP video app, added 4 hrs (240 mins) of video, & a setting of around 2.0-2.2 Mbps & ac3 at 192 kbps or much less would be required. 4 & a half hrs would definitely only be capable at 2.0 Mbps so ... the quality drop would be quite noticeable. But I still think you'd be struggling greatly to fit them on anyway. It's generally not recommended putting more than 2 & a half hrs on a dvd-5 format disk at absolute most.

If you're refering to a dvd-9 disk (fits about 7.95 GB), then you'd have more chance to do it.

A new option is getting a set-top dvd player which plays mpeg 4. I picked mine up quite cheaply but plays mpeg4, divx, xvid, ... & all I need to do is put such files onto a data dvd & bingo, it plays them. I don't know about Nero but Roxio Toast can convert video files to divx. But I'd prefer just to downld mpeg4 files & burn them to a basic data disk. When you play them, you get a menu similar to an mp3 disk menu. Just select the video you wish to play. Also the skip button will jump to the next video. I tried it out with a disk full of music videos & it was very good. And very handy so I know I don't have to reconvert them to watch them on TV.

Hey LOTR...
Im a bit confused because if you had three 700mb files and the disk is 4.7GB, doesn't that provide enough space for them to fit...

I haven't personally tried to do this mind you, but I am now curious.....

It's after you reconvert them to burn to dvd video ... that's the issue. Keep in mind that those files have already been squashed down in size from the original. I'm not mighty experienced at burning video in this scenario where it's already been downsized. Video more-so than audio is much more obvious to reconversion quality drops. Some people might be half tone deaf, but most people are not blind if they can see a TV.

Remember, these are video files not data files. So it's not a simple matter of combining the disks & burning. During the burning process, they get reconverted. Even if they're mpeg2, they still need to go through the muxing process. And I presume also reconverted I don't know. If you burn a 700 MB mpeg 2 file to dvd, does the end result on the dvd end up as 700 MB? I don't think so.

But then probably someone will come along & prove me wrong! lol (re: fitting several such video files onto dvd without problems - ie: trouble fitting them on or dramatic drop in quality or both.)

Most of my experience is with PAL video -> DVD (ie: over 200 MB/min for standard pal. Multiples larger than that for HD video!) Not something that's been dramatically compressed from a ready made dvd, & then reburned to dvd. For a start, all video dvd's are highly compressed video. A little like mp3. mpeg2 throws away information to help it reduce in size. 720 x 576 pixels for standard pal. For VCD then it's around 352 x 240 or 480 x 480 for svcd. So as you can see, the resolution of the video has been changed for a start. Not to mention colour loss, image definition loss, lower data rate, etc. Each time video is converted, information is thrown away.

Thanks for the info, now I understand...So am I right in thinking that an xvid takes up more space because the quality is alot better ie. part 1 to a movie is 700mb and the same for part 2 and you download them seperatley....So would you be able to fit the 2 of them onto 1 dvd ? (I've always put them on seperate ones) and the quality is great....

There is so much to this lol....
Not long ago I wanted to shrink a 1GB file so it could fit onto dvd and was told I didn't have to because it was a 4.7GB disk, this is how i have got it all confused as what can fit and what wont...

Thanks so much for taking the time to clear some of this up for me...

Many DVD players have problems if the birate is to low, they get jerky or even stop. A lot of advice around the place is to keep the bitrate over about 3000. Dunno how accurate this is, I try and keep over 6000kbps.

Size wise, 3 movies, 1.5 hours each is 4.5 hours.

TMPGEnc estimates a bitrate of 1850kbps will run roughly 160minutes (2 hours 40min on a single layer DVD) but this is a reduced video size of 352x288, slightly more than 1/2 of standard DVD frame size, much less than standard TV.

Based on that you could probably get three movies onto a dual layer DVD (in DVD compliant format), but I reckon it would be pretty poor quality.

Just put each movie on a seperate single layer DVD, at roughly 30c a unit, against $6 for a dual layer DVD, makes more sense.

Thanks Ferral, theres alot to this burning movies and stuff lol...
I will do what you suggest and just keep one film per dvd, but what do you think of the 2 part movies that are xvids at 700mb per file do I put them on seperate dvds or can I join them???

If you data burn and your CD size is big enough you'll fit it, most blank CD's are 700-800 megs. It all depnds on the size of the file and how much you got room for on your disks.

Wondering Why,


if both file sizes are 700 megs, you will need 2 blank CD's to burn, you won't have room for both, unless you compress the files and don't mind crappy quality by compressing them to save disk space.

Whats the size of your blank disks?!?