idvd question....please help

[derajfast]

ok so i downloaded all the season 2 episodes of lost from the ITMS, and then i converted them to .mov file so idvd would recognize......each episode is about 200 mb and i want to put them on a dvd so i can watch them on my tv instead of my 15inch comp screen

but when i add the episodes to idvd, each one comes up as like 3 gb each....it doesnt make sense to me.....when i go to the status tab, it says 24gb of 4gb under dvd capacity.....the only way to make it fit is to take off every episode but 1, but theyre only 200mb each.....they should all be able to fit with ample room lefotver no?

Please HELP!!!!!!!


Thanks

 

[LethalWolfe]

ok so i downloaded all the season 2 episodes of lost from the ITMS, and then i converted them to .mov file so idvd would recognize......each episode is about 200 mb and i want to put them on a dvd so i can watch them on my tv instead of my 15inch comp screen

but when i add the episodes to idvd, each one comes up as like 3 gb each....it doesnt make sense to me.....when i go to the status tab, it says 24gb of 4gb under dvd capacity.....the only way to make it fit is to take off every episode but 1, but theyre only 200mb each.....they should all be able to fit with ample room lefotver no?

Please HELP!!!!!!!


Thanks

It has to convert them to DVD standard MPEG-2. When dealing w/iDVD or iMovie you have to think in terms of TIME not FILE SIZE. iDVD has a cap of 120 minutes per disc (including menus).


Lethal

 

[derajfast]

ok so each episode is about 43 mins long, how come i can only fit 1 still?

is there a way i can fit more on to one disc thats playable in my dvd player

 

[LethalWolfe]

ok so each episode is about 43 mins long, how come i can only fit 1 still?

is there a way i can fit more on to one disc thats playable in my dvd player

You should be able to fit 2. IIRC iDVD has a settings for 60min and 120min. make sure you are using the 120min setting.


Lethal

 

[derajfast]

but id like to be able to fit more then 2.....seems like an awful waste of a dvd disc to me

 

[gekko513]

but id like to be able to fit more then 2.....seems like an awful waste of a dvd disc to me

It's not really wasting space. Uncompressed video content requires 10GB of storage per hour of video.

The files you get from iTunes Music Store are heavily compressed using a method called H.264. This is a compression method that allows for smaller files while maintaining decent quality, but it requires a fast processor to play.

For the DVD player to understand the content of the DVD the movie content must be stored with the MPEG-2 compression method. This method is old and not as good as H.264.

When you burn a DVD from the H.264 file, iDVD will decompress the video and recompress it using MPEG-2. The DVD will be full of data, so no dvd disk space is wasted.

Until newer disk players that support H.264 come on the market, you're not going to be able to burn more than 120 min of video on a DVD.

 

[balamw]

i want to put them on a dvd so i can watch them on my tv instead of my 15inch comp screen

Have you considered using the $19 DVI->S-video adapter and playing the videos from your PB?

Recompressing video from the already heavily compressed iTMS H.264 videos at low bitrates using a different codec (MPEG-2) seems like a recipe for very icky artifacting. Kinda like taking a 128 kbps AAC file from iTMS and recompressing it in MP3 at 64 kbps. The results won't be pretty.

How did you manage the conversion to iDVD compatible .mov anyway?

EDIT:

Until newer disk players that support H.264 come on the market, you're not going to be able to burn more than 120 min of video on a DVD.

Beat me to some of the points I was trying to make.

Just a couple of side notes. There are a number of DVD players out today that support MPEG-4 (H.263?), and the DVD standard already supports lower a resolution mode (320x252 IIRC) that allows for more video, just at reduced quality. iDVD however doesn't support this resolution AFAIK.

B

 

[derajfast]

well i have QT pro....so i just made them .movs w. it....

but yeah h264 is nice, and i wish it was more widely accepted

 

[Boelman]

I never even knew you could convert them until you said qt pro. It all makes sense now

 

[balamw]

I never even knew you could convert them until you said qt pro. It all makes sense now

Not to me. QT Pro is capable of removing the DRM from shows purchased from iTMS?!? It sure doesn't do that for audio tracks!

B

 

[derajfast]

well i dont know if it removes it..but i can convert them to .mov's fine and drag them in to an idvd template w/o any hassle

 

[balamw]

well i dont know if it removes it..but i can convert them to .mov's fine and drag them in to an idvd template w/o any hassle

Yeah, that's removing the DRM, since it no longer requires you to authenticate with iTMS to watch the video. Amazing. I guess I'll have to check that out this weekend.

B