As @Wolfgang S. says, 3 hours is too long for a DVD. In order to fit, your bitrate would be so low the quality would be worse than old VHSs. You need to break it into multiple DVDs use the DVD templates provided by Vegas. This should get you around 1 to 1 1/2 hours per single layer DVD. MPEG2 is a good codec at higher bitrates, but falls apart fast at lower ones. Remember filesize is determined by two things, length and bitrate.

Thank you very much for your replies. I guess what I had trouble wrapping my brain around is the idea that in this case it's about time and not file size. The 1.17GB file was actually rendered from a series of smaller .mp4 files. As I write this I have added the first three files that made up the 1.17GB file with times of 29:18, 28:41 and 28:45 which add up to less than 1 1/2 hours. But the estimated size is 6.67GB, so this won't work. I remove one of the three but the estimated file size is 4.46GB which exceeds the 4.38GB capacity of the disc. So if I want to burn these files to disc it would have to be one half hour segment per disk.

And no matter how small I make any of these files it would not matter. I could make the original 1.17GB file 500MB and it would make no difference. This is good to know as for me in the past what I've done has been all about file size.

Thanks again for your input.

K

There are Free Bitrate calculators that would help you determine what bitrate is required for particular length programs.

A small reduction in the bitrate should help to come below the 4.38 GB, instead of 4.46 GB. Yes, we used bitrate calculators in the old days where we had to encode something for mpeg2 based DVDs. There are also double layer DVDs, with the double capacity - maybe that helps too?

The last question one could ask: why is it necessary to create a DVD at all? Today you can deliver the content using an usb-stick?

The estimated size shown is 15.58GB

The estimate is incorrect, and has been for all of the last 20+ years.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum-search/?page=1&query=dvd%20size%20estimate

It was tested many years ago and shown to be displaying unpacked bits, not compressed sizes. Development on the burning function ceased many years ago.

 The 1.17GB file was actually rendered from a series of smaller .mp4 files.

• I would render those to MPEG-2, which is the format used for DVDs. Multigenerational MP4 renders incur losses.
• Burn two discs, each under two hours. Three hours on a disc will look like crap.
• Your total capacity for video + audio is 4.35 GB (GiB) per disk to allow for the DVD structure.
• Use Verbatim discs. Don't burn at maximum speed.
• @RKV

why is it necessary to create a DVD at all?

What's a DVD?

I once used 'DVD Shrink' which did the job. As as recall (from many moons ago), it converted the 720p video files I had down to 480i. The original project size was around 8 or 9 GB, I was initially thinking of using a double-layer DVD but decided against it. This was before BluRay was 'mainstream'

Well... a DVD is 720x480 anyway. So it's going to reduce your 1280x720 down to 720x480. Then it's a matter of setting the bitrate to match the DVD size. When rendering the MPEG2 file in VEGAS, you can set whatever bitrate you want but you'll need to use some other program to burn the DVD. If you want VEGAS to burn the DVD direct from the timeline, it doesn't appear to let you set the bitrate. I still use DVD Architect to burn DVDs every week from a 1 hour MPEG2 file created by VEGAS Pro 20 but there are many other options available.

Again, thanks to everyone who has provided input to this thread.

To answer the question Wolfgang S. asked, "why is it necessary to create a DVD at all?", first, this is fair question. It was my intention to provide content to a family member to be viewed on a large screen TV with a standard DVD player. If I'm not mistaken a file provided on a USB stick would need a player like PotPlayer which I use and would need to reside on PC. An alternative would be to use a player device like the Neumi Atom 4K which I have a few of and they work fine but this is another level of complexity and I've found that for some dropping a disk into a player is as complicated as they wish to get.

After reading Musicvid's comments I noticed in the message "The estimated image file is too large to 
fit on disc. Do you want to continue anyway? Normally I defer to the guidance of the program but I decided to answer yes to see what would happen.

First I tried the three files in my post above which totaled 6.67GB which ultimately failed.

Then I tried two files which totaled 4.46GB theoretically over the 4.38 limit and it worked. And while I have not viewed the disc from one end to the other random samples show playback is good as expected. Properties in Windows Explorer show 3.23GB of disk space was used.

If I were going to do such things as this on a regular basis I would dive deeper into this topic but as I said this is for a family member and I might not do it again in the foreseeable future.

I did learn one very important thing and that is when trying to anticipate how much space will be need to burn content there is much more to it than file size.

Thanks to everyone who provided input, it is greatly appreciated.

Ken

ADD: Whether we are talking about DVD-R or BD-R does "Double Layer" simply mean more capacity? Are there any other considerations?

Well... a DVD is 720x480 anyway

Only in NTSC territory. It's 720x576 for PAL. Ken doesn't say which he is.

I did learn one very important thing and that is when trying to anticipate how much space will be need to burn content there is much more to it than file size.

This will always work for you (excluding your audio):

Time (secs.) X Bitrate (Mb/s) X .825 = Size (MB)

There are 8 Megabits in one MegaByte

Whether we are talking about DVD-R or BD-R does "Double Layer" simply mean more capacity? Are there any other considerations?

Yes, Double Layers are more prone to burn problems and compatibility. It says what it is, it "layers" the burn patterns and the margin of error is very small. You might try one or two to make sure they burn correctly and your DVD player can play it.

Double layer burns are never recommended in Vegas/DVDA because of issues with the Break Point. I suggested burning two standard discs.

@RKV , you write "... to be viewed on a large screen TV"

So giving him SD DVD content will look crap.

On the other hand, any modern screen in the last 10 years can play mp4's and have USB port.

It will be better to check what model it is and render few suitable files, surly not a 3hour one.

-my 2c.

It was my intention to provide content to a family member to be viewed on a large screen TV with a standard DVD player. If I'm not mistaken a file provided on a USB stick would need a player like PotPlayer which I use and would need to reside on PC. An alternative would be to use a player device like the Neumi Atom 4K which I have a few of and they work fine but this is another level of complexity and I've found that for some dropping a disk into a player is as complicated as they wish to get.

Have you checkd the TV? Most modern TVs have usb ports today, and do not nee an external player at all. You plug in the usb stick, and the TV has suitable players installed.

I would check that, instead of going the cumbersom way back to the pre-HD-age!

Hi,

Has anyone here burned any AVCHD discs? They allowed HD video to be burned onto standard DVDs. You could only burn about 20 minutes of video and unfortunately they would only play on Blu-ray players. I think you can create them using the free ImgBurn. I still have some as they were a good way to save HDV files in their interlaced glory.😁