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rustier wrote on 10/10/2006, 10:20 AM
There is no hard and fast answer to that. There are a number of factors that add in to that equation.
The source file - is the source or your video a cheap camera, a fancy camera, a copy of a vcr tape that has been converted to digital, is it something you downloaded, is it lossy or lossless video - all these things ( and more)can affect the size of your source.

Editing - How much editing are you doing to it, lots of cuts with lots of nice transitions, or a straight through run. It is safe to say the more effects you put into the video, the "fatter" it will be.

Audio - the type of audio will affect the size of your project. If you have the latest version of Vegas Movie Studio (7) it has AC3 support for encoding which is good news for guys working hard to squeeze their project onto a single dvd. Other types of audio are generally "fatter"

Encoding - you can vary the "bit rate" with video. If your video is saved as an AVI file ( without going into lengthy explanations it is a container file which can "hold" a variety of formats) You can use the "fit to disc" option when making a dvd and let the software figure out how to squeeze it all on there. You can set your encoding bit rates manually as well. The harder you squeeze - the lower the bit rate. What can happen with low bit rates is that there is not enough information to give you a good picture and you will get "artifacts" (little blocks and splotches). Exactly where you cross the line from good video to "okay" to "bad" depends mostly upon you, your equipment and needs.

One other thing - DVD menus. The fancier the dvd menu, the more space you are going to use on your disc - which is not your video, which means your gonna have to squeeze it harder.

Now that I have bored or confused you with general information - if you are using VMS 6 or older with average video and average editing and an average dvd menu set at all the default settings - my experience has been your looking at about 1 hour and 30 - maybe 40 minutes onto a 4.7 gig disc (yea I know it says 2 hours on the dvd label - my sandwich never looks the same as is advertised either) before you need to start thinking about squeezing things and how you are going to do it. If you have VMS 7 you should be able to get a substantial amount more - since AC3 audio is so compact.

I hope that helps. There are lots of sources and folks to help you sort it all out.
dendence wrote on 10/10/2006, 10:54 AM
great job explaining. Thanks. When do you know if it is to long ? I mean when do you get the message ? During rendering ?
rustier wrote on 10/10/2006, 3:51 PM
it will tell you when you try to make a dvd if it is too big. Sometimes you can "push the limit" as long as it isn't too far. VMS sets a conservative limit. sometimes its a little trial and error.

have fun with it!
dendence wrote on 10/10/2006, 5:54 PM
thanks.you have been a big help.
HaroldC wrote on 10/12/2006, 3:43 PM
If you do end up with a dvd file that won't fit a disc. You can use DVD Shrink to force it down a bit more. That is much faster than starting from scratch again with dvda.
dendence wrote on 10/14/2006, 4:22 AM
thanks