iDVD disc capacity question

[goodtimes5]

I have some video files that are 350 mb each. Using iDVD to create a simple menu from which I can select which clip to play, I noticed that I can only burn about three such clips (1 gb of video) to a 4 gb dvd disc.

What's up with that?

[freiheit]

Are your videos already in 720x480 MPEG-2 format and DVD quality? If not, iDVD is resizing and converting the format to meet the DVD specification and your files could become much larger in that process (DVD video is really quite large).

Also, it might help to know which version of iDVD you are using.

[goodtimes5]

They're in 620x350 MPEG-4 format, and I'm using iDVD 6.0.

[Applespider]

iDVD is more concerned about the length of time that the video takes up than the size of the original video file. It will take up to 2 hours of video (if you use the Best Quality setting), 1 hour if you use Best Peformance.

incidentally, those file sizes mean that once it's been re-encoded in iDVD so that normal DVD players can play it, it may not look that great.

[MLWings19]

Why can iDVD only do 2 hours of video? I can get almost 3 on my PC. There has got to be some kind of work around. :confused:

[yoda13]

If I am not mistaken, I believe the limit is artificial so that there is no perceived overlap with DVD Studio Pro, which is a much much more advanced program. I wish that you could just do the same amount of video on each. DVD Studio Pro is such a more advanced program that there is really no need for this. Just my two cents, I could be wrong for the reason, but I am sure I read that somewhere before.:)

[Sol]

I think the two hour limit is there because longer videos would look over-compressed. On the Dual Layer DVD Macs you could have four hours if you use DL DVD-Rs.

[hvfsl]

My holiday videos don't generally go over 30mins, so I don't mind the limit. But I just wish there was a way to increase the bit rate, so that my 30min movie can take up 4GB instead of the 2.something GB it normally takes up.