2-3 hour video on one DVD?

[iMatt mini]

I have a tape, actually two, about 1:30 each, I'd like to upload it and burn it onto one DVD so I can make copies for friends and such, think it's possible? If it goes on to two or more DVD's, they just won't get any. The video is on a camcorder tape, I've been trying to upload it through my camcorder using iMovie HD. Problem is, the first half took up over 10 GB, I know that won't fit on one, even 2 DVD's, it'll end up being a box set. I can't do that. What's the best format to upload, burn it in. I'm new to this, I don't know much.

Thanks.

 

[ITASOR]

In iDVD, there's a quality option you could look at. I know I used it to get a 2 hour video onto a DVD.

 

[xsedrinam]

Try MPEG Streamclip to encode to m2v and ac3.
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html
If that doesn't get it down to ~4.4 Gb's
Try running it through dvd2onex
http://www.dvd2one.com/
Good luck

 

[rjphoto]

Video file size does not equal encoded DVD size

However your are limited on iDVD on the amount of video you can get on one DVD. Originally it was one hour. Then it went to one and a half. I don't know if it is at two hours now or not. (Anyone?)

With DVD Studio you can get up to 5 hours per DVD using the different compressions.

Then there is always the new DL DVDs.

 

[skimaxpower]

Using Compressor or QT Pro, you can adjust the MPEG2 bitrate so that you'll be able to fit 3 hours onto one standard 4.7 gig DVD.

The quality will suffer anytime you push it past 2 hours, but for home videos, you'll never notice.

Additional tip: Make sure to encode the Audio to AC3 format instead of Aiff. It's equivalent to the difference between MP3 and WAV/AIFF.