How do I make a movie slightly smaller (in file size)?

[mrat93]

I'm trying to burn a DVD for my friend in iDVD but the project takes up 4.25gb on a disc, which apparently doesn't fit on a 4.7gb DVD. Is there any way to make the file size smaller? I'm willing to reduce the quality a little bit.

Thanks!

 

[MrLatte23]

try re-exporting

Try exporting it again and lower the quality a bit. if you have motion menus, those take up space as well, so maybe sacrifice some of those for still images.. Odd though, cuz I thought DVD's fit 4.37 GB.

 

[mrat93]

Try exporting it again and lower the quality a bit. if you have motion menus, those take up space as well, so maybe sacrifice some of those for still images.. Odd though, cuz I thought DVD's fit 4.37 GB.

How do I lower the quality?

 

[MrLatte23]

Depends on your software...

It depends on where the movie file is coming from... iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut... there should be an option somewhere (when exporting) to lower the resolution or quality. I haven't touched iMovie '08, once upon a time had iMovie 06 loaded. If you exporting directly to MPEG 2, you may have an adjustment for bit rate, single pass, VBR, multi-pass etc.

 

[mrat93]

It depends on where the movie file is coming from... iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut... there should be an option somewhere (when exporting) to lower the resolution or quality. I haven't touched iMovie '08, once upon a time had iMovie 06 loaded. If you exporting directly to MPEG 2, you may have an adjustment for bit rate, single pass, VBR, multi-pass etc.

I don't really know much about all that stuff. I just downloaded the movie online, and now I want to put it on a DVD. I just dragged the file into iDVD.

 

[MrLatte23]

what software do you have?

What editing software do you have? iMovie? You're going to have to use something other than iDVD to make it smaller, so you'll have to eventually "know about" what other programs you have to work with. Looking in your application folder is a starting good place. If iMovie is listed, "Import" the movie into iMovie. Drag it to the timeline then "Export" or "Share" the movie and you should have options to change (or lower) the settings. We can't help you if you can't offer a little more than "it's not working".