Posted by Stuart on 02/03/07 01:45

<evenlater@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:1170455991.195724.165510@a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>I used Windows Movie Maker to make a 90 minute video which is now
> saved as a .wmv. It "weighs" 1088 MB. I want to distribute this DVD to
> some 10 or so people, and I have no way of knowing what type of DVD
> players they have at their disposal.
>
> I have used Sonic MyDVD 7 to create a DVD from that file. The problem
> is, when I import my wmv into the DVD menu and attempt to burn a DVD-R
> disc, MyDVD tells me that I'm already over the 4.5 GB limit. In order
> to fit the movie on the DVD, I have to downgrade the video quality to
> LP, which is listed as VHS quality.
>
> Image quality is important with this project, so I am trying to find a
> way to produce an HQ quality disc. So I bought dual layer discs, which
> works very well -- except that it doesn't play on some DVD players.
> I've tried both DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL, and set-top playability seems
> impossible to predict. (I have the same problem with the lower quality
> single layer DVD-R and DVD-RW discs.)
>
> Any great ideas out there? How can I get the highest quality video
> and offer a reliable finished product that can be used on most or all
> DVD players?
>
> I wonder if MyDVD is too low level a product for my purposes. Can I
> get maximum video quality on a single layer DVD if I buy something
> like Nero and set my own bit rate? (I'm not even very sure what that
> means.)
>
> Thanks!
>



I think you have answered your own question - Windows Movie Maker is a
fairly simple program and outputting the file as a WMV rather than a MPEG
file is the clue to the problem. If you convert the WMV file to MPEG (that's
what is actually on a standard DVD only called VOB files) it will increase
in size as you have found. What MyDVD does it amongst other things converts
the WMV file into a a DVD conforming MPEG file.

The WMV format is a highly compressed format.

So if you started the project in a program like Womble etc and exported as a
DVD conforming MPEG file you would see the size problem immediately an then
your options are, remove material from your movie or reduce quality - those
are your only choices. Some may suggest use DVDShrink but all that does is
reduce your quality, so you are stuck with either options remove material or
reduce quality.

I would suggest VSO ConvertXtoDVD to author the DVD .

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