Files allegedly too big

[Edubarca]

Hello, Happy New Year!!

I'm trying to burn four episodes of Perry Mason. The four add up to just 1.36gb. However when I try to burn it after preparing the menu etc. a window appears telling me that the files are too big and don't fit on a standard DVD of 4.7Gb. What is wrong? When I try to burn the same files with menu using "Total Video2DVD" it works fine and there is even a lot of unused space on the DVD once it is burned. Thanks for your help and greetings from Colombia (with an "o")
EDUARDO

 

[Wandering one]

The run time on 4 hours of older TV programs is around 170 - 200 mins. Depending on HQ or STD. quality for final burn that is anywhere from 7 to 12 Gb's. I would imagine that Total DVD is burning at an extremely low quality, probably down around FLV and won't show very well on a larger screen such as a television.
Art.

 

[Edubarca]

Hi Art, thanks for reply. Let me tell you that Total DVD burnings are coming out well in most of the cases. In some, the picture comes out pixeled (if the term is correct). Why in some the quality is good? I just don't know. Baretta, for example, I burned four chapters of the first season, came out beautifully. Then burned another four and it was a disaster!!!. AND I cannot use the Windows DVD maker. As for Perry Mason, for example, the full series is 151 episodes, not to speak of Dark Shadows which is over 1200 episodes!! Can you imagine how many DVDs I have to burn if the program allows me only to burn three?

What is the best way of avoiding the pixeling which even sometimes is so bad that the sounds loses lip synch. Your help is appreciated and thanks
EDUARDO

 

[Wandering one]

Just a suggestion, but every StarTrek series and episode including movies, fit very comfortably on a 1Tb external usb in DVD file format This allows a fairly high quality and certainly makes storage a heck of a lot easier.
I do everything in Windows Explorer, as I never could break the habit of working with files, so it was just a matter of dividing the disc as a partition per series, folder per year, and a file for each episode. Opening WE and going down the list makes finding an episode simple.
The only advance planning was to Google the series and check how many episodes total, and then make a rough calculation on the space needed for the total. At this point WIKI is your best friend.
Art.

 

[Edubarca]

Let's talk about Perry Mason. It consists of 151 episodes. Each episodes lasts for roughly 47 minutes. For example, season 6 has 28 episodes and is 9.55GB. I cannot even think of copying 4 episodes per DVD. WDM will reject them immediately. If I use DVD Styler or Video2DVD, it will accept at least 4-6 episodes and they burn correctly. But as you say, perhaps the quality is not as the original. And I like the menu style of WDM. What to do then?

 

[Wandering one]

Sorry I can't help you there. I don't use WM and I don't want to wake it up to try.
I was using Cyberlink Power Producer, but have recently switched to Aimersoft Video Editor. Both of these programs, and I would think WM also, allow burning (for want of a better word) to a file instead of to disc. The only discs I burn are artist shows that my wife uses, but those are sort of random depending on the subject.
As for your 28 episodes, by the time you burn them at any reasonable bit-rate for DVD they are going to increase to around 1.8Gb each. That is the reason I use an external hard drive. When I started to save M*A*S*H* I quickly realised it would use around 300 discs!! and on top of that where do you keep them all?
Art.

 

[Edubarca]

Well, it seems I have to use Video2DVD or DVD styler. As you day, where do one saves 300 DVDs with boxes etc? Thanks for your help and good will. I'll keep in touch.

EDUARDO