Question about DVD Burning

[Taelon]

Basically, he said that burning 6 hours on 2 DL disks will look the same as 12 hours on one disk - is that true, or did I misunderstand?

That is nonsense, perhaps he meant 12 hours on 2 disks would look the same as 6 hours on 1 disc?

Also, what is the difference between SP (240 mins) and SP+ (360 mins) both called SP on the back of the box?

These are the various standalone recorder modes as I understand them,
Time based on standard DVD-5 single layer media;

D1 = Standard resolution, 704 or 720x480 or 576 depending on TV/DVD & NTSC/PAL
XP (HQ) = 60min (DVD quality, bitrate up to ~ 10Mbps)
SP = 120min (near DVD quality, bitrate ~5Mbps)
SP+ = 150min (near DVD quality, bitrate ~4Mbps)

Half D1 = Half resolution, 352x480 or 576 NTSC/PAL
LP = three hours (S-VHS quality, 3.38Mbps)
EP = four hours (near S-VHS quality, 2.54Mbps)
EP+ = six hours (VHS quality, 1.70Mbps)

[drfsupercenter]

So... I would be smart puting 4 movies on each disc? Well it may not be exactly 6 hours per disc, I know that the 8 movies all together is about 11.75 hours. Also, why won;t DVD Shrink allow me to put more than 5 or 6 movies per disc - even though that is far less than the allowed 12 hours?

And about the layer break, would I be smart to have it between the second and third movies? One more thing, can DVD Shrink make menus for the reauthor where I drag the titles into it? Or do I need to use Nero or something?

[drfsupercenter]

Also, about the joining titles, how do I do this? What I mean is that when you play the DVD in a standalone player, it plays the 20-minute mini movie and then switches titles to the main movie. In DVD Shrink, it rings up as two seperate titles - I just want it to show up as one (or at least when you click on that movie in the menu, that it will start the mini-movie then the normal one)

[Taelon]

Shrink has limited functions, it's made for simply taking a DVD-9 and compressing it down to fit on a DVD-5 blank. The options for re-authoring, using still-frames inplace of menus, etc are all added features but don't make it a complete authoring suite.

What you're trying to accomplish is well beyond it's design goals and capabilities. You might want to take a look at TMPG DVD Author or DVD Remake Pro to reauthor you compilations, then if needed you could run the output thru Shrink.

[LT. Columbo]

tmpgenc dvd author is an excellent tool, get a fully functional 30-day trial here

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html

[drfsupercenter]

Well, when I get a chance, I will try it out. For now, I am curious as to what program to burn it with? Does TMPENGC or whatever save it as VOB files and then I burn with Nero?

[LT. Columbo]

that's right, dvd author will output fully structured dvd files (vobs, ifos and bups) you can burn with nero after or even use tmpgenc's own writing engine.

[drfsupercenter]

Thank you - so would I disregard the Shrink method? Also - does TMPGENC set the layer break too?