How can I get Nero to fit four hours on a DVD like my Humax does? (cross-posted)

[jjmg]

How can I get Nero to fit four hours on a DVD like my Humax does?
I have a Humax DVD-burning TiVo. Unlike non-DVD-burning TiVos, this machine already encodes everything in DVD-compatible formats (at least, I am pretty sure that's what I've read).

For one reason or another I've had occasion now and then to transfer shows via TiVoToGo to my PC so I can burn it there.

What I don't understand is why Nero always seems to think that shows I transferred from the TiVo (or even shows that I load from a DVD burned on my TiVo) take up MUCH more space than the Humax thought. I record just about everything at Medium Quality, which (I *think*) is 352x480. Medium quality fits 4 hours per DVD.

Just this morning, I had three shows that the Humax thought would fit together on a single DVD: two shows at 1:15 each, and one at 1:30: i.e. 4 hours.

The Humax is refusing to burn one of these shows to DVD (the famous "Saving failed" "Internal Error" problem) but I *was* able to transfer that show to my PC.

I then saved two of the shows to DVD-RW on my Humax, and put that DVD-RW into my PC's hard drive.

I tried to create a new Nero project and import the two shows from the DVD-RW but Nero thinks they take up 99% of a DVD, and there's no room for the third movie any more.

Is this something to do with Bit Rate? How can I find out what Bit Rate my Humax saves my shows at so I can tell Nero to match that? Or is there some other detail that I'm missing?

Any help would be EXTREMELY gratefully appreciated! This has been driving me crazy! :-)

(I originally posted this in the Home Media Features & TivoToGo forum but maybe I'll get more luck here ...)

[rkester]

Well, I am not sure if this will help but I know that it is possible to fit 18 hours of video onto a DVD. So you'd think Nero could do it. Nero may limit the amount it can fit for quality reasons. I know many DVD burning programs limit you to 2 hours, 3 tops.

On the Mac side, there is a program called VisualHub which uses ffmpeg and other libraries to compress video and make DVDs. It can do 18 hours of video, obviously with some loss of quality. I've put 8 hours onto a disc before that, imho, looked no different than the horrible compression my Humax uses set at "medium".

So, maybe you need to find another program besides Nero to do the compression/DVD creation?

[jjmg]

So, maybe you need to find another program besides Nero to do the compression/DVD creation?

Well, my point is that the videos shouldn't NEED to be compressed, since they were the right size to fit on one DVD while on the Humax. But yes perhaps I do need another piece of software other than Nero ...

[rkester]

I've go a Humax DVD as well and I've never tried to burn directly to nero vs using the internal recorder. I would assume, like you said that the format is already exactly what is needed for DVD recording. But there is probably something Nero wants to convert to make a disc. Most likely it will reconvert to Mpeg2 specs for it's own use even though it's already MPG2.

What I do is record the content to a DVD from the tivo, then rip and reburn to a DVD to fit all on the disc I want. Obviously this won't work in your situation.

[PRMan]

It's probably trying to re-code them to 720x480 (DVD resolution) rather than 352x480 (1/2 D1), which is another resolution that DVDs accept.

At least on home theater DVD burners, most of them are limited to 2.5 hours at 720x480. If you ask for longer than that, they automatically shift to 352x480.

Since your "medium" videos are already at that resolution, you need to get Nero to stop trying to change the resolution, which just wastes bits, since it won't pick up anything additional.

That's my guess, at least.

[rkester]

That's what I think as well. Well, I do now anyway. ;)

[jjmg]

It's probably trying to re-code them to 720x480 (DVD resolution) rather than 352x480 (1/2 D1), which is another resolution that DVDs accept.

At least on home theater DVD burners, most of them are limited to 2.5 hours at 720x480. If you ask for longer than that, they automatically shift to 352x480.

Since your "medium" videos are already at that resolution, you need to get Nero to stop trying to change the resolution, which just wastes bits, since it won't pick up anything additional.

That's my guess, at least.

Thank you very much for trying to help, but I think the problem is more complex than that.

Nero seems to be aware that the videos I'm importing are 352 x 480, and in the Settings dialog I am trying to make sure that it wants to make a DVD at that resolution. (I think Nero calls it "Half D1" or something like that.)

That's why I asked if it might be a bitrate issue. I tried opening one of these movies with VideoReDo and IT told me the bitrate was something like 9,100, but Nero only seems to want to go to 8,000. Also, aren't higher numbers higher quality? Maybe I'm comparing apples to oranges -- it's not like I'm an expert on any of this.