About reducing HD video file size???

[rojito]

Hi, as you all know, most HD Movies are MKV files with a size bigger than 4.xx GB (meaning it doesn't fit on a DVD-R) and sometimes, bigger than 8.xx GB (Meaning it doesn't fit on al DVD+R DL), so my questions are these:

1) Is there a simple way to split the movie into pieces so it can fit on 2 or more DVD-R?
2) Is there a simple way to resize it taking away secondary audio tracks, or reducing video quality?
3) How is the quality of a 720p movie of 8 GB (about 120 min.) compare to a 720p movie that fits on a DVD-R)? Meaning that if its possible to resize it, will the quality be reduced noticeably?

Resuming: I want to be able to store my 720p x.264 or whatever HD movies I have on my Hard Drive to Single Layer DVD's. Is it possible or worth it? What is the best (not very difficult) way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jaguarskx]

1. Yes, use VirtualDub. Make sure you have the x.264 codec installed. Personally, I use DivX, I'll play around with x.264 once I have my quad core. You can use VirtualDub to set the beginning and end of parts 1 and 2 of the video file. Set everything to direct copy and then save. It will be quick.

2. There is a way to remove secondary audio tracks, I just remember how to do it at the moment. There is no easy way to reduce the file size if you want to retain some level of good quality. I recommend simply doing a full re-encode of the x.264 file where you can reduce the dimensions of the video and/or simply reduce the bit rate. Note: every time you encode a movie file it will always loose some quality compared to the "original".

For example, You encode a Blu-Ray movie to a x.264 movie file. The file will not look as sharp or detailed as the original Blu-Ray movie. If you were to re-encode the x.264 movie file to a smaller size, the newer x.264 movie file will not look as good as the original x.264 movie file.

3. If you are reducing a 8.5GB file down to a 4.7GB file I would say you would see a difference in quality.


I prefer Dual Layer DVDs (only verbatim made in Singapore) to Single Layer DVDs to store movies.

 

[rojito]

thanks man, i'll be giving that virtualdub a try soon.