Hi,

I have a strange problem happening when I try to burn an AVI file to DVD using Nero 6 vision express

I have an AVI file which shows as 700mb in windows explorer but when I go to burn the file it shows as over 3 gig whn i add it to burn to DVD.

Is there a logicl reason for this, is this common or is something a-miss?

It's got me very puzzled

Thanks,
Bryan

It's normal. When creating a DVD the AVI file is converted to the DVD file format (VOB) which normally will increase the size. The amount will depend upon the AVI quality. The DVD creation process also creates additional files (IFOs and BUPs) which add additional size to the final product.

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"It's normal. When creating a DVD the AVI file is converted to the DVD file format (VOB) which normally will increase the size"

Say what? AVI is an uncompressed format whereas DVD files (VOBs) are nothing more than Mpeg files - a compressed format. So the same file in VOB format should be smaller than the same video in AVI format. I just encoded a 14GB AVI file into MPEG format and it was somwhere over 2GB.

What might be happening is that Nero is trying to fill the disc and in doing so is encoding at a much higher bit rate than it really needs to. As long as you are not wanting to put anything else on that disc it is not a problem, there's just a lot of unnecessary information. Sort of like taking an image and making it twice as wide and twice as high by making every pixel 2x2. Exact same image, but it would be 4 times it's original size (not accounting for compression)

Michael J

Michael, there 'are' compressed AVI files. A DIVX AVI file is VERY small. I have some 22 minute AVI files that are about 100mb.
Don't feel bad about not knowing about it. I just found out a short while ago.

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I should correct one thing I said.
"which normally will increase the size"
It's possible that the output file could decrease, depending on the input file parameters.

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Yes, you are correct. In the work I do I only use uncompressed AVIs and convert those to DVDs. It would be interesting to know how long the clip is though.

Michael J

Since the output came out to about 3GB, my guess would be a little over an hour and a half. But of course, that's assuming the normal DVD parameters were used.

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There are probably a good 10 different compression formats that can be in an AVI format. And any one of those can be set to use different amounts of compression. There is no way to tell how big the file is going to end up based on the size of the AVI file.