Question about video burning

I've been using my PC to record the entire series of a half hour sit com for a friend of mine. I thought that by recording on the lowest quality level equaling about 700 MB each, that I would at least be able to squeeze 6 episodes on to one 4.7 gb DVD. BUT, I can only put 4 on because they are 1/2 hour each and the DVD's are 120 minutes. Is there a way to get around this? I'd like to get as many as possible onto a DVD, as it is now, there's about 80 episodes, so I'm looking at a 20 DVD set! I have used DVD shrink to fit movies to a dvd, but it doesn't work with this (or perhaps it just doesn't work on my new Vista premium machine). Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

You can use Dr. Divx. It allows you to set a custom file size and will fit the file to your specs, but it also converts the file to DivX format, so this may not be what you're looking for. It converts the files with no loss in quality; I have used it to convert a 943mb AVI file into 700mb, and the end result was perfect. But this AVI was already in a DivX equivilent format (XVid)..... and Dr. DivX is VERY easy to use. Alternatively, you can use an editor like Virtual Dub to remove any sections from the files like commercials or credits to make the files smaller. VDub requires the files to be in a compatible format; I've only used DivX/XVid AVI files with VDub, so without knowing the format of your files, I can only do so much.... here's links:
Dr. DivX http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dr._DivX_d5208.html
Virtual Dub http://www.majorgeeks.com/VirtualDub__d5523.html
Both programs are 100% free to download and use.

NOTE: VDub is not the most user friendly application, so I recommend making a 2nd copy of any files BEFORE you edit with VDub, just in case you really screw it up, you'll still have the original. Doing this has saved MANY of my videos until I got it figured out!

 

Thanks dlb, I tried the Dr. Divx. as you suggested, but it's not supported by my OS. I might give the Vdub a try, but I won't have time tonight. Meantime, has anyone else got a suggestion?
Thanks again dlb

 

Ahhhhh.... the joys of Vista.....


Luckily, VDub is Vista compatible. :cool

 

It is supported by Vista as I get the error also but continued on and allowed it to install with recommended settings.

 

Ohhh, ok, I'll give it a try then, when I got the message I just quit. Thanks