I have some DVB-T TV recordings (.m2t files) that I need to edit a bit (like, cut out the halftime, cut off the first few minutes before kickoff etc.) and then burn on a DVD. Now, when I render those recordings (typically 2:10 hours) to DVD (16:9 PAL 5000k), they will be just a bit too large for a single DVD.
How can i tell kdenlive to create files that are just large enough to fit on a single DVD (i.e. just below 4700000000 bytes)?

Currently, I'm manually lowering the bitrate and export to DVD, hoping that I'll stay below the DVD size. Sometimes it works, but mostly after 3 hours of rendering the file is just 50MB too large, or it is just 3.8GB and thus wasting a lot of space on the DVD. I have now wasted >10 hours during the last few days creating .vob renderings that just didn't fit on one DVD.

So, how can I make kdenlive choose the ideal bitrate automatically so that the recording fits exactly on one DVD without wasting space?

Thanks,
Reinhold

PS: My 7 years old HDD/DVD recorder has this functionality out of the box.

There is no feature to do this automatically, as far as I know...

I guess you would like to fit your renderings _exactly_ on one DVD. You wrote "How can i tell kdenlive to create files that are just large enough to fit on a single DVD (i.e. just below 4700000000 bytes)?" which a 3.8GB file fairly does.

If you really want to optimize the filesize to match something quite close to DVD maximum size, you could calculate the max bitrate (or average bitrate) according to your movie length. One minute of DVD at 5000k (5000k bit = 625.000 byte) creates 625.000 byte x 60 seconds = 37.500.000 byte.

If you subtract some 100-200 MB from the maximum DVD size, the calculation should be good enough, because it does not take stuff like the file allocation table and other overhead that uses space on a DVD into account. You will not see a difference in your picture if you spend 200 MB for this. Any further optimization is over optimization from my point of view, because it will be invisible.

"PS: My 7 years old HDD/DVD recorder has this functionality out of the box."
Nice feature - but it can not cut and add effects/transitions and stuff, right? So, your 7 year old recorder has a few drawbacks, too, hey?

That's exactly what I have been trying to do for the last four days (all I wanted is burning 8 football games to DVDs, which should not be a matter of 3-4 days, after which I only have 4 of the DVDs burned!).
Calculating the size of a 119,5 minutes game rendered at 5000k, I end up with a little less than 4.500.000.000 bytes, which should perfectly fit on a DVD (with the extra overhead). However, the rendered .vob file is not 4.500.000.000 bytes, but rather 4.747.687.936, which now does not fit on a DVD.
I have had similar problems with most other attempts (often when I tried lowering the bitrate a bit more, but it still was too big). Unfortunately, each such attempts takes 2.5-3 hours, so I'm wasting REALLY a lot of time for something as simple as just trying to burn a TV recording to a DVD without any fancy effects.
The strange thing is that sometimes when I decrease the bitrate just by just 200k (e.g. from b=4200k to b=4000k, and also lowering the maxrate), then suddenly the size jumps from >4700000000 to <4000000000, which then wastes a lot of empty space on the DVD.

Cheers,
Reinhold

> > PS: My 7 years old HDD/DVD recorder has this functionality out of the box."
> Nice feature - but it can not cut and add effects/transitions and stuff, right? So, your 7 year old recorder has a few drawbacks, too, hey?

Sure, I can cut off any part of the recording on my HDD/DVD recorder, split it up into chapters, cut out a few minutes of commercials and burn the whole thing on DVD quickly. That's actually all that I need. I don't need any fancy effects/transitions. I just want to burn a TV recording (m2t file recorded on the computer) to a DVD and cut out a few minutes.
Kdenlive is so far the only application that I found for Linux that is able to handle m2t files and easily lets you cut out parts and burn to DVD.
It just feels like the output size is more or less random...

is splitting games over different dvd's such a painful thing for you? :-|

what u could do is render what u need for one game. send it thru your dvd authoring prog, like dvdstyler, and just generate the files. Open the saved files folder with K9copy to reduce the Q to fit exactly onto 4464Mb.
http://www.zaphu.com/2008/05/31/ubuntu-guide-ripping-and-burning-dvds-with-k9copy-and-brasero/
(but I think K3b is much better than the brassery)