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dvdhelp.com / Merging multiple episodes onto single DVDs
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What you need:
TMPGEnc DVD Author (details...)
DVD Writer + blanks (details...)
DVD Shrink (details...)
Preparation:
Ensure that you have a number of ready created VIDEO_TS directories, each containing one or more episodes of your chosen TV show.
Keep loads of free disk space! (around 10Gb+ as you will be creating one oversized and one correctly sized VIDEO_TS directory.
Processing:
First of all you need to use a bit of common sense.
You know how long the new stripped clean video plays for, so you need to maximise how much you get onto a blank DVD without effecting the quality too much.
In practice, you can get away with about 5 x 1/2 hour episodes, or maybe a couple more, or up to a max of 3 x 1hr episodes. This method doesn't destroy your original VIDEO_TS files, so don't worry about experimenting!
Start TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) and click "Create New Project"
Click on "Add DVD Video" and locate the first VIDEO_TS directory on your hard disk.
The DVD recorder used for this walkthrough shows two titles on the DVD, even though they both appear to be the same. just select one and click Next.
If you have already defined chapters marks in the selected video, then leave this checked, otherwise ensure that it is not checked, so that you lose any random chapter marks put in by the recorder..
You will now see the summary screen;Click the OK button at the bottom of the dialog box.
This will return you to the main window, where you need to repeat the process to add the rest of you pre-prepared video directories.
Remember that the main window always has a status bar showing how much of the blank DVD is goignt o be used/left spare, so keep an eye on that to see whether you are busting the limits or not.
When you are done, you will see the main window something like this
This example is during the processing of a 22 part TV show. The best way to split these across DVDs is to have one of 8 shows, and two of 7 shows. This would overflow the size of a blank DVD though, as shown by a zoomed in image:
Not to worry though, we carry on and create a new VIDEO-TS directory with that larger size, as we are not going to burn this directly.
If you want to create menus for this DVD, do it now, by clicking on the Create Menu button across the top and building a menu for it. We will details this step in the future. If you don't want a menu, then simply choose "No menu" at the top left of the menu page.
Click onto the "Output" page, ensure that "Create DVD folder" is checked and choose a location for your new (oversized) VIDEO_TS directory. Finally, click "Begin output" and wait until it merges all of you chosen VIDEO_TSs into one new VIDEO_TS folder.
You will get a warning about the size exceeding a standard 4.7Gb DVD, but you can ignore this, as this isn't the version that will be burnt onto a blank. Simply click "Ignore", and then "Yes" to the "Do you want to ignore these errors" dialog box that will pop up. (They are really trying to ensure that you stay in spec here!)
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Shrink to fit:
We now need to work some magic on our oversized VIDEO_TS folder that has just been created, as you will not be able to burn this to a standard blank DVD disk as it will be too large.
Quit from TMPGEnc DVD Author, and load up DVD Shrink. This wonderful application will do everything we need.
First, click "Open Files" on the tool bar at the top, and locate your new oversized VIDEO_TS directory.
DVD Shrink will analyze the folder and ensure that everything is good to work on. Once this is complete, you will be left with the main DVD Shrink window.
DVD Shrink is clever enough to realise that your DVD won't fit a blank as standard, and has already rejigged the compression level for you, as shown on the zoomed in image:
Now that we know it's going to fit, we can simply tell DVD Shrink to create a new VIDEO_TS directory with the right sizes. Just click on "Backup!" across the top, select your desired location and click OK.
After a wait of 1/2 hour or so, you will have a VIDEO_TS directory ready to burn onto a blank, that will fit properly.
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