I downloaded a 26-episode series in AVI format that I wanted to store on a 4.7gb data dvd, except i ended up about 3KB too big. >< I didn't want to compress all the files because then I'd have to decompress them onto the hard drive every time I wanted to watch the episodes on my computer, so i figured I could just cut out the ending theme and a couple adds using virtualdub mod and I'd be able to fit everything... The problem is, when I try to save my videos they always end up twice as large as the orignal file or larger... The first time I tried it, I actually around 9GB--until I realized I hadn't used any encoders or compressors... I forget which ones I tried next, but none ended up shortening the my file at all. I figured I'd ask you guys what I should try next, since I don't really do this video editing thing very much.
You don't really want to be re-encoding. You'll just lose more quality that way. With the price of DVDs being what it is, you just want to put 13 episodes on one DVD and the other 13 on another- keep the quality and save a lot of messing around.
