dvd help for an idiot!

[crowboy]

being a newbie and only just started backing up my original dvds to vcd copies ,am now looking at a dvd burner due to the quality and length of time taken to make vcd copies. now,this is where i am lost. what length of movie can be copied to a 4.7gb dvd disc? when ripping to the hd to make vcd copies the file folders are much bigger than 4.7gb. with most of my dvds being 2-3hrs, can they be copied on to the one disc? not having much idea on the whole concept, i guess the only way im going to learn is to come out and sound like an idiot and hope someone can stop laughing long enough to put me straight. cheers--"crowboy"

[petefletch]

I'm certainly no expert, but you can pretty much compress anything to fit on a disc. If you remove a lot of the extra stuff plus language tracks and subtitles that you don't need, then you don't need to compress a movie as much (sometimes not at all).

The best place to start is probably
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/
Have a look at the dvd rip section and then there's links to heaps more info.

Have fun.

[andw]

Dvdshrink will do it all for you.

[snapper]

yes dvdshrink (www.dvdshrink.org) will do that job nicely.
If you have Nero burning rom installed it will even burn it to the disc for you.
Its very easy to use and it is freeware.