[b33faroni]

I am burning my first DVD on IDVD, which is season 2 of Lost (files from itunes, each at 350 MB) When I create a menu in IDVD, I just put a background picture with scrolling text and then add the files. It tells me that each file is 1.4 GB when I look at project info. I tried both quality settings and that is the lowest one. Their in AVI format, I dont know if that affects anything. Can anyone explain this? Thanks

[mduell]

When you transcode from AVI (probably divx MPEG4 codec) to a DVD (MPEG2) you have to dramaticly increase the bitrate to maintain the quality (you always lose some quality, but you can keep the loss relatively small by using high bitrate MPEG2).
If you just want to be able to play the movies on another computer, burn a data DVD; if you want to be able to play in set top boxes you'll need to take the conversion size penalty.

I hope you're only exercising your fair use rights, and not commiting copyright infringement.

[b33faroni]

Thanks, yea Im just burning them to dvd so I don't have to keep all the space used up by them on my hdd. Never looked it up but figured since people can backup their dvds by burning them should be the same for purchased digital video

[Big Mac]

If you're interested, the MPAA prohibits the copying of DVDs for backup purposes. It does not believe in fair use rights. However, if you've purchased the episodes from iTunes, that's likely a different story because Apple does encourage backing up iTunes Music Store content.