ts file needs to fit on a dvd

[zxt]

I recorded a movie last night that is 2 and 1/2 hours in length.
I get HD with an over the air antenna in the US.
I am using the latest NPVR and WnXP SP3.
The ts file for the movie is 13 gig.
I need this file to fit on a 4.7 gig DVD+RW.
I am assuming that a ts file will play directly in a dvd player.
In the good old days of analog tv channels I could record up to 6 hours on a single dvd with a stand alone dvd recorder/player.
Is their a setting in NPVR somewhere that will accomplish this? If their is I am not seeing it.
Is their free software that will shrink this ts file?
Am I on the wrong track altogether?

[Reddwarf]

When you say good old days you are not talking about HD! It takes A LOT more space than SD, just think about it, if you double the picture size in both width and height you get four times as much data per colour, and full HD is even bigger. Now, you won't be able to play a TS file directly on a standard dvd-player, but there are free software that can shrink the size of it, and other free software that can make a dvd of it. But honestly, it's a mess, I'v been looking around to do just that for some time, and found that the easyest way of doing it is to buy a licence for ConvertXtoDVD. It costs a few bucks, but it does all in one step very nicely.

[sub]

NPVR has no control over the size of this. When it comes to digital, the broadcaster sets the bitrate and resolution, which ultimately dictates the size of the file you'll end up with when recording.

[longjohn119]

You have two options

Re-encode to a lower resolution using an Mpeg or .H264 codec

Use a medium that fits HD like a Blue Ray or HD-DVD burner.

Sometimes you can make the files smaller using a 'Stream Snipper' to get rid of everything you don't really need (like subtitles/closed captioning)

There are a couple of good freeware programs for editing HDTV streams

HDTV2DVD

HDTV2MPEG2

ImgBurn - a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application

[wtg]

To convert the HD .ts file to standard DVD resolution and fit it on a disk, the HDTV2DVD program mentioned above works very well.

[peter_h]

If you want maximum image quality, and it doesn't have to play on a "standard" DVD player (i.e. Mpeg2 in VOB files), check out the brilliant free Handbrake converter at http://handbrake.fr/
I have all sorts of problems converting h264+HE-AAC .TS files in other programs, but Handbrake handles it better than others, in my experience. Handbrake allows me to convert to h264 on a lower quality setting and shrink files significantly with little loss in perceptible quality. And it allows me to tweak the settings to match my playback devices, e.g. My transcoded SD-resolution h.264 files only consume 50% of the CPU on a PIII 600Mhz laptop when played using VLC 1.0.2 (with a few tweaks to the settings in VLC)... so they are good for XBox1 too!
If you're interested, I can post my Handbrake & VLC settings. Please ask.

[zxt]

Thanks everyone for the responses!
I used HDTV2DVD to shrink the .ts file and convert it to files I could burn on to a DVD for use in a standard DVD player. Took about 3 hours for a 2 and 1/2 hour, 12.8 gig movie.
I then used IMGBurn to burn it to a DVD, which only took a couple minutes.
I have not scrutinized the whole movie, but it went very smooth and quality seemed quite good.

[Reddwarf]

Thanks everyone for the responses!
I used HDTV2DVD to shrink the .ts file and convert it to files I could burn on to a DVD for use in a standard DVD player. Took about 3 hours for a 2 and 1/2 hour, 12.8 gig movie.
I then used IMGBurn to burn it to a DVD, which only took a couple minutes.
I have not scrutinized the whole movie, but it went very smooth and quality seemed quite good.

Yeah, HD2DVD works, but I'v not found a version yet that can put more than one file on a dvd. ConvertXtoDvd can.

[zxt]

Yeah, HD2DVD works, but I'v not found a version yet that can put more than one file on a dvd. ConvertXtoDvd can.

I don't doubt that, but $50 is to much for me, and DVD's are cheap.