How can I compress .mov files to fit on DVD-Rs on Mac OS X?

Question

I'm running Mac OS X 10.6 and have a few large .mov files (around 20-30GB each) that I would like to burn onto separate data DVD-Rs. The resolution of the videos is 960x540 and the duration ranges from about 2h13m to 2h45m.

I've never compressed and burned video files before so I'm looking for recommendations for a program (preferably free) that can help me do this easily. Any ideas?

Solution

My suggestion would be to try ffmpeg, probably the most powerful en/decoder library available. Normally, you'd have to compile it on OS X yourself, but there's a slightly older prebuilt version called ffmpegX, which bundles the ffmpeg libraries into a GUI application, which is of course free.

• Download that (here's the direct download link) and install it.
• After opening it for the first time, it asks you to install additional libraries. You can do that, but you don't need to.
• Drop the MOV file into the field where it says "Drop here"
• Choose an appropriate output codec. In order to retain the best quality, go for h.264 x264. Also change the output file name to .mp4.

• Now go to the second tab ("Video") and enter your target file size or select 1 DVD (4GB). Then click "Rate" to calculate the bit rate necessary for fitting the newly encoded file to the medium you specified before. _{Note that my numbers are off, because I only used a 0:30 min test file}

• Then hit "Encode"

---

A few remarks:

• I can't promise it works, but ffmpeg should be able to handle everything. Another note: Handbrake also uses libavcodec which is bundled into ffmpeg, so it should have been able to decode your MOV files as well.
• It might be that your MOV files are encoded with some codec that ffmpeg will not understand, in that case we might have to dig deeper.

Comments

[tvguide1234]

Ah PERFECT! I'll give this a go and update you on how it went. Thanks!

[tvguide1234]

Ok so I installed Handbrake and VLC. However when I import the .mov file in Handbrake it says "Scanning title 1 of 1" for a few minutes before it says "No Valid Source Found". The .mov file is saved on an external drive connected through firewire if it makes a difference. I checked the "Activity Window" and it has several entries of "scan: could not get a decoded picture" after "scan: decoding previews for title 1"

[Joseph Redfern]

Hmm... I'm not sure if Handbrake supports the encoding of your MOV file (since MOV is a container, and not an actual file format...). Sorry about that. Another fairly popular program seems to be Squared5 - never used it, but it might be worth a go! squared5.com

[slhck]

@tvguide1234 Maybe try to install Perian, doesn't hurt. Handbrake should be able to do what you want.

[tvguide1234]

@Joseph I tried squared5 and it works to convert the files but I don't see any option to set the target file size. Since the files are 20-30GB and take a while to encode, I can't do this through trial and error.

[tvguide1234]

@slhck I feel like Handbrake is exactly what I need but it won't read the file. Is there something special besides installation that I need to do in order to get VLC and Handbrake to work together?