Any way to compress an 18GB m2v file to fit 4GB DVD?

The simple answer is No, you can not fit 18GB of material on a DVD.

In a nut shell - a standard single layer DVD-5 disk will hold ~ 4.5 GB of data which effectively translates to ~2 hrs of video + ac3 audio at reasonable bit rates. You can hold more time but you have to reduce the bit rate of the video so low, the image quality will likely decrease to a level most may find problematic.

A dual layer DVD-9 disk will hold ~double the material of a DVD-5.

I have not read your other threads but, from this one, it appears you lack a fundamental understanding of how DVDs work. I'd suggest you start the the DVDSP Manual and read through all the basic background information as well as the getting started chapters. It is well written and very informative.

x

How long is the movie? Are you using Compressor to encode the MPEG-2?

Forget it. The best you can hope for is making two dual layer discs, and then it's going to be really close if it will fit.

A DVD-Recorder when pushed will record 8 hrs on a DVD-5. It looks like junk. Heck, 4hrs looks like junk.

You'll need the total encoded project size to be less than 4.5GB if stuffing this thing on a DVD-5 or less than 9GB if on a dual layer. Do the bit rate calculations.

Given the level of compression, it will likely take much longer than your previous effort.

edit - or purchase Roxio's Popcorn ($50) and use it's "fit to DVD" function. No idea if this can crunch 18GB down to 4.5GB, but it will recompress a dual layer to fit on a single layer.

x

Or create two or more dvds by dividing your timeline at a place where a break would work, maybe a title to say "Insert disk two" or something like that. Obviously your disks would be labeled 1, 2, and so on.

Not the most glamorous, but maybe that could work. Or how about blue-ray? But then you'd need to show stuff on a BR player.

Jonathan