Compressing large video files on to a dvd

On a video DVD? For playing in a DVD player, or a DVD-ROM?

Also, how long is the video? File size doesn't tell us anything.

You need to be more precise about what you want....

Do you want to make a DVD they can play on their computer, or simply use DVD as the transport media to get a large file from your computer to their so they can do something with the file on their computer (i.e. edit etc) ?

If you want to make a playable DVD use 90 minutes Best.

If you want to compress the file to make is small enough to fit on 'as a file' then you have a couple of options, but try h.264 as the codec and see how small you can make it.

However, when you make your DVD take care with the file system you use because older file systems (ISO9660 and UDF 1.02) have some file size limitations.

As pointed out, if you want a video DVD, then use 90 Minutes Best, and you will want to compress your audio to an AC3 file. Then you have to bring both into DVD SP to actually author a disc. You cannot just files on a disc to create a video DVD.

If you want to send files to someone else so they can edit the video, then you do not want to compress the video at all. If you compress the files, then someone edits it and then compresses again (to DVD, web, etc.) then the video will be double compressed. This always results in the loss of quality. Never compress video you want to edit, only compress the final output.

That being said your file will not fit on a DVD. Two choices, use a portable hard drive, or use Toast to automatically segment the video onto as many discs as needed. The person who you give the discs to (Mac or PC) can then re-combine the segments on their hard drive using a program that is automatically burned onto the discs.