Bigger in my time

[MrJuggles]

Hi everyone
I know my area is problematic as I'm working with an iMac, but I'm sure a few years ago when I tinkered with the whole 'backing up my collection' thing I could get more on one DVD.
As far as I recall (and this may be a poor memory) I thought I could remember getting about 4 episodes of a TV series onto one DVD.
Now I can fit two at best. I did start using the idvd that comes with the mac but that insisted on adding so much fluff and interactive all singing all dancing menus on it that it bugged me that it may be using up too much space. So I bought I skysoft DVD burner that works brilliant for me. A very simple point and click programme that, should I want to do some under the hood shenanigans I could.
I actually wondered if I converted the .avi to a smaller file type I might be able to get more on a DVD, but still I only get about two episodes, and sometimes no film at all.
If anyone has any basic advice on where I could start reading/tinkering then I'd appreciate it.

[manono]

Welcome to the forum.

Assuming you're talking about converting these AVI sources to DVDs (with IFOs, BUPs, and VOBs), the number of episodes you can fit on a DVD is entirely dependent on the bitrate. You can fit 6, 8, 10, or more. Of course, they might not look so good if you try and stuff too many onto a DVD5.

You're asking about converting an AVI first to a smaller size before then converting it to DVD? A bad idea.

Very few people at this forum use Macs. Anyone using a Mac for video work of the type you're asking about is crippled as most of the good programs are only available for Windows-based machines. My suggestion is to ask in the Mac forum at Videohelp.com. Theirs is much more active.

[MrJuggles]

Yeh, I did read the bit about someone else having a mac on another forum and the advice was much the same. Though I will go read up on the things you said(as in teach myself some more) I do have a decent pc laptop who's graphic chip went and there's a youtube clip on how to fix it, I guess I need to get on that.
Thanks for the pointers anyway, I'll keep reading.