Why do my encoded files become 8X larger

[Jacks433]

I have numerous video files on my hard drive which are "windows media audio/video file" format. When i encode them to mpeg3 so i can put them on a DVD they increase to a huge size . eg a 75 meg "windows media audio/video file" becones a 593 meg mpeg 3 file. Is there any way i can keep the encoded file close to the same size as the original???.

BTW i'm using "Sonic My DVD" to encode.

Any help would be appreciated

[adc03]

Are you sure what you are converting to...??? MPEG3....Isn't that suppose to be just audio...like in MP3...?

Most conversions are to MPEG1 or MPEG2 for authoring to DVD's. I have converted MPEG files to wma and the compression is indeed very great. A 9Mb mpeg file results in a 9Kb wma file at times...so the files sizes you are producing are likely correct.

[Luci]

are you sure it's mpeg3???haven't heard of it!!!(only mpeg1-2-4!!!)well i think you mean mpeg 2(dvd format).well that's because you convert the avi's/mpeg or whatever to dvd mpeg2 and the resolution increases(better quality)

better quality/Big outpout file (In MB)
lower quality/small outpout file(In MB)