[ale] Lost in twisty maze of 'mencoder' options

[John Mills]

ALErs -

I captured a VHS tape to am MPEG file and would now like to record it to 
DVD. The raw MPEG file size is 3.9 GBy, which I would expect to fit on a 
generic DVD, but the DVD recorder that I have says 'not enough space'. I 
could compress it with dvdsquash: runs great under 'crossover', but won't 
recognize an MPEG file.

I understand 'mencoder' could create the input for 'dvdauthor', but I have 
no idea what options to provide.

Maybe I'm making this too hard: what I want to get is a DVD I can drop in 
a typical player and show, not trying for high production values here. 
Alternative approaches welcomed.

'mplayer' provides the following when it plays my file:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO:  MPEG2  720x480  (aspect 2)  29.970 fps  9000.0 kbps (1125.0 
kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 224.0 kbit/14.58% (ratio: 28000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
AO: [oss] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 720x480 => 720x540 Planar YV12
...