Shrink dvr-ms size without sacrificing quality?

[makryger]

My hard drive is almost full (again). I'm wondering what would be the best file format to convert to, from dvr-ms? I'd like a file format that is significantly smaller, but still retains the resolution and quality of the wtv/dvr-ms. I recently happened upon an mkv which was perfect quality, and it was only 700mb for a 42 minute show, rather than the normal 5GB. But I'm not sure if that's the standard way to go. I would still like to watch them in media center (via My Movies) with the retained dolby digital audio and subtitles. I don't really use an extender at the moment, but it would be nice if I could play it on one if I ever started using one.

[staknhalo]

You're going to lose quality no matter what. Removing commercials, removing unwanted audio tracks and then compression is the only thing you can do. Give Handbrake a go. Play with the settings until you find something you can live with.

[holidayboy]

Maybe convert to h.264 wtv (assuming you are recording mpeg-2 streams)?
You will lose quality whenever you convert between codecs but h.264 is a good trade off, you'll need to try a few bitrates to find a balance you're happy with.
I've not used dvrmstoolbox for a while as I've decided to give up shrinking files and just buy more (and more and more) storage, but I think it can do mpeg-2 to h.264 in the wtv container.
I'm fairly certain it does mkv to wtv and allows metadata to be inserted as well.