I prefer to re-encode to h264 & dts/ac3 in an .mkv containner, even at 3 hrs long and 1080p I can keep them down to about 12gb, usually DVD9 size (8.0GB thereabouts) and DVD5 size (4.37GB) for 720p. It can take up to 16hours though to do this with a dual core but I just let it run overnight.
wow.. thats a size that I won't mind (what do you use to re-encode with?)
Vff
Canada