Importing PPro1.5 to Ae7 to Encore 2.0

Hi: I hope this is the right place for my question. I have read the faq and done
searches for other postings but cannot find what I am looking for. Please help.

I have a 70 min video I made in PPro 1.5 which is NTSC 720x480 29fps. I have
been exporting it as a AVI file from PPro 1.5 to AE7, where I apply some
effects. I then export it as a lossless AVI, but the file is 5x what I started
with from PPro 1.5 I read in previous posts that this is normal. And I gather
that you then import these huge lossless files into Encore for building a DVD
with automatic transcode.

I don't have big enough drives to support doing this for the entire project.
What other options do I have?

Can someone suggest a better workflow from PPro1.5 to AE7 to Encore 2, that will
keep quality for output, but not max out my storage?

What should my output files be along the way, from PPro to AE to Encore? My end
product is a specialty sports/hobby DVD for resale.

I've tried exporting whole AVI movie from PPro1.5 to AE7, then out as lossless
AVI.
and
I've tried exporeting PPro project to AE7, then out as lossless AVI (they call
this onlining, I think).

I can't tell whats what. And I have several 200-300g drives with footage, comps,
etc, etc...and still I have no more room.

Along those same lines--but perhaps another topic:

I want to get the longest movie on a DVD-5 with decent quality. But I am stuck
in my budget. Right now I am estimating I can fit maybe 73 minutes, but I'd like
to get closer to 90 minutes. I read of people doing a alot more than 70
minutes---how? In my whole post production process, I constantly export in a AVI
lossless format, should I be compressing somewhere? is so what codec, how?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks