Why can't I fit 2 hours of video on a DVD?

[steve84]

Hi

I recently bought the ADS Tech Instant DVD 2.0 capture device. I transferred a 2 hour VHS tape to mpeg 2 using the capture wizard software that comes with the unit. It asked me what quality I wanted and I answered DVD.

Ulead Video Studio 7 SE DVD & DVD Movie Factory SE DVD software also came with the unit. When I went to burn a DVD I could only fit 65 minutes of the video on to a DVD. I thought at DVD quality I could fit 2 hours worth of video on a DVD.

What did I do wrong or is this normal? I have over 20 2 hour 8mm tapes I want to convert and I thought I could fit one tape on each DVD

Thanks for any help

Steve

[Gees]

Use the bitrate calculator on this site (TOOLS) to determine what bitrate choose for what movie length.

No guessing or assumptions allowed. :c)

[wulf109]

You need a bitrate of 4500 to fit 2 hours on a DVD,but that assumes the is in ac3 or mp2 compressed format,if it's PCM the bitrate will need to be lower. Will your autoring program create a VIDEO_TS directory more than 4.37GB's. If it will you could compress that to 4.37 with DVD Shrink.

[steve84]

Use the bitrate calculator on this site (TOOLS) to determine what bitrate choose for what movie length.

No guessing or assumptions allowed. :c)

Thanks I will definitely check it out. Will the video quality suffer a lot if I put 2 hours instead of 1 on a dvd? These are home movies and I would like good quality

[Adder_78]

Will the video quality suffer a lot if I put 2 hours instead of 1 on a dvd?

It depends on the encoder used.

[omega_weapon]

It also depends on the audio compression. the LPCM audio is very big, uncompressed or something like that. Better use MPG-1 Layer II audio
so you can put higher video bitrate

[petec]

<steve84> An FYI...your source VHS tape (unless it's SVHS) is just above MPEG 1 quality...so just about anything you do to the DVD bitrate should preserve your video quality. Use AC3 though for your sound. 2 hours of AC3 sound should sit a little bit less than 200 megs...

[lordsmurf]

<your source VHS tape (unless it's SVHS) is just above MPEG 1 quality...so just about anything you do to the DVD bitrate should preserve your video quality.

Partially true.

VHS= 220x480 or 240x480

DVD can be 352x240 MPEG1 or MPEG2, which is lower.

352x480 at 4.0 will yield perfect results and up to 3 hours of video.

[Gees]

Better use MPG-1 Layer II audio

Use that only if you are in a PAL country. PCM or AC3 only for NTSC.

Personally, for precious home videos I would not place more than 90 minutes/DVD. But that's just my preference.

You can always try 2 minute segments with different settings as tests.

I always write the DVD to harddrive first - RW disc second, then finalise on a + or - R disc.

Good luck with it all.

[steve84]

Thanks everyone for the great help so far. This board is great.

One more question. The majority of the tapes I have left to convert are 8mm not VHS. Are the suggestions different for 8mm quality or is it pretty similar to VHS

Steve

[handyguy]

8mm & vhs are very low resolution.

I use a Panasonic e30 dvd recorder, I can get 4 hours of video on one dvd & the quality is great. Actually better than the original if its from 8mm or vhs.