Avidemux Target Size Problems

[FrozenInferno]

So I'm using Avidemux to convert an AVC MKV file into an mpeg2 to burn it on to a DVD. Problem is though, it seems to ignore the target video size I set in the configuration settings. I used the calculator and had it at 3.5 GB, but every time it comes out to around 2.99 GB.

I checked the Avidemux faq and it said it could just mean that it's saturated and that it's at the highest quality it can acheive. But it said to confirm this, you can open the resulting file in Avidemux and see if the frame type is (02), meaning it's at the lowest quantizer/highest quality. Well it's at (04) so that doesn't seem to be the case.

Thoughts?

[Baldrick]

How long is the clip? Maybe it's already the highest possible bitrate for dvd.
How does it look?

Or use avstodvd with hcenc instead. The best mpeg2 encoder.

[dylz]

It's just a guess but if you use 2pass target size video with vbr audio output the target size wont be accurate so try cbr audio.

[FrozenInferno]

The duration is about 2.5 hours and the audio is cbr according to MediaInfo.

Maybe it's already the highest possible bitrate for dvd.

If that's the case, why are the frames at (04) instead of (02)?

[dylz]

Avidemux could be reading the length wrong, have you compared mediainfo results with the avidemux calculator ?
If it comes to it just increase the bitrate yourself.

[FrozenInferno]

I've done that too and it seems to ignore the bitrate all together. I tried manually setting the minimum bitrate to what the calculator gave me for a DVD-5 Mpeg with 640 kbps audio, and it still ended up the same.

[poisondeathray]

640kbps audio is "illegal" btw , although some DVD players can play it

Try another program , avs2dvd , which uses a better mpeg2 encoder anyway (hcenc) . Avidemux uses ffmpeg based mpeg2 encoding (lower quality)

[FrozenInferno]

640kbps audio is "illegal" btw , although some DVD players can play it

Is it? What's the max for most players?

Try another program , avs2dvd , which uses a better mpeg2 encoder anyway (hcenc) . Avidemux uses ffmpeg based mpeg2 encoding (lower quality)

I'll try it. Is it the preferred program for mpeg2 encoding?

[poisondeathray]

640kbps audio is "illegal" btw , although some DVD players can play it

Is it? What's the max for most players?

Max for dvd spec is 448kb/s AC3

PCM is allowed (uncompressed) 1536kb/s

Try another program , avs2dvd , which uses a better mpeg2 encoder anyway (hcenc) . Avidemux uses ffmpeg based mpeg2 encoding (lower quality)

I'll try it. Is it the preferred program for mpeg2 encoding?

It's probably one of the better easy-to-use freeware programs for encoding & authoring . If you authored your own dvd's , fancy motion menus, etc.. then you would need other programs. I would argue CCE gives slightly better results for MPEG2 encoding , but HCEnc is probably the best free MPEG2 encoder . There is no question ffmpeg MPEG2 encoding yields worse results

[FrozenInferno]

Cool, I'll check back in with how it went. Just curious, have you had any experience with FAVC? It also offers HCEnc and seems pretty popular.

[poisondeathray]

It isn't updated as frequently as avs2dvd (last update was over 2 years ago) , but it's certainly another option