what do you encode at for dvd? did I get a deal or scammed?

[nickerous]

I caved in and bought a dvd+r writer last night. I did a few test captures and encoded them with TMPGEnc using the NTSC dvd specs. One that I did was at 8000kbps under VBR. It looked pretty good. I was hoping for better quality on bright scenes, but wasn't TOO bad (dark scenes were excellent). The second I did was at 4500kbps under VBR and I can't tell much of a difference between the two. What do you guys normally encode to? I'm hoping to get 6, 20-min episodes on 1 disc, but I don't want to sacrifice quality to get there.

Oh yeah. I bought the HP 300e at OfficeMax for $249. Their ad showed the 200e, but it is for the 200 or the 300e. Also got a $70 gift card rebate offer. All told, I spent $270 for the burner and a 5-pack of Memorex +r (they were on sale for 12.99). Not too bad for an external, eh?........or did I get taken for a ride?

[housepig]

I usually encode between 6000 and 8000, and the material looks great.

if it's less than 1 hour for a movie, I'll encode at CBR 8000, if it's more than an hour, I'll do VBR between 6 and 8K, depending on the final filesize.

I also do the audio encoding in Mpeg Layer 2, 224khz. If you're having size issues, you might try that rather than PCM audio.

[SLK001]

You can easily fit 6 20min eps on one DVD. Wanting more quality? I suspect that you are recording from tape (?) - if so, then the quality will be limited by your source. Also, your capture resolution will show in your quality, but you don't say what you have capped at.

My 720x480 encodes at 8Mbps would be almost indistinguishable from the original (as I suspect yours are, too).

Not sure that I agree with your DVD+R purchase, but that is an argument for another era (just search the forum).

I don't know how Memorex holds up in the DVD+R world, but for DVD-R, it pretty much sucks, quality wise (notice that it is NOT a certified media brand). But this subject too, is an argument for another era (again, just search the forum).

[energy80s]

If I'm encoding for full D1 DVD quality I use CQ85 at 8000max 4000 min. This gives a VBR on most scenes of around 6500 which will be fine. If I'm doing 1/2 D1 I half these figures and CQ it at 90.

As for Memorex discs, well, they are a Portugese company (Memtech) and I never trusted their VHS tapes so I would doubt if their DVDR's are anything to write home about!