Question about SVCD to DVD-RW

[Panama]

Ok, I am trying to make SVCD's now that will easily fit on DVD-RW when they become cheaper. I understand that how to take a 44 min show (1 hour minus commercials) and maximize the bitrate for a typical 80min CD-R. But, how do I do a calculation that maximizes the bitrate for a determined # of shows on DVD-R (say 8 or 10 shows for example)?

Also, if I read all of this correctly, DVD supports SVCD, right? If that is the case, if the SVCD are correctly prepared now, slapping a number of SVCDs together with a menu on a DVD-R shouldn't be a problem. Is that the case?

[AntnyMD]

If you're making standard SVCD's, the SVCD spec for frame size is the ONLY standard framesize not included in the DVD spec. Your SVCD-quality MPEGs for later use on DVD should follow:

either 352x480/576 or 720x480/576; or 352x240/288; each at 29.97fps (or 23.976fps w/3:2 pulldown) for video
any reasonable bitrate for audio up to 384kbps, sampled at 48kHz ONLY for audio

So, in order to prepare for the coming of cheap DVD-R, make XSVCDs!

[Panama]

Thanks. So, if I understand that right, SVCD in standard 480x480 resolution (with any bitrate upto 2.6) is playable in most standalone DVDs.

However, if I want to make a DVD-R that will play in a standalone DVD player by combining SVCDs, I need to create XSVCDs, using one of the mentioned resolutions. Even though these XSVCD won't play on a standalone player, when combined and written to a DVD-R, they will play in a standard, standalone DVD player. Is that correct??

[AntnyMD]

Not exactly.

Issue 1: Standard or extended SVCDs are not widely supported in settop DVD players. Read the DVD Players page in this site for cross-compatability lists.

Issue 2: If your DVD player supports SVCD, chances are it will also support some form of extended SVCD. Again, read the DVD Players page in this site for XSVCD capabilities.

Issue 3: Using XSVCD MPEGs that are actually encoded to any part of the DVD spec re: resolutions and audio sample rate should work without problem in your DVD authoring software. I've only been able to test miniDVD's of this sort of thing in my DVD-ROM and in my Apex, and they played brilliantly.