How do the pros 'prepare' a DVD

[holistic]

Hi all

Well i just got my DVD burner and i now want to make a DVD's of my home Hi-8 and miniDV.

What is the correct way to prepare the MPEG2 files?

Should i encode 4.3Gb (is this correct 4.7 = ` 4300Mb) MPEG2 files and let the authoring program split them into 1Gb vob's or can i continue with my old CD method and make 700Mb MPEG2 files.

Will the DVD authoring program let me 'import' 700Mb MPEG2's from my old CD's and leave them as 700mb or will it try to merge them into 1gb files?
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[bugster]

If it is a single 'movie', encode to a single, large, mpeg file. The DVD authoring software will then generate the 1Gb .VOB file for you (plus the other stuff DVD requires).

As far as your 2ns questions is concerned, that depends on the authoring program and the spec of the mpeg's. If they are SVCD compliant, they are not DVD compliant, but can still be authored to DVD with a little trickery. Look in the authoring guides for help on putting SVCD on to DVD, or look up a tool called SVCD2DVDMPG, it even has its own forum on this site.

[holistic]

tx Bugster

FYI :: the 700Mb files are NOT svcd they are simple 720*480 DVD compliant mpeg2's. I did them this way with intentions of one day putting to DVD.

What i was/am not sure of is if they will be put on the DVD as 6*700Mb vob's or "merged" to 4 * 1Gb and a 200Mb file.

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[Duchess]

If you use something like TMPGEnc Author it will keep them as 700Mb files and allow you to add a menu system so you can choose which of the files you want to view. OK the menuing options are pretty basic but probably quite adequate for what you want to do. After you've set it up how you want it, the software will generate all the files in the correct format for a DVD. If the files are DVD compliant it shouldn't take very long to do that, then you can just burn them using Nero or similar.

[holistic]

........if you use something like TMPGEnc Author it will keep them as 700Mb files and allow you to add a menu system

Perfect - thats what i wanted to hear - no resampling or joining of files.


tx Duchess

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