Can DVD-R(W) do multiple bitrates?

[Xesdeeni]

A friend just got a DVD-R(W) burner and I was planning on getting a DVD-RW disc and providing him with some test files on CD. However, some of the DVD+RW propoganda says that DVD-R(W) drives can't do multiple bitrates. Now, I have no idea how the media cares about the bitrate, but I was planning on providing clips with different bit rates, resolutions, etc. and then testing the results in my DVD-Video player. All of this is obviously in anticipation of getting a DVD burner of my very own.

Anyway, is there some issue with DVD-R(W) drives and multiple bitrates?

Xesdeeni

[Gary]

I have burned multiple mpeg files, all with differing bitrates (VBR, different avg's in order to size the files, some were CBR) to DVD-R and it played without a problem. I authored using DVDit so I don't know if it adjusts anything in the final VOB files or not, but as the size did not change I would assume not.

[Xesdeeni]

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense, so I looked back at http://www.licensing.philips.com/information/dvdrw/documents161.html and I think I finally have this figured out.

What they are talking about is _REAL_TIME_ recording. Obviously if you are recording with VBR and the scene goes black, the bit rate goes down to almost nothing. The deal is that if you are recording real-time and your recorder can't slow down (which I guess none can), you need bits to put on your DVD-R(W). DVD+RW just put in a way to stop the writing completely until enough data is available to start up again, and allows resyncing with what's already been written.

But for those of us editing our home videos and such, this doesn't mean anything.

Xesdeeni