How much more data does authoring add?

[WolfPac_Ite]

I was using TMPGEnc DVD Author, and for every track I add, it adds 9-16MB to the total file size. Is that normal? Does an extra track really need that much more space, or is it just using more then necessary for a reason? Do different authoring programs have different amounts they add per track?

Making a DVD with 13 different tracks (13 episodes of a show) is going to take up quite a bit more then I had expected. :\

Thanks for any help.

[guns1inger]

What sort of menus are you creating ?

[WolfPac_Ite]

Just the basics. One single picture for the backgrounds, no music, a top menu with the tracks selection and then seperate chapter menus with about 8 chapter points with pictures for each track. Last I checked on a test, it added 12 megabytes per 362 MB audio/video file track (330-Video/31.6-Audio).

[borax]

(330-Video/31.6-Audio).

Ok, for elementary streams, the multiplex overhead adds the most. The menus itself are probably just ~0.5-1 MB. Multiplexing overhead for DVDs can roughly be calculated. See:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=278684

[WolfPac_Ite]

Thanks! That was indeed the situation.

[daamon]

Ok, for elementary streams, the multiplex overhead adds the most. The menus itself are probably just ~0.5-1 MB. Multiplexing overhead for DVDs can roughly be calculated. See:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=278684

Hmmm... An interesting little topic this. I read the link you quoted, and have a question:

Is this overhead removed if your source is a System Stream (i.e. MPG) rather than Elementary (audio.mp2/ac3 and video.m2v)? Or is it built into the final size of the MPG file?

If it's the latter, I guess at least you know before you author what the overhead is and only need to factor in the menu sizes.

[TJohns]

14 MB sounds like the 15 sec motion menu I get in TDA - one for the main menu, and a chapter selection menu for each track. Is this extra space in the *_0.VOB files?

Trev

[borax]

@daamon
MPG is a container with some degrees of 'freedom' about the contents. Depending on the multiplexing engine that produced the particular mpg file, the size of the mpg may have the same size as the final vob file, but it also may have just a few bytes more as the total of the elementary streams. It even may have more bytes as the vob file (very unlikely but possible)...
For a particular application (simple multiplexer like mplex, imago, bbmpeg; capturing software like DVBViewer, progdvb or encoders like tmpgenc...) it should be possile to deduct some fomula to calculate the size for the resulting vob, but there is no possibility to have a simple fomula for all kinds of mpeg files.

[daamon]

@ borax: Thanks for the info. 99% of the time I work with DV AVI from a camcorder and encode to MPEG2 for DVD. I used to use TMPGEnc, but now I've switched to CCE. I'm considering taking a look at Canopus Procoder.

Usually, MP2 audio is OK so I go for a System Stream output, but sometimes I use WAV or AC3 and so only need an elementary video stream.