How can I fit 2 hrs of quality footage on one single layer DVD-R

[pooty13901]

Hi all,

I really did my best to try and find this answer before posting because I know it has to be on this site somewhere. I have come up empty handed and am asking for help.

A while back I asked about fitting a 2 hour movie (self-made home produced movie) onto a single layer DVD. I had been using DL media but many customers had trouble with this in their players. I now have to sell my 2-2 1/4 movies on two seperate DVD-Rs to preserve any type of visual quality. Someone recommended DVD Shrink and I gave it a try. The resulting picture quality was visibly pixelated/jumpy to a point.

I am using Studio Plus 9 and burning with Nero. Are there any really good ways to fit this length of DVD onto one DVD-R so I can save on production costs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike Hammond

[Beavis]

All you can do is start with the cleanest source possible (DV, etc... whatever you have), then encode it (using 2-pass type VBR encoding) to the ideal target file size and see what you think.

[dphirschler]

Short answer: VBR

Long Answer: Use a quality encoder (my favorite is TMPEGenc). Use a 2-pass VBR encoding setting. Calculate the appropriate bitrates using a bitrate calc (there is a good one on this site). Consider reducing the audio bitrate if video suffers. Aside from that, shakey footage does not compress well. You might have to reduce your frame to 352x480 in order to get high enough bitrates to handle it.

Good luck.


Darryl

[Richard_G]

Around 2 hours is the norm for the stuff I produce and always fit it onto a single layer DVDR. As has been said already, 2 pass VBR (Variable Bit Rate) so you have the high bit rate when needed for fast motion and a much lower rate when not. A lot will depend on the quality of your original footage, I shoot DV using tripods so camera shake doesn't eat up the bitrate. Also, keep your audio down to a sensible bitrate too. If you are using LPCM you need a huge amount of space, use AC3 at 224kb instead.

[redwudz]

One other method I find useful is to make up a representative clip of your video from your source files, maybe 5 minutes. Then you can try some different encoders and settings and see what you can tolerate for quality.

This can save a lot of time and disappointment instead of waiting till a long encode is finished and it doesn't have what you want for quality. The source quality is very important. If it's high quality in the first place, it can stand a little more compression without loosing too much quality

[vhelp]

A while back I asked about fitting a 2 hour movie (self-made home produced movie) onto a single layer DVD.

By this, I take it that you mean, you shot the footage with a video camera
of some sort ??

pooty1390,

I know you've heard (read) this many of times, but..

The basic problem to this scenario is like this.. When you shoot footage
with a camera (dv) your video will be all interlaced. Every frame is a
2-field sequence, where each field is a separate image or picture.

When you move around with your cam in up/down/left/right motion, this ultimately
becomes a complex issue with MPEG. All this is motion -- jittery, mostly.
MPEG is basically Motion Pictures, and the algorithem associated with the
compression for these (fields) of Motion Pictures will basically starv for
bitrate when encoded too low. And, you mileage will vary from software
MPEG Encoder to encoder.

I like to suggest a minimum of 9000 bitrate, using CBR, to reach as much
of the video's detail as posible and without (or, minimum) pixelation in
return. And, the more you use your ARM as the Tripod, the worse your results.

I'm not sure how you went about footaging a movie, but if I could make a
eye-opening suggestion to you, I would like for you to consider taking
your video camera and situate it so that it stands in a Tripod, and you
set it up for 1 hour's video footage. Let me give you an example..

If you can, place your video camera where there is trafic, or if that is
not convinient, how about setting it on a table, at say, McDonalds, and
let it take video for an hour. Maybe take footage of the children playing
in the play area or something. These are just examples of the scenario.

Then, take this footage and process it to MPEG. And, review the results.
You should have virtually ZERO pixelation if you used a high enough bitrate,
for instance, 9000 bitrate with CBR. You could vary the bitrate algorithem
with a VBR, if you like. --You'll think you were Hollywood.

That's how I felt when I first did this test for myself just to see if I
could get any better. I performed this test some 3+ years ago, when I was
getting bad results as you are claiming. That opened my eyes wider than
I could normally open them. Ok. I'm exagerating here a bit.

The purpose of this test is to help you to realize that ARMing your camera
during footaging is not a good idea, even if you have no other alternative.
Once you've run this test, and reviewed the results, and agreed, with your-
self, that the results are far better than using your ARM as a tripod, you
will probably conclude that your further video'ing around will entail some
form of Tripod.

Oh, and fwiw, don't bother with those telescoping one-leg type tripod.
They are bad, bad, bad. I can't tell you how much my $24 bucks was waisted
on -that- contraption.

Ok. So, you have footage already. That's a done, deal. What can you do
with it now, you may be asking. Probably not much. But..

How about just using a very high bitrate. DVD max's at 9.8Kbps, so why
not try 9000 and using CBR. There I go again.. suggesting this. But at
least try it, and see what you make of it.

The next suggestion, I would consider trying -other- software MPEG Encoders.
And, using the suggestion above, and of those that have already suggested.
Try not to stay with one software suite, alone. They may do you good in
some instance, but can reck havic, in others.

Cheers, and good luck.

-vhelp 4203

[DereX888]

...all above tips from other colleagues are fine, except when encoding in VBR just do more passes than 2.
On a 2hr-long video filesize will significantly drop with 4-pass VBR, while quality will stay virtually the same when using good encoder.
The more passes, the better allocation of bitrate is done by your encoder (high-motion scenes get higher bitrate, low motion scenes get lower bitrate, as needed)
Use any available in Tools section calculator to determine your bitrate settings for the filesize you will need (if you won't have any menus on your DVD you can go for entire disc capacity), set maximum video bitrate at ~9000kbps (just match it with your audio bitrate - both bitrates combined cannot exceed DVD's maximum allowed stream bitrate, thats all)



i.e.:

if you have exactly 2hrs long footage (for simple DVD without any menus etc)
set your encoder(s) to:
audio = 224kbps
video = 4 passes, VBR (average=4740kbps, max=9340kbps)


PS
Personally I always do 6-pass VBR, and 8-passes on very high-motion videos (i.e. home videos shot without use of tripod, such as the footage shot from your hip/arm those never have constant picture and their picture is constantly "swimming" as I call it, even if you don't see it).
and
I'd obviously keep encoding interlaced for interlaced source...

I like to suggest a minimum of 9000 bitrate, using CBR, to reach as much
of the video's detail as posible and without (or, minimum) pixelation in
return

-vhelp 4203

I don't know how can you fit 2hrs long video at this bitrate using CBR?

[classfour]

author (I use TDA).

Shrink it with DVDRebuilder PRO (use 3 pass or greater CCE).

I doubt you can see the difference.

[vhelp]

I like to suggest a minimum of 9000 bitrate, using CBR, to reach as much
of the video's detail as posible and without (or, minimum) pixelation in
return

I don't know how can you fit 2hrs long video at this bitrate using CBR?

Oops. My goof. I made a mistake. I was thinking 1hr per disk. Sorry to
anyone following.

-vhelp 4206