Free DVD Creation Software that offers Long-play?

16th Jul 2007 05:14 #1

Member

Hi
Does anyone know of a free DVD software that allows me to make DVDs and set it too short-play, regular-play, long-play and extra-long play?

I use Sonic MyDVD 5.3 and it doesn't allow me to do this so its always like it's on short-play and I can't get a lot on the DVD.

Thanks in advance.

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16th Jul 2007 05:29 #2

fk

Member

I think there is no free DVD burner.

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16th Jul 2007 06:48 #3

AlanHK

Member

I think you don't mean "burner", which is hardware, but encoding software.

There are plenty of free encoders that let you set any rate you like.

I use HCEnc, for instance.

Plenty of guides here on how to use that and similar.

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16th Jul 2007 09:24 #4

guns1inger

Always Watching

GUIForDVDAuthor can then be used to author the disc.

Frankly, terms such as short play, regular play, long play etc are meaningless outside of standalone DVD Recorders, and even then they are iffy.

The key to the solution lies in bitrate, and after a certain running time, resolution.

Bitrate X Running Time = Size. Size is a constant - you know how much you can fit on a disc. Feed the running time into a bitrate calculator, and it will tell you the bitrate you need to use to fit that length into the space available.

Resolution comes into play when the bitrate starts to drop. Resolution can be lowered to compensate for the reduction in data being available for the video. Good DVD Recorders do this as well.

With a good encoder and right content, you can possibly stretch out to three hours at full D1 resolution (720 x 576 in PAL land). After that you should consider half-D1 up to around 5 hours, and after that, VCD resolution.

HCEnc is a good quality, free encoder that excels at lower bitrate encoding. It takes a little work to learn, as it requires some avisynth scripting to load the video. FitCD can help you here by writing the script for you.

After you have encoded your video, GUIForDVDAuthor can be used to author the DVD structure, and Imgburn is great for burning the results to disc.

Many people shy away from using separate tools because the process looks complicated. And when you start out, it can be. But it quickly becomes second nature, and the results are much higher than you will get from tools that just set arbitrary levels and hide the details from you, and the flexibility you get is well worth the little extra effort it takes.