Advice sought on DVD encoding Time vs Quality

[tapetrade]

I'm going to pick up the Pioneer A03 this week , but wanted to get the settings out of the way first. So far this is what I've come up with.


Setup
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WinXP
AMD XP1700+
512 DDR

Hauppage WinTV-GO
W2k311 drivers

Capture direct from DirecTV, using Virtual Dub.

Huffyuv 2.1.1 ->best quality settings
640x480 resolution
384/kbits 48/khz
24-bit RGB color
29.970 FPS

(Only about 1 lossed frame per 12000.)

I then filter the file with Virtual Dub using De-interlace (Blend), Sharpen by 20, and resize ->precise bicubic (.075) to 720x480

The settings to remove audio video sync problems are, Audio & Video in Full Processing mode and under Video->Frame Rate I select Change so video and audio durations match.

When it's finished I FrameServe to CCE 2.50 and use TMPEnc 2.50 Simple Multiplex (MPEG-2) Program (VBR) to join. According to Ulead DVD Movie Factory the files turn out to be perfect DVD spec, ready to burn.

Using this it looks like I'll only get 90min per DVD-R with CBR 6396 as the bitrate. The quality is good but I was wondering if there wasn't a better way to encode 120 or more min per DVD-R with quality being the most important factor. Will the new double-sided DVD-R's work with the Pioneer, and if so when will they be available?

If anyone with a similar setup has any ideas or suggestions on Quality vs. Length or Filter use I would greatly appreciate it. 8)

[googlioboy]

First, download the newest version of TMPGenc from the website. The new version has a bitrate scale that tells you how much of a 4.9Gb disc you fill up, depending on the bitrate you will be using. I've recorded an entire 2 hour movie on one single-sided disc at 3000kbs that played on both my Pioneer DV-434 and my RCA portable. Granted, the picture quality is not as good as a higher bitrate, but it's liveable. Then go to www.cd-recordable.com. They have good deals on low-priced single-sided and double-sided blank DVD media. You'll have to remember also, that the authoring program that comes with the Pioneer drive makes you make a 'first play' menu that the dvd player keys on that tells it that it can play the disc you create--you can't just convert the files to MPEG2 and burn them on the disc and expect it to play on your home dvd player. You have to use the authoring program. It's a whole new technology to learn, but I hope I have cleared up some of the problems for you. This forum has been of immense help to me in the same field. Good luck!