Mpeg2 Compliance and DVD Autoring.

[sambat]

DVD Flick has a setting that says it will copy mpeg2 compliant video.
Assume the source is compliant as to resolution, but it's over the capacity of a standard blank - DVD Flick now tells me to choose a lower bitrate - does this mean it's going to be re-encoded notwithstanding the 'copy mpeg-2' setting, or is their some mechanism similar to DVD Shrink that comes into play?

[usually_quiet]

DVD Flick has a setting that says it will copy mpeg2 compliant video.
Assume the source is compliant as to resolution, but it's over the capacity of a standard blank - DVD Flick now tells me to choose a lower bitrate - does this mean it's going to be re-encoded notwithstanding the 'copy mpeg-2' setting, or is their some mechanism similar to DVD Shrink that comes into play?

The video will be re-encoded. Your other options are to split the movie into 2 parts, or to buy some DVD+R DL blanks.

[sambat]

Instead of re-encoding, if I allowed DVD Flick to copy the video, accept the large DVD that it authored, and used DVD Shrink to get it down to standard size, would that give a better result (not sure how DVD Shrink actually does it's thing).

[usually_quiet]

Instead of re-encoding, if I allowed DVD Flick to copy the video, accept the large DVD that it authored, and used DVD Shrink to get it down to standard size, would that give a better result (not sure how DVD Shrink actually does it's thing).

DVD Shrink gives the option to remove the menus, unwanted features, audio tracks, and subtitles. If that isn't enough, or isn't possible, it re-encodes as best it can. (Excuse me, it transcodes, which apparently isn't very kind to MPEG-2 video that isn't encoded at a high bitrate.)

[Hoser Rob]

Actually I've found dvd shrink does a better job of reencoding than other similar programs I've tried. Just make sure you use the 2 pass mode ... they call it "deep analysis", I think. It's been a while.

It has sharpening and softening filters as well. The latter is very useful if the source is grainy.

The only other way I can think to do this, other than buying DVD-9 capacity discs, would be to use another encoder and reduce the bitrate. I haven't done this task myself but I'd try avidemux or xmedia recode.