DVDit and Size of MPG

[deb]

Hi,

I'm trying to make my first dvd in DVDit using an mpg2 created in TMPGenc.

The avi file started out at 19 GB, so I set my size in TMPgenc to 3.95 GB and the final size was 3.85 GB (4,043,623). There was some problem, because the intro has stars shooting and twinkling, and in the mpg they're numbers and 0's. Not a big thing, the rest of the mpg looks good.

Anyway, I drag the mpg into the movie box and made some 2 menus (with the second including 9 chapters) but DVDit said the project was too big. So I removed the second menu and just had a screen with play. Still to big. I'd try just the movie, but it won't move on with just the movie (at least under my command).

Can somebody help me get going with some suggestions and advice? There seems to be less info here for DVD than for VCD.

Thanks,
Deb

[Gary]

Your project in DVDit is probably set for PCM audio, which will make the overall size too big. If you have the PE version of DVDit change the audio settings to use Dolby audio and you'll be fine. If you do not have the PE version, and want to use DVDit, you will need to re-encode to make the file smaller as the PCM audio is going to push you over the limits.

[deb]

Thanks for a reply, Gary. I have more to report, you can decide whether it's worse or better.

First, I messed with DVDit (which is PE) and decreased the quality from high to normal (from an 8.0 bit rate to 5.0). This left enough room on the DVD. Though what it would have looked like, I don't know. Then I started making the DVD with DVDit transcoding the avi file. (For some reason it just wouldn't calculate the room with the mpg file that I created in TMPGenc. I may have used improper settings in TMPGenc, though, because I was guessing at some things.)

Well it ran for a couple hours and then I got an error message "Build failed: unknown error (DVD err, -8)". I tried to find a troubleshooting or error code in the documentation, but no go. So I tried a second time and this time it failed more quickly than the first.

I wondered about the audio, but the tab for audio is greyed out in DVDit. I think it is PCM though, because I think I saw that when I was "editing" in Studio 7. (My editing consisted of taking two clips, cutting the ends of each and putting them together - then Studio 7 rendered them into one avi). There was no separate audio file in Studio 7 either, I think because I captured from a DV camcorder.

Help!! I'm not sure what to do now, but I'll try any suggestions you have. BTW, I have no problems with computer speed, RAM or hard disk space. Plus I am running XP.

Thanks again!
Deb

[Gary]

First, keep using the file encoded with TMPGEnc as it will be a much better quality than anything DVDit encodes.

Second, your error is typical of the great error messages with DVDit and would most likely mean that you have a button that is referencing something that was deleted (like you removed a chapter point or a video file) but the button is still there pointing to nothing.

I would try to create a new project, setting the Audio to Dolby at the beginning, and then import the TEMPGEnc project and then create the menus. Based upon your original post you should be fine at that point.

[deb]

Gary, I'm sorry I just realized ai gave you the wrong model number of DVDit. I have SE, which is the middle version, not PE. I went into DVDit and video was still greyed out. So I checked and found out that I have SE.

I guess that's bad news. Is this because I captured with the video camera? What should I try at this point?

Thanks,
Deb

[Gary]

All you can do it you have SE is use one of the bitrate calculators to calculate what the maximum bitrate is and re-encode to fit. I don't recall how much audio overhead you have to leave for PCM as I never use it, but you can probably find that information easily in the guides on search the forum. Once you have that, calculate your video bitrate and set TMPGEnc for 2 pass VBR and use the calculated rate as your average.