IDVD4 and 2 hours DVDs

[willrob]

Apple is rolling out iDVD4 with the claim that due to its now sharing the encoding engine of DVD Studio Pro we can now create two hour DVDs of out own footage—at "high quality."

I know some of you are using DVDSP, and wonder if you can currently create/burn 2 hour disks.

Apples iDVD4 page is at

http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/newfeatures.html

Some of the new themes are cool (the drive in theater and the movie marque), but it's only available as part of iLife ($49), and it currently looks like all the other previously free apps (iPhoto, iMovie, etc) may be going the pay route. Free if you but a new computer.

william

[AntnyMD]

Using Apple's pro tools, namely A.Pack, Compressor and DVD Studio Pro, you can create DVDs longer than 2 hours, but after about that point, the quality starts to suffer ... of course it all depends on source material.

My last look into iDVD revealed it created PCM audio, and that's largely why iDVD was limited to 90 minutes. Does iDVD4 use AC-3 audio? Does this mean somewhere in that package is a sort of iA.Pack?

[tnelson]

I've been using DVD Pro for all of my DVD projects and would have to say that projects I have done at 2 hrs + look pretty darn good. I do try to keep them less the 2 hours, but a few have gone out as far as 2:20 with good results.

However, to get acceptable results with those lengths, you need to use AC3 sound, variable bit rates with multiple passes and use compression markers. The variable bit rate and multiple passes does extend the time it takes to encode.

I don't think iDVD supports AC3 sound formats, or manually set compression markers. Never the less I would expect decent results for the new version of iDVD for material under 2 hours in length.

I guess the only way to find out is to wait until iDVD ships, and give it a spin!

Tom N.

[AntnyMD]

On a slightly related note, note the only iLife app thats still free is iTunes.

[chikanakan]

I talked to Apple at MacWorld today, and they still use PCM audio. They are just lowering the bit rate to 3.5Mbps. Lame. It seems like Toast 6 and Jam will have AC3 encoding which will give 2 hours of video at 5Mbps.

[danman]

Is that a constant bit rate, or if you have much shorter videos does it use higher bit rates? Is this setting user selectable?

[chikanakan]

Toast 6 uses 1-pass VBR at 5 or 8 Mbps. iDVD 3 used 5 and 8 Mbps CBR. I don't know about iDVD 4 yet. My guess is 3.5, 5, or 8 Mbps CBR.

iDVD or Toast doesn't let set the bit rate. It' based more on time. If you have less the 60 minutes it will be 8. 60-90 min 5Mbps. We'll see if this changed in iDVD 4.

[Thargok]

On a slightly related note, note the only iLife app thats still free is iTunes.

Not necessarily, iMovie wasn't a download for a while after iLife (1)

And all the programs will still ship on new macs (except for GarageBand, which I expect will be an upgrade)