quality on dvd

[maghera]

what is the most video u can put on a dvd with out really losing quality,ive got 22 episodes of a tv program which are 45 min long each,ive got loads of dvdr,s but i want to keep the disks to the minimum any link to this or help from the form would be excellent thanks in advance

[steveryan]

It all depends on how the quality is anyway. If they are top notch then i'd go with 3x45 mins a disk. What is the source?

[maghera]

the quality is excellent xvid compression,i really want to keep the quality as much as possible,is there any programs besides dvd moviefactory that i could author them, save them in to a folder instead of burning straight to disk and shrinking them

[johns0]

Encode with tmpgenc plus and then author with tmpgenc dvd author,works for me all the time.

[anubis13]

canopus procoder 2.0
the best quality i can find under 2K
author with whatever
i like DVD architect 2.0

[maghera]

if i put 3 episodes onto a dvdr thats 7 dvdrs anyother way around this

[anubis13]

not if you want to keep the quality.
you could fit four episodes per disc but i doubt the quality would be much better than vcr.
if you are concerned with quality then encode at 6000 to 8000 and do two episodes per disc.
discs are fairly cheap

[maghera]

thanks for ure help mate

[vico1]

It really all depends on your source material.
High action encodes demand more bitrate, as opposed to say...talking heads.
It`s also all a matter of what you`re willing to call "high quality".

I`ve found low action encodes can be had at bitrates as low as 4000 to 5000 depending....and still look great!
You might also consider a DVD compliant rez of 704x480/576.
Video quality is always in the eye of the beholder.



*******************************
The Devil`s always.....in the Details!

[iantri]

352x480(/576 PAL) and 352x240(/288 PAL) are also legal resolutions. However, if it is 24p source realize that pulldown flags are ignored by some players at 352x240.

At 352x480, you can encode video at a bitrate of about 3500kbps (in VBR mode) without nearly nonexistant (unnoticable) artifacts. The quality is a touch under broadcast television. Better than analogue cable, that is.

Vico1, what encoder are you using that requires 4000 to 5000kbps to encode a low-action scene at good quality? CCE and probably TMPGEnc produce excellent results at those bitrates in VBR mode.. in fact, many commercial DVDs are in this range.

[akbor75]

i use tmpegenc plus with 2 pass vbr. that way you always use the right bitrate. in my case, it results in 4500 kbps average (mostly min 2800 and max 7500).

[vico1]

Vico1, what encoder are you using that requires 4000 to 5000kbps to encode a low-action scene at good quality? CCE and probably TMPGEnc produce excellent results at those bitrates in VBR mode.. in fact, many commercial DVDs are in this range.

TMPGEnc Plus.

"requires 4000 to 5000"...No, not required, just what I`ve used to render
some pretty good looking encodes.


*******************************
The Devil`s always.....in the Details!

[anubis13]

i find that procoder 2.0 with a high bit rate of 8K
low of 4K and average of 6K does wonders for high motion scenes.

[davemcg37]

i got the three lord of the rings films (9 hours) onto one dvdr at vhs quality

[jimmalenko]

Unfortunately quality is very subjective and only you can truly decide if a certain formula works for you.

I think what you need to do is make a goal for yourself - say 4-8 episodes per disc. Once you decide the overall running time you want to get onto each disc, calculate the bitrates required to achieve this using VideoHelp's Bitrate Calculator. Create some samples by running the same episode through your favorite encoder (mine is TMPGEnc Plus) at the different bitrates you calculate, making sure that you set the Source Range to about 1 minute in length. Author these samples to a RW and test on your DVD player. You'll soon see what is acceptable to you.

I use the following as a rough guide with typically decent results:

< 2000kbps --> VCD resolution (352 X 288 for PAL, 352 X 240 for NTSC)

> 2000 but < 5000 --> Half D1 resolution (352 X 576 for PAL, 352 X 480 for NTSC)

> 5000 --> DVD resolution (720 X 576 for PAL, 720 X 480 for NTSC)

For any VCD resolution encodes I use CBR. For all others I use 2-Pass VBR with Min 2000, Ave is calculated value and Max 9000.

Try it out with a few samples.

[iantri]

For any VCD resolution encodes I use CBR.

Out of curiosity, why? Do the encoders tend to mis-estimate the required bitrate, and therefore cause poor quality at low VBR bitrates?

[jimmalenko]

For any VCD resolution encodes I use CBR.

Out of curiosity, why? Do the encoders tend to mis-estimate the required bitrate, and therefore cause poor quality at low VBR bitrates?

There's no real science as to why. I guess I've just always done it that way. My thought is that for anything that I do at VCD res, I don't believe that the improvements VBR can make are worth the extra time.

Now that I have a DVD burner, it has to be something pretty ordinary if I do it at VCD res.