What is the perfect DVD-R bitrate?

[Trainman]

I've been having all kinds of trouble determining the best bitrate for encoding my home videos to DVD-R with TMPGEnc. I've been told that anything over 5250 might be too high, and may choke my DVD player (the reason why my DVD-R's stutter in the player). Here's how I'm trying to make a DVD-R:

1). Edit AVI movie together with Pinnacle Studio DV 7.

2). Output to MPEG2 with Studio DV 7 at 8000 bitrate.

3). I'm forced to re-encode with TMPGEnc (since Studio DV 7 puts out some kind of bizarre encoding which isn't compatible with some authoring programs). Last time, I set the bitrate at 5250 CBR. Before encoding, I de-multiplex the audio to a separate file with the MPEG tools found in TMPGEnc, then put it back in from the separate file when encoding (corrects audio problems which occur while encoding).

4). Authored the AUDIO & VIDEO_TS files with SpruceUp. I'm ASSUMING the 5250 bitrate stays the same when SpruceUp converts to these files, correct? I have not seen any bitrate options anywhere in the software. I tried most other authoring programs except for the brand new ULEAD DVD WORKSHOP. They all suck, or give me error codes, or video quality problems.

5). Burned DVD-R with NERO, using all the prescribed settings.

End result: The video STILL stutters on my DVD player. I'm now in the sloooooow process of lowering the bitrate to 5000 VBR (avg.), with the "high" set at 5250, and the low at 450. It will be two days before encoding is finished. One video is 45 min., the other 30 min. Will this work, or will I end up making another DVD-R coaster?

I saw the "DVD-R Calculator" thing on this site, and it seemed kind of screwy -- said my avg. bitrate should be set at something like 9300 for DVD-R. If I've been advised that anything over 5250 may choke my DVD player, why the heck would something as high as 9300 work?

WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE USING FOR BITRATE SETTINGS FOR DVD-R??? PLEASE POST YOUR SETTINGS SO I CAN GET SOME KIND OF IDEA.

Thank you!

[Leehro]

The DVD bitrate calculator is used so that you can find a bitrate as high as possible, while still fitting all of your video onto the number of discs you type in.

Are you SURE that that's why DVD-Rs stuttter? Try a few different kinds of media. Try DVD-RW if you can. I have no problems using imation or tdk media, but the $3 discs (from cd-recordable.com and other cheap places) skip over good chunks of video when played on my standalone.

The calculator doesn't consider any specific problems you might have with DVD-R media or your player. It's just there to let you know what you can fit onto a disc at a given bitrate.

I've burned DVD-Rs with max bitrates of 9000 and never had a problem with good media

The DVD authoring software will not change the bitrate of your video.

If you're editing in DV, why don't you just encode from the DV instead of encoding to MPEG-2 and then down to DVD? Would save you a lot of time and quality

Dan

[Trainman]

I think I'll try some other media and check out your suggestion. I've read posts from others who claim just the opposite however, that the cheapie generic DVD-R's work just fine, but anyway, will have to check into it. I was using a $2.95 (or so) DVD-R from Meritline.com. Interesting that they seem to play just fine in my Pioneer DVR-A03 drive, but not in the standalone player.

About the Pinnacle Studio DV 7 program... I'm pretty sure I have to export the finished edited video from the program itself, then re-encode with TMPGEnc to be compatible with the authoring software. I don't think there's any other way of doing it. SpruceUp doesn't seem to like Pinnacle's encoding, and won't work with it.

Thanks.

[Leehro]

Yes I know you have to export the video from the program. But I'm sure you can export it to DV video. If you can handle the hard drive space, that's the way to go.

Using pinnacle to export to mpeg-2 will:

A) Take longer than exporting to DV
B) lose quality because it's mpeg-2
C) Probably lose a LOT more quality because i'm sure their mpeg-2 encoder isn't spectacular

But if you export to DV, and then convert the DV to MPEG-2 with TMPGEnc, your source will be the same quality as the master (except where you applied titles/transitions but that's negligible) and you didn't have to spend the extra time encoding to MPEG-2 with pinnacle.

Dan

[Trainman]

The export options are as follows in Studio DV 7: "TAPE", "AVI", "MPEG" (1 or 2), "STREAM", and "SHARE" (whatever that is). The "AVI" option won't work - my file sizes are over 4 gb in AVI, more like 6+... The program won't export if over 4 gb. MPEG option seems to be the only way to go. Anyway, the video quality is fine the way I do it, so I'm not concerned with that. I'm just trying to get the stuttering problem resolved on the set-top DVD player.

I've just ordered a Pioneer DVD-RW (since I have a Pioneer burner, thought I'd stick with the name). Will see what happens.

[lucindrea]

if all your using DV 7 for is to glue/edit a bunch of avi's then why not use virtualdub ... i dont think it will complaine about +4G files ...

[Trainman]

Not just glueing together -- I'm using all kinds of editing features in the program: wipes, fades, fancy titles, etc. etc. etc...

One program I might end up trying is the new $300 ULEAD DVD WORKSHOP. Just got an e-mail from the company today saying there's a downloadable demo of it on their site. Will have to try it.