DVDA 4 can do 2-pass VBR?

[itsme1]

Hi all,

I have been using DVD Architect 4's "Optimize Video" feature to compress footage but am not sure whether it uses cbr or vbr. I might be able to get better results if i do a 2-pass vbr. Anyone know if this is possible?

[GeorgeW]

DVDA4 uses a single-pass VBR (afaik). Since you have Vegas 7, you can encode in V7 and use 2-pass VBR. Single-pass VBR in V7 does not seem to maintain the target AVG bitrate in a VBR encode (the file comes out smaller from what I have seen) -- but 2-pass VBR seems to properly maintain the AVG Bitrate setting...

Regards,
George

[guns1inger]

Never let DVDA encode or optimise for you. Make sure you have encoded correctly the first time. DVDA should never have had these options built-in in the first place.

[GeorgeW]

Never let DVDA encode or optimise for you. Make sure you have encoded correctly the first time. DVDA should never have had these options built-in in the first place.

I agree that you should be able to encode properly outside of DVDA, but I think having the builtin encoder in DVDA can be very useful at times.

It especially needs it for the way it handles Buttons Over Video, and also how it approaches multiple angles. So having the builtin encoder for those situations is a good thing (imho).

It also comes in handy when I simply need to set it for 6mbps with AC3 audio and let the builtin encoder do its thing. I guess it becomes a "marketable" feature -- because it allows them to break it out of the "bundled-only-with-vegas/vegas-ms" packages (i.e. it can be a standalone DVD Authoring package -- as they have shown by starting to sell DVD Architect Studio by itself).

Regards,
George

[itsme1]

Thanks all, I guess Im just afraid of getting the calculation wrong and having a situation where the avis wont fit on the DVD. I'd have to reencode at least one AVI. I guess I got to trust the bitrate calculator.

I dont have fancy menus, so I was going to encode at 100kbits less than the recommended. I do need to include about 15 secs of intro videos (logos etc), so how much lower than the recommended should I go? 200kbits?