A warning to anyone using TMPGenc to create MPEG-2's for burning to DVD-R/RW's: The DVD template included with the
latest release (v2.01) defaults the max bitrate to 9.0 Mbps.

I'm trying to use Sonic DVDit! (crappy Compaq OEM LE version) to author DVD's, and the most it will accept is 8.3 Mbps. DVDit also requires a min bitrate of 2.0 Mbps. I had to adjust the TMPGenc settings and re-encode all my MPG's before DVDit would let me proceed.

I want the best possible video quality, so I take all the slowest settings and let the encode run overnight. I use the highest quality setting for motion-search prediction. To set the video bitrate, I chose two-pass VBR with max 8000, avg 6000 and min 2000. I left "enable padding" unchecked, will find out some day whether this was correct.

I read on "DVDDemystified.com" that 8000 kbps (which TMPGenc interprets as 8.0 Mbps) is a safe limit for authoring DVDs from DV camcorder sources.

Any advice at all regarding optimal settings for DV source would be greatly appreciated.