8 hrs of Avi to DVD with Menus

[randolphsw]

Long Version
If this has been posted before and resolved I apologize. I have read that it is possible to put up to 18 hours of video on one DVD with VisualHub. But you get no menus with that. So I am looking for another solution. I want to make a long DVD with menus. I have converted a series (8 hours worth) of cartoons from XviD to Vob files with the bit rate at around 1000kbyts/sec (is that right?) and when I go to put them in Toast 8 the dial says it will only take 1 DVD to accomplish this burn. I hit burn and it starts to multiplex then encode (I have the “Never Encode” option chosen) I have even taken some video out so that the space is right at 4GB and it still wants to encode. I am trying to avoid Toast encoding, (which can take a while and I have already done the encoding) any help would be greatly appreciated.

Short version
I want to make a DVD with 8-10 hours of video with menus. Source material would be Avi
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

R

[Case]

I have converted a series (8 hours worth) of cartoons from XviD to Vob files with the bit rate at around 1000kbyts/sec (is that right?) and when I go to put them in Toast 8 the dial says it will only take 1 DVD to accomplish this burn. I hit burn and it starts to multiplex then encode (I have the “Never Encode” option chosen)

If Toast encodes anyway, then most likely one or more of your input files is out of spec for DVD. What is the framerate and video size of the files you feed into Toast?

[randolphsw]

Frame rate it 30 fps, 1300kbits/s, and the file sizes are about 215 MB's each

[Case]

For a DVD compliant file, there is a difference between 30 fps and 29.97 fps (NTSC standard).
When asking for "video size", I meant width x height in pixels. Sorry for the confusion.

[randolphsw]

sorry about that they are 320 x 240 and 29.97 fps

[Case]

they are 320 x 240 and 29.97 fps

320x240 is not a valid DVD size. 352x240 is valid.
To add to the confusion, QuickTime Player will pretend that 352x240 MPEG-1/-2 files are 320x240. To read back the true size, drop the output file back on ffmpegX to see the video parameters in the Summary tab. If it really is 320x240, then I'm afraid you'll have to encode them again to a valid size.

[randolphsw]

thanks for that i am now using 720 x 480 and it seems to be working. What other sizes are valid?
As a side question how low can the bit rate get before the picture quality is terrible?

Your help is greatly appreciated.



R

[Case]

thanks for that i am now using 720 x 480 and it seems to be working. What other sizes are valid?

For NTSC, the valid DVD frame sizes are 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, 352x240.

As a side question how low can the bit rate get before the picture quality is terrible?

It depends on the frame size. Bigger frames need more bits to describe them, but it's not a linear relation. The [Best] button in the ffmpegX Bitrate Calculator should tell you good bitrates:

720x480, 3742 kbps recommended, which translates to about 150 minutes (02:30:00) per 4300 MB
704x480, 3659 kbps recommended, which translates to about 153 minutes (02:33:00) per 4300 MB
352x480, 1829 kbps recommended, which translates to about 290 minutes (04:50:00) per 4300 MB
352x240, 914 kbps recommended, which translates to about 523 minutes (08:43:00) per 4300 MB

The calculator defaults to 4000 MB per DVD, which is a bit safer number, but allowing 7% less minutes on average. The outer edge of a DVD±R(W) is the least reliable part, so maxing out a disc (4482 MB) may not be best practice. You also need to leave a bit of room for menus. YMMV.

Two-pass encoding (DVD ffmpeg preset, checkbox Two-pass encoding in the Options tab) will look a bit better on low bitrates, as it shifts bitrates to sections of the movie that need it the most, at the cost of twice the encoding time.

You can lower the bitrate a bit from the recommended number if you must, but "stay in the green", i.e. if the bitrate number is green, it is considered good (red for not enough, blue for too much). De-focus the bitrate field to see a color change. E.g., for 720x480, 3742 kbps is recommended, but 3368 to 4116 is considered 'good'.

[randolphsw]

How about 1 more question?
since i am using Toast for my menus only, and i want everything to be pre encoded so thats all that Toast has to do. What should my output format be in ffmpegx? Mpeg2?

thanks

R

[Case]

What should my output format be?

MPEG-2. Use a DVD preset and uncheck Author as DVD, so that it doesn't create a VIDEO_TS folder, as that is what you want Toast to do.

[randolphsw]

Thanks for all of your help Case

R