Movie Factory 2 conversion problem

[dsmccluney]

I'm test driving MF2 (trial download) and have a problem.

When I open my .AVI files (captured at 'full' DV quality, around 13GB/hour), create my menus, and select 5000kbps VBR for the write, the 'size' bar at the bottom shows I have plenty of room left on the DVD(the bar is slightly below MF's recommended limit). However, when I write a disk image file (or write out the DVD .ifo, .bup, and .vob files), the size comes out to 5.3Gb. I have to turn the VBR down to 4000 or less to get it to fit on a DVD. If I use Movie Factory SE and batch convert the .AVI files at 5000kbps VBR, they tally up at 4.01Gb.

Anybody else had this problem with MF2 or have a clue as to what I'm doing wrong?

[macleod]

when you go to write the image, are you unchecking the box to NOT save the project files on the DVD-R?

[musotechy]

I have also heard that the size calculation displayed by Ulead is not accurate and in some cases way out.

[dsmccluney]

Yes, that option is unchecked.

I've had several 'odd' sizing occurances happen since using this program. In one, I used Movie Factory SE to do a bulk conversion of my DV AVI files to DVD MPEG at 5000kbps VBR. The resulting set of files was right at 4GB. I took these video clips and made menus in MF2, then checked the box telling it to not re-render DVD compliant files. When I created a disk image (needed to port the files to a computer with a DVD writer), the resulting image file was only 3GB. I got the program to write out VOB files (still 3GB) and ran them through a bitrate measuring program and they appeared to still be 5000kbps. Strange. The downside to it all is that I can't rely on MF2 to give me an accurate appraisal of the resulting file's sizes so I can maximize the VBR on the disk write.