Multiple resolutions on one DVD?

[LeTrout]

Sorry if this info is already out there, I did a couple searches but couldn't find anything. I'd like to make a DVD that will have files of differing resolutions on it. I've heard this can result in playback problems, though my one test works on my Panasonic DVD-RV31. I tried a DVD with the same video encoded at full D1, broadcast D1, and half D1, and all played without issue. Player compatibility is important to me as I'd like to share the DVD with a few friends, but it's not something that will be generally available (ie not a commercial product) so it doesn't have to play on every NTSC player on the planet.

Reason is, I'll be including both camcorder video that I like to encode at full D1 (the DVDs are also my archive, so I want decent quality), and video that I capture from my WinTV-PVR that seems to go to half D1 with little loss of quality. Is this a bad idea, or should I re-encode the WinTV captures to full D1 (the card won't capture to full D1 near as I can tell, so I'd have to re-encode).

[David K]

As long as you use "legal" DVD resolutions, like full DVD and half DVD resolution, it will be within the DVD specifications and should work. In addition, many DVD players will actually play "illegal" resolutions like 480 x 480, which I discovered using DVDLab, which allows you to create DVDs with such resolutions.

All that being said, I haven't conducted extensive field tests of different DVD players, so it will be interesting to see if anyone has encountered any problems in this area.

[housepig]

it depends on how wide you want to distribute it - if you have 3 friends, and all their players can handle mixed discs, go nuts.

if you want to send it out to 100 relatives, be prepared for some of them being unable to view some or all of the disc properly...

[BJ_M]

make each resolution a seperate movie is the correct way to do this (also having both wide screen and 4:3 screen on the same disk) ..

[Lord of the Discs]

Movies with different resolution must go in separate VTSs on the DVD
(same as different audio format) to be compatible with the DVD-standard.

Only Scenarist (and Maestro ?) offer this feature, but there is also a
hack for making a DVD with multiple VTSs using DVDfab and IFOedit,
look around for a guide on "making a DVD with multiple VTSs".

LotD

[Vejita-sama]

It can be done. In fact most commerical DVDs have 4:3 menus and 16:9 video, and mixes of 704x480 (still menus) and 720x480 video. I've made 352x480 and 352x240 videos on a single DVD (won't to compare quaility of VHS backups). No problem. I was authoring with Maestro thou which can create seperate VTS.

[Baldrick]

Movies with different resolution must go in separate VTSs on the DVD
(same as different audio format) to be compatible with the DVD-standard.

Only Scenarist (and Maestro ?) offer this feature, but there is also a
hack for making a DVD with multiple VTSs using DVDfab and IFOedit,
look around for a guide on "making a DVD with multiple VTSs".

LotD

TMPGenc dvd author offer also this feature, just click new track and you will get separate vts(separate vob files).

[leebo]

DVD Lab does this no problem. I do it all the time.
It does not create seperate VTS's though, which to my understanding is the best way to do it. Oscar (the program author) claims he will add seperate VTS later.

Haven't had any problems though.

[LeTrout]

Ok, thanks. DVD-lab was throwing an ignorable warning at me, so I thought I'd check into how evil this is. Seems to work ok, so I'll keep going this way.