DVD authoring (not a conversion question!)

[alternate_bit]

once one gets the mpeg2s needed for dvd authoring, what is the best tool to get it to a burnable dvd image?

i ask this for my home movies. i ordered dvd studio pro 2 (got it for my work, yay!) and i'm learning it little by little. the problem i see, however, is the amount of data that can be put on dvd. i've done the conversion, and i'm happy with the mov files that i've got... each roughly 300mb in size and range from 10~40 minutes apiece. it appears dvd studio pro 2 is limiting me to about 90 minutes per dvd. is there any way around this?

i've also tried sizzle, but the limitations (9 buttons per page) and the frequent crashing has me preferring to learn dvdsp2.

i've got a mov version, an mpeg2 version and an mpeg1 version of each of the files, so i'm ready for dvd authoring!

thanks in advance.

[geek rock]

dvd studio pro doesn't limit anything.

what's limiting you is the size of your MPEG files themselves.

if you have DVDSP i'm assuming you have the AC3 encoder. use this to encode your audio, which will free up a lot more space.

for a 2-channel stereo audio track you can use a bitrate of about 160kbps, which will cut your file sizes down considerably.

a 10-minute movie will have, say, a 300MB video track and a 100MB AIFF audio track. with the AC3 encoder you can compress this AIFF track down to something about 12 MB in size with no audible quality loss.

if you're already using AC3 audio, then the only way to fit more on a DVD is to re-encode your movie files at a lower bitrate.

as a rough guide, you shouldn't be able to fit much more than 2 hours of full-resolution video plus an AC3 track onto a disc. go any lower with the bitrate of the video and the picture quality will be poor.

use the bitrate calculator in the tools section of the site to calculate the best audio and video bitrate settings.

hope this was helpful!

-Mark

[alternate_bit]

thanks for the quick reply!

well, my four hours of movs encoded with mp2 audio (i'll re-encode with ac3 tonight-- thanks for the tip!) equates to about 3GB. i had already encoded them at fairly poor quality before receiving dvd studio pro, hoping to cram as much video onto a dvd that i can.

when i 'add' a file (imported as a track) that's about 400MB in size, dvdsp2 thinks for a while and then the DVD size indicator jumps to 1.5GB. what's going on there?
also, why can't i import my already encoded mpeg2s into dvdsp2? converting into .mov is just an extra step for me.

thanks again! i'm learning so much!

[bilestyle]

you dont need to re-encode the video to mov and then re-encode to mpeg-2, compressor which comes with dvd studio pro can convert mpeg-2 to mpeg-2.. although i do have the mpeg-2 decoder which you MIGHT need ( i wouldnt know cuz i've had it installed since b4 i got compressor) But its 30$ from apple and its worth it (if you need it) The reason they dont import is probably due to them not bein dvd compliant. if they are SVCD mpeg-2 files then that would hit the nail right on the head.. if not they are probably just not dvd compliant mpeg-2 files. DVD players and authoring programs (the more sophisticated ones) are VERY picky about the mpeg-2 specs they accept, it sucks but not much you can do. (although there are tricks to hack headers and all this junk but i just think that stuff while quicker is a waste of time because alot of dvd players wont support the end product, its kind of a trial/error/ waste dvd type method, i dont generally endorse those)