using TMPGEnc what type of DVD should i make?

[thunderroms]

I’ve tried NTSC - with WAV PCM and MP2 and I also tried NTSC (16:9) with both types of sound, and they all worked and I didn’t see any difference... I’m obviously still new at this; can anyone please explain in simple words what the difference between them is?

thank you.

[teegee420]

PCM WAV is uncompressed. One hour of wav audio will take up aproximately 675mb(no video). One hour of MP2 audio with a bitrate of 224kbps takes up aproximately 99mb. If your DVD player is capable of playing back mp2 audio I would go with that instead of wav. That way you can use more bitrate on your video.

[thunderroms]

ah ok, and how about the 16:9 thing? whats the difference between that and regular NTSC?

[gitreel]

ntsc is the broadcast standard we use in the U.S. 16:9 is widescreen or letterbox. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee

[Nilfennasion]

First - you can't compress something from 675 mb to 99 mb without a loss in quality (unless you use MLP, which would reduce it to 225, but MLP isn't available to the public).

Second - 16:9 is not necessarily widescreen or letterbox. It is the shape of digital TV. They made it this shape because more and more films, programs, or adverts have been filming in widescreen. 16:9 is simply a better match to the vast majority of widescreen programming.

[gitreel]

click on this link.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/formats.htm

[teegee420]

ah ok, and how about the 16:9 thing? whats the difference between that and regular NTSC?

You probably don't need to encode as 16:9 if you don't have a widescreen TV. Even though mp2 audio is comressed, most commercial DVD's are as well(AC3 audio). What matters is how your ears perceive the audio. I can't hear much difference between PCM WAV and 224kbps mp2 audio.

[Nilfennasion]

There's no wrong about it. Once HDTV and HD-DVD take off, broadcasters will cease broadcasting in 4:3. We'll wind up having the reverse letterboxing that is already used with such films as Turks Fruit. Which I see as a good thing: those who haven't been enlightened about the beauty of the proper aspect ratio can finally get a good idea of what they miss out on.

Seriously, if you want to future-proof your investment, make sure it is compatible with 16:9 in some manner, and HDTV-capable. That way you won't be upset in a few years when you find you want to watch something but you don't have the equipment to take advantage.