mpeg2 rendering with Premiere PRo

[Clydesdale]

I have about 100 minutes of home video I am trying to render at about 4 gigs mpegs (so I have enough room for menus) but it seems whatever settings I try the final video is 4.6 gigs. How do I reduce the file size to 4 gig?

[guns1inger]

I haven't tried rendering directly to mpeg-2 out of P-Pro, so I'm not sure what flexibility you have. You are very close, so if you can drop the average rate down slightly in the settings, you should get there.

If you can't get that level of control out of P-Pro, your other option would be to create your DVD using what ever size you end up with, then run it through DVD Shrink or Nero Recode to bring down to a burnable size at the end.

[Clydesdale]

D'oh! I didn't realize I wasn't seeing all the settings in the window. Scrolling down I noticed the minimum bitrate defaults to the same value as the target bitrate. ONce I lowered the minimum to 400 the problem was solved.

[guns1inger]

400 or 4000 ? 400 seems very low. I don't like to have a minimum under around 2500, and usually closer to 3200 - 3600. I then use the average to make smaller adjustments.