Low-Bitrate encodes for DVD - which encoder?

[akrako1]

Hi! I'm wanting to create a 4+ hour DVD from a bunch of avi's and (s)vcd's. Since I will be wanting to put around 4 hours on 1 disc, the bitrate will be pretty low. This is fine, since the source materials aren't the best quality, but I would still like to maximize the quality if I can. Keep in mind that time is not a concern - I don't care if it takes a day or two to fully author the dvd.

Here are the options I've come up with. Let me know which one will provide the best results.

1. Ulead DVD Moviefactory 3. Add all the original files and let Moviefactory do all the encoding/coversions for me. How good is the Moviefactory 3 encoding? I usually turn the 'quality' setting all the way up to 100. I use mpeg audio to save space. Moviefactory 3 is pretty inaccurate when it estimates the total size of the encoded files on your DVD. It tends to overestimate a bit. Here are my options:
a. find the exact right bitrate that will give me a DVD at 99%-100% capacity. Might take a few encodes to get it right.... or
b. encode the DVD with a higher bitrate, resulting in too-large files that will need to be shrunk down. If I use DVD Shrink 3.2 with all enhancements on, will it look better than the Moviefactory 3 conversion at the 'right' bitrate?

2. Tmpgenc Plus (not sure of the version - pretty new though..). Convert all the original files to DVD-compliant files before authoring. I'll convert all with 2-pass vbr, slowest motion search. Might get a little tricky to estimate bitrate. What about encoding them all at 8mb/s, authoring with 'Do not convert compliant mpegs', and then DVD Shrinking?

3. Tmpgenc DVD Author 1.6. Author completely with Tmpgenc DVD author. I haven't used this much, but it does seem to estimate the total size of the encodes fine - and picks the proper bitrate. Is the quality as good as Tmpgenc Plus or Moviefactory 3? It doesn't seem to have all the mpeg encoding options as regular Tmpgenc Plus.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

[nickpick37]

Mmmmm, I don't how many files you have but for me, as a matter of fact, I can put 3 movies (around 2h each) on a DVD using VCD setting (MPG1 352x240 constant bitrate of 1150 Kb/s)

or for better result, I put 2 movies (Around 2h each) on a DVD using Half-D1 setting (MPG2 352x240 constant bitrate of 2200 Kb/s)

Of course, TMPGEnc DVD author can use VCD compliant files (MPG1 352x240 constant bitrate of 1150 Kb/s), not every DVD authoring program accept that... but you cannot mix differents files with differents birates on it... and it does not "convert" files on the fly....

[ZippyP.]

I put 2 movies (Around 2h each) on a DVD using Half-D1 setting (MPG2 352x240 constant bitrate of 2200 Kb/s)

1/2 D1 is 352x480 for NTSC.

but you cannot mix differents files with differents birates on it...

Yes you can, it does not care about the bitrate. To add files of different resolution you must add them as separate tracks.

[ZippyP.]

2. Tmpgenc Plus (not sure of the version - pretty new though..). Convert all the original files to DVD-compliant files before authoring. I'll convert all with 2-pass vbr, slowest motion search. Might get a little tricky to estimate bitrate.

TMPGEnc is the route I would go. Don't bother with the highest precision it's too slow and there's no noticable difference from high. Use a bitrate calculator (look in the Tools section) to try and get your size right the first time. If you're a little over you can shrink it a bit.

To get 4 hours you're looking at an average video bitrate of 2300 kbps so you should use 1/2 DVD res.

[akrako1]

I'll give that a shot. i guess it makes sense that the best conversion would be from the dedicated conversion program, not the authoring software. Thanks!

[buttsy00]

Hi guys,

At the moment I am encoding in CBR and then shrinking with DVD Shrink once authored if the file is too large to fit on to DVD-R...

I have done this a few times and seem to have better quality then encoding in VBR...

What do you think? Is there any downsides to the way I am currently doing it?

Any help would be appreciated.

[mikesbytes]

What kind of source files are they? Home movies?

You may find that you can get a better result if you clean up the video first. No point wasting bits on noise.

[akrako1]

In regards to buttsy00's comment... I guess I'm kinda asking partly the same question. i've heard that transcoding (dvd shrinking) has generally better results then re-encoding - but how does it compare to authoring at the appropriate bitrate? i.e. does 4 mb/s transcoded to 3 mb/s look as good as the original source encoded to 3 mb/s in the first place?

Also, can anyone recommend a good guide/settings to remove noise/static in TMPGEnc Plus? Thanks