33gig file on one dvd

[shhmoo]

Hello all...first post so here it goes!

I just recently purchased a dvd burner (benq rebadge to khypermedia 8x dvd-r). I've been reading various tutorials forum posts...talk about information overload. OK so on to my ordeal. I will try to make it breif with bullet points so it's less reading:

- three 1 hour tapes stripped onto computer in AVI format (size =13gig each)
- converted 1 avi to mpeg2 with TMPGenc. file size reduced dramatically. but quality was not so good. bitrate was around 1500 (i think)
- read other forums and it seems you can still get great quality w/out having to increae the size too much. this led me to believe my settins were wrong.
- decided to join all 3 AVI's into one big AVI (33 gig about) and would like to put onto one DVD.

Questions:
- can this file be put into one DVD with still good quality? (want to play on standalone player...not widescreen..i guess 4:3 is the best bet.
- does it matter if i set the size to 702x480 versus 352x420? if not, will this affect the size of the file? if yes, how so?
- if I put the whole 33gig or each seperate AVI on a DVD (this will depend on yoru responses) how can I maximize the AVI size to fill the whole DVD? (i'm guessing this will ensure the best possible quality)
- ive read posts that suggest stripping the audio and not encoding that but keeping it as a wav to keep quality...is this correct?
- lastly, i have adobe premier pro, which codes to mpeg2. is this as good as TMPGenc? I haven't seem many replies and it seems TMPGenc is the software of choice around here...so I figured I would avoid encoding with Adobe.

Sorry for the lenghty email. I did alot of research and haven't received a clear understanding. I was following other tutorials which turned out to be for burning videos to CDs and not DVDs etc etc. At any rate, all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Felix_too]

Although this thread doesn'r directly address your query, you may find it a bit helpful. I strated it because I wanted to find the best way to back up my video footage. Possibly worth a read.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=239776

[State Of Mind]

1. Yes. For DV to MPEG-2, use this dvtemplate.rar in TMPGEnc. Automated optimized settings for best DV quality. Bitrate is 6000 kbps. 1500 kbps is for MPEG-1 clips you want to send to your friends in 5 minutes over a chat client.

2. The template auto configures the resolution and etc. 720X480.

3. If you want to completely fill the DVD's capacity, just manually increase the bitrate. But, 6000 is excellent/superb quality. I play mine and the quality is visually indistinguishable from original source.

4. As for Audio...extract the WAV and transcode it to AC3 with BeSweet. http://dspguru.notrace.dk/stable.htm

5. Lol, use TMPGEnc. It is the best. People will say that is debatable but once you get used to it, and since it does get the job done (Hence people preferring it overall), you'll know to stick with it.

[mats.hogberg]

Questions:
- can this file be put into one DVD with still good quality?

Only way to answer this, if we know: How long (in time) is the total AVI? That's the only limiting factor.

/Mats

[shhmoo]

great replies!

state of mind: that template will specify CBR or VBR and other settings? (not sure the differnce on these two, just came across them few min ago ;] )

mats.hogberg: the lengh is 3hours 6minutes.

thanks agian all..great helpful responses!

[trickyman]

CBR = Constant Bit Rate
VBR = Variable Bit Rate

Use VBR for encoding DV to MPEG2

U can put 3.5 hours of footage on a DVD but you'll have to lower the bitrate. The quality wont be great. Any more that 2 hours on a DVD and quality usually suffers...

[mats.hogberg]

3 hrs is pretty much even for a DVD. I'd suggest encoding to half D1 resolution (352*480/576 NTSC/PAL) VBR @ 3000 kbps average bit rate, 2000 min, 8000 max (max & min not that critical AFAIK), audio (AC3 or mp2) @ 224 kbps). I think that's as good as it will get.

/Mats

[andkiich]

mats pretty much nailed it. If you do what he recommends, and you're source is decent to begin with, you should get good results.

[shhmoo]

3 hrs is pretty much even for a DVD. I'd suggest encoding to half D1 resolution (352*480/576 NTSC/PAL) VBR @ 3000 kbps average bit rate, 2000 min, 8000 max (max & min not that critical AFAIK), audio (AC3 or mp2) @ 224 kbps). I think that's as good as it will get.

/Mats

i take that as, the quality will be noticably less than if I were to encode at 6000kbps...wonder if i should put this on two DVDs then.

[jyn999]

or three

[sacajaweeda]

i take that as, the quality will be noticably less than if I were to encode at 6000kbps...wonder if i should put this on two DVDs then.

352x480 @ 3000kbps vs 720x480 @ 6000kbps quality is a wash most of the time. You say you are transferring from tape. Is it VHS? If so, you are wasting your time using anything more than 352x480 frame size no matter what you use for a bitrate.

Also, you should use VBR whenever possible.

[shhmoo]

i take that as, the quality will be noticably less than if I were to encode at 6000kbps...wonder if i should put this on two DVDs then.

352x480 @ 3000kbps vs 720x480 @ 6000kbps quality is a wash most of the time. You say you are transferring from tape. Is it VHS? If so, you are wasting your time using anything more than 352x480 frame size no matter what you use for a bitrate.

Also, you should use VBR whenever possible.

this is from a miniDV. at any rate, the size does not matter...why is this? my thought would be the image would be smaller on the TV or get stretched (just like if you were to specify twice the size dimenions of an image via HTML tag, it would get pixelated....just what i thought might happpen)

[Capmaster]

i take that as, the quality will be noticably less than if I were to encode at 6000kbps...wonder if i should put this on two DVDs then.

352x480 @ 3000kbps vs 720x480 @ 6000kbps quality is a wash most of the time. You say you are transferring from tape. Is it VHS? If so, you are wasting your time using anything more than 352x480 frame size no matter what you use for a bitrate.

Also, you should use VBR whenever possible.

this is from a miniDV. at any rate, the size does not matter...why is this? my thought would be the image would be smaller on the TV or get stretched (just like if you were to specify twice the size dimenions of an image via HTML tag, it would get pixelated....just what i thought might happpen)

The size you capture is a matter of taste. I've always captured at full 720 x 480, holding to my policy of capturing at as high a resolution as possible ...always. Sticking with this policy, even for VHS, hasn't let me down yet, after over 2,200 VHS captures

I've seen varying results with different players capturing at half D1 because you rely on the player to expand it to full screen. If you capture at full res, the player isn't in the loop as much and you have more control over your quality.

And at 40 cents each for media, I would put 6 hours of material on 3 DVDs. You will see a drop in quality going from 2 hours/disc to 3 hours per disc. No question

[shhmoo]

i take that as, the quality will be noticably less than if I were to encode at 6000kbps...wonder if i should put this on two DVDs then.

352x480 @ 3000kbps vs 720x480 @ 6000kbps quality is a wash most of the time. You say you are transferring from tape. Is it VHS? If so, you are wasting your time using anything more than 352x480 frame size no matter what you use for a bitrate.

Also, you should use VBR whenever possible.

this is from a miniDV. at any rate, the size does not matter...why is this? my thought would be the image would be smaller on the TV or get stretched (just like if you were to specify twice the size dimenions of an image via HTML tag, it would get pixelated....just what i thought might happpen)

The size you capture is a matter of taste. I've always captured at full 720 x 480, holding to my policy of capturing at as high a resolution as possible ...always. Sticking with this policy, even for VHS, hasn't let me down yet, after over 2,200 VHS captures

I've seen varying results with different players capturing at half D1 because you rely on the player to expand it to full screen. If you capture at full res, the player isn't in the loop as much and you have more control over your quality.

And at 40 cents each for media, I would put 6 hours of material on 3 DVDs. You will see a drop in quality going from 2 hours/disc to 3 hours per disc. No question

thank you as well for your reply.

i was referring to the settings of the tmpgenc which to encode at. you refer to capturing at 720x480, i'm not quite sure what my minDV captures at (probably what was set by default). so i take it when you encode to mpeg2, you select 720x480 instead of 352x480 correct? (still trying to understand the concept of this).

as far as burning to DVD...i guess two DVDs with 1.5 hours on each should do the trick.

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, @ 6000 kbps, 2 discs, I'd definately go for full D1 (720*480/576). But at 3000 kbps, it's not enough bit rate for full D1 to come to its right.

/Mats

[bugster]

1. Yes. For DV to MPEG-2, use this dvtemplate.rar in TMPGEnc.

I am confused by this template. I downloaded and loaded it into TmpGenc. I also opened it in notepad to check what I had seen. On the Video tab it sets Encode Mode to Non-interlaced. DV is interlaced and for best results should be encoded as such. Also on the advanced tab, it sets Video source type as Non-interlaced. For DV this should be interlaced and field order should be set to B (the template sets it to A but this is ignored as it is told the source is progressive). Also on the advanced tab, it set Video arrange method to Centre - custom size, which seemed odd. I have to admit that I could not find the advanced settings when I opened the template in notepad, so perhaps those are not stored there.

Maybe I misunderstand something but that template looks wrong for DV to me. It also for NTSC, you need to a couple of settings for PAL

[lordsmurf]

It's wrong for DV.

[shhmoo]

It's wrong for DV.

which is the correct template for DV then?

[daamon]

Hi shhmoo,

About a year ago I was in exactly the same boat as you are now - a miniDV cam, thinking it must be possible, and not realising how little I knew and how much there was to know (no offence meant).

After going through the same confusion as you, I finally figured it out. Here's how I do it:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=725433#725433

I'm not saying it's the best or the most efficient, but I get good results that I like in (what seems to me) the most logical way. And it pretty much addresses all of your points...

Hope that helps...

[lordsmurf]

It's wrong for DV.

which is the correct template for DV then?

No template at all. Set your own settings.
Read guides to learn facts. Then apply that knowledge to your situation.

[shhmoo]

hey all. well i finally got around to burning my first DVD (well two, one dvd copy and the other of footage). unfortunately they do not play on my standalone player. (Sony SLV-D300P). I used a PioData disc (supposively these are Ritek, which I've read to be a good brand). I'm more concerned that the footage does not play becuase it is for my parents, and I would like to have them view it off their DVD player for sake of convenience. What do I do next? just sample with various other brands? how can I check to make sure the settings I chose when converting the footage etc. were correct for my DVD player and not causing errors as well? I'm a little relieved that the DVD copy didnt' play as well, for this tells me may* not my error during the encoding, authoring etc process done by me. Any info welcome.

[mats.hogberg]

How did you author your encodes?

/Mats

[shhmoo]

How did you author your encodes?

/Mats

I used TMPGEnc Author, dvd-r format. Are you referring to other settings as well? If so, it's from the two tutorial links in daamon's original post with updates that he links in his reply.

[mats.hogberg]

Strange - TDA usually works fine. More important than manufacture is + or - R or + or - RW. What works (and more important not) depends on your player(s)... Try some other format, since your process seems sound!

/Mats

[jyn999]

hey all. well i finally got around to burning my first DVD (well two, one dvd copy and the other of footage). unfortunately they do not play on my standalone player. (Sony SLV-D300P). I used a PioData disc (supposively these are Ritek, which I've read to be a good brand). I'm more concerned that the footage does not play becuase it is for my parents, and I would like to have them view it off their DVD player for sake of convenience. What do I do next? just sample with various other brands? how can I check to make sure the settings I chose when converting the footage etc. were correct for my DVD player and not causing errors as well? I'm a little relieved that the DVD copy didnt' play as well, for this tells me may* not my error during the encoding, authoring etc process done by me. Any info welcome.

Can you play it with a software DVD player?

[shhmoo]

hey all. well i finally got around to burning my first DVD (well two, one dvd copy and the other of footage). unfortunately they do not play on my standalone player. (Sony SLV-D300P). I used a PioData disc (supposively these are Ritek, which I've read to be a good brand). I'm more concerned that the footage does not play becuase it is for my parents, and I would like to have them view it off their DVD player for sake of convenience. What do I do next? just sample with various other brands? how can I check to make sure the settings I chose when converting the footage etc. were correct for my DVD player and not causing errors as well? I'm a little relieved that the DVD copy didnt' play as well, for this tells me may* not my error during the encoding, authoring etc process done by me. Any info welcome.

Can you play it with a software DVD player?

yes both play fine on my computer...just not the DVD standalone player. (unfortunatley i only have -r disks right now so i can't try +r) according to the DVD compatitiblity list...-r works with my player.

[sacajaweeda]

If you can navigate the thing succcessfully with a software player on your PC then it's probably either a bad burn or defective media issue. The laser in your burner is a lot better and has superior error correction than what you'll find in standalone players, so a bad disc/burn might play on the PC but not the standalone....

Or not.

[shhmoo]

If you can navigate the thing succcessfully with a software player on your PC then it's probably either a bad burn or defective media issue. The laser in your burner is a lot better and has superior error correction than what you'll find in standalone players, so a bad disc/burn might play on the PC but not the standalone....

Or not.

is there any way i can verify that there are errors on the disc? at least that way i can narrow it down to see if it's the media or not. not sure if it exhists, but maybe an application that anaylzes the DVD and gives error reports or any other useful info.