Minimum video bitrate fully DVD standard compliant

[Paco M.]

Hi,

DVD standard supports MPEG-1 (CBR) and MPEG-2 (CBR and VBR) video streams. In practice, many DVD players also acccept MPEG-1 VBR.

I would like to know which are the minimum video bitrates values fully DVD compatible. Does anyone knows it?

Any DVD player should be able to run these low video bitrate mpeg streams and a DVD disc could store very much music and very little of video.

Thanks

Paco

[daamon]

Hi Paco M.,

The DVD specs are given under the "What Is... DVD" link, top left of the page.

Having had a quick look, there's no minimum specified - suggesting to me it's zero. Of course, what different manufacturers specify as the minimum is a different matter...

[jimmalenko]

As daamon mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any uniformity in minimum bitrates. I have overheard people here talking about certain players "requiring" certain minimum bitrates in order to play. I think it might vary from player to player, just as the max bitrate seems to.

I am in the process of converting all my Metallica CDs over to 1 DVD. My player accepts 352 * 288 1 kbps video (black screen) & 384 kbps MP2 audio without a hassle

[thecoalman]

I did a DVD compliant movie at the lowest res at 434 if I remember correctly just for a test(that's not neccesarily the minimum). 25 hours on one DVD That was the lowest my editor would go, my standalone had a little trouble playing it but it worked.

The lowese my editor will go for 720x480 is 1775, it really looks like crap though. Really no reason to go that low.

[Paco M.]

Hi again,

Thanks everybody for the answers about minimum video bitrates for DVD.

Several new tests carried out show some curious results (TMPGEnc Plus 2.521.58.169 used as MPEG 1/2 encoder):

1- For m1v/m2v files with very low video bitrates, software players (Media Player Clasic 6.4.8.2, Windows Media Player 9.0, WinAmp 2.91) read wrong total playing time indications.

2- These bitrate values depend on background still image used and on MPEG 1 or 2 encoding. 16 kbps are OK for 352x288 black background/no image MPEG1 CBR encoded. 80 kbps for MPEG2 CBR. 100 kbps for complex stills. Lower bitrate values are not OK.

3- When trying to subtitle MPEG files with 1 kbps video bitrate, spumux.exe considered them wrong files (although they sounds very well on every tested DVD player).

4- When encoding stills (MPEG 1 or 2) CBR and VBR generate same size m1v/m2v files.

Could points 1, 2 and 3 mean that very low bitrate streams generated by TMPGEnc are not fully MPEG compliant files?

Could 16 kbps be in practice the lower limit for video bitrate in DVD, when using black background?

Paco

Related links:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=193049&highlight=cdda+aka+audio+dvd&sid...845007652eaf97

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=539

[daamon]

Hi Paco M.,

I don't have answers to your questions, but was well impressed with your thoroughness and research. Good effort!

Daamon.