MPEG2 vs DVD

[rhodellf]

Ok. It might sound realy novice but I dont seem to understand the difference between the two.
I am working with ULEAD Movie Factory 3. It takes forever to burn the DVD (like 5 hours IF i'm lucky) and sometimes it evens stops responding after all that wait. So the best way I found is to use Main Concept to encode the movies to DVD format and burn them on the fly. It works BUT the files are huge, meaning that in most cases I have to split the file (ex a movieof 700MB) and burn two discs.
I keep seeing that DVD is in MPEG2 format which in Main Concept produces smaller file sizes. If it is, that means that I can have the same resaults in both formats DVD and MPEG2? And if that is the case then why these two are different options of conversion?

Thx.

[sacajaweeda]

Making it fit is all about the bitrate.

Use this to find your target rate...

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VideoHelp_Bitrate_calculator

[rhodellf]

well I do certainly appreciate the immediate response BUT it didnt answer my question. Remember this is a Newbie Forum. Can u be more specific? Can I burn a DVD really fast (means skipping the conversion from ULEAD) in both formats?

[rhodellf]

well i apologize my friend.
when i first saw your reply for some reason your entire message wasnt there. i just saw your first sentense.
after i posted my reply and went back the message was complete with the link.
thx alot

[Cornucopia]

I'm reading between the lines here so bear with me...

Sounds like you are taking a DivX-type AVI file or WMV and wanting it to go on DVD.

Ok, DivX-type AVI's are AVI files with compression done by the DivX codec. The DivX codec is an MPEG4-based codec. Similarly, a WMV is an ASF/Windows Media streamable file with WMV7, 8, or 9 compression for video (also MPEG4-based codecs).
MPEG4 is much more bitrate efficient than MPEG2 (or MPEG1 for that matter).
You say you've got a 700MB file. That's MPEG4-type compression. An MPEG2 file of roughly equivalent quality is gonna be 1 1/2 -- 4 times bigger. If the quality was compromised for download (just a guess) to begin with, a decent MPEG2 will be 6 times bigger (and won't really get any better looking).

Back to the question at hand--DVD video allows for stricter subsets of the MPEG2 and MPEG1 specs, just like VCD video allows for a stricter subset of the MPEG1 spec.

Remember 3 main steps to making DVD's(usually in this order):
1. Encoding
2. Authoring
3. Disc mastering/burning

It sounds an awful lot like your Ulead is accepting the DivX/WMV for use as source for DVD authoring, but must re-encode in the background to correct-to-DVD-spec MPEG2 video 1st before continuing on to the burning portion. If your material was pre-encoded to DVD-spec MPEG2 ahead of time, you could quickly do the authoring and burning (e.g. ~1 hour using 1x DVD burner).
Unfortunately, if you actually do have a DivX/WMV, you're gonna have to do re-encoding at some point. You can do better and/or faster encodes by using one of the well know top encoders listed around here--CCE, TMPGEnc, Mainconcept, Procoder--but even then, it still will take some time for this segment of the project (and enough available HD space).

As said before, use a Video bitrate calculator. Start by deciding how many discs you want the material to fit on. Then adjust the bitrate (mainly for the video, but also for the audio), to squeeze the maximum material per disc. But remember that less bitrate is equivalent to less quality.

Scott

[sacajaweeda]

Here's a helpful chart:

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#comp