Three hours of MPEG-2 (Standard) to DVD-R

[proufo]

It's best if you start a new thread for this question.

Hello again.

I recorded (MPEG-2) an opera from cable and want to burn it to DVD. The full piece is about 10 GB and it can be split into a 6 GB and a 4 Gb segment.

I'm a newbie and I thought that the best thing would be to record at DVD-Standard (Hauppage terminology) and later shrink the file using non-real time encoders.

But DVDShrink --which I believed would be ideal for this-- does not read MPEG-2 files, just ripped DVDs.

I guess the that I should author a fake or virtual ripped DVD and then run DVDShrink on the resulting file(s).

Although the source is not high quality, I want to develop a standard workflow for future projects so overkill is not an issue. I guess shrinking the full 10 GB to a single DVD would not do much harm but I'd rather have a safe workflow at this point.

Would love to use a good encoder also, something like CCE Basic or TMPGenc. Would hate to convert to AVI and reencode.

Many thanks in advance.

[jimmalenko]

In this case, I think your best bet is to author, then import that back into DVDShrink as you say.

As a general procedure, if you don't need to edit, then capture directly to the settings you require - use a bitrate calculator to work out the bitrates you'll need to use based on the expected duration in time of your capture. You may also need to adjust the frame size depending on the bitrate.

[ZippyP.]

Shrinking the 6 GB file down to fit on a DVD might not be the best solution. It will be the fastest, but re-encoding it will probably look better. Tmpgenc DVD author will let you create an oversize DVD on your hard drive that you can then shrink to fit. Alternatively I would use DVD2Avi to frameserve the video to TMPGEnc to encode at the right bitrate.

[proufo]

In this case, I think your best bet is to author, then import that back into DVDShrink as you say.

As a general procedure, if you don't need to edit, then capture directly to the settings you require - use a bitrate calculator to work out the bitrates you'll need to use based on the expected duration in time of your capture. You may also need to adjust the frame size depending on the bitrate.

Hello Jim and thanks for your reply.

Wouldn't capturing in real time produce worse results than capturing at higher quality settings and shrinking later?

Why "if you don't need to edit"? I guess that I'd always need to edit, at the very least trailing and leading segments and commercials.

Thanks in advance.

[proufo]

Shrinking the 6 GB file down to fit on a DVD might not be the best solution. It will be the fastest, but re-encoding it will probably look better. Tmpgenc DVD author will let you create an oversize DVD on your hard drive that you can then shrink to fit. Alternatively I would use DVD2Avi to frameserve the video to TMPGEnc to encode at the right bitrate.

Hello Zippy and thanks for your reply.

Does Ulead Movie Factory SE --bundled with my Hauppage card-- perform the same function as TMPGEnc DVD Author?

What specific tools are you thinking about for shrinking after authoring?

Would DVD2AVI creat a huge AVI file? I think I know what frameserving is but I'm not sure.

Many thanks in advance and regards.

[FulciLives]

You can edit MPEG-2 with MPEG-VCR by Womble Multimedia.

That is probably the best MPEG-2 editor around.

Using DVDShrink on this project is not the best idea. You would be better off doing what ZippyP. told you to do.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jimmalenko]

Wouldn't capturing in real time produce worse results than capturing at higher quality settings and shrinking later?

Why "if you don't need to edit"? I guess that I'd always need to edit, at the very least trailing and leading segments and commercials.

If your computer is decent enough CPU/RAM/Hard Drive-wise, it should not have any problems encoding on the fly. The benefit of doing this is that you save yourself time and quality because you don't have to re-encode your material. Every re-encode degrades quality, be it noticably or not, plus to re-encode any material of any decent length takes hours, which is time that could be better spent if you capture to the right settings in the first place.

I said "if you don't need to edit" because editing MPEG can typically be tricky for the uninitiated, and synch problems are more likely when editing MPEG than say, AVI. However, MPEG-VCR is well regarded as one of the better MPEG editing tools.

[proufo]

If your computer is decent enough CPU/RAM/Hard Drive-wise, it should not have any problems encoding on the fly. The benefit of doing this is that you save yourself time and quality because you don't have to re-encode your material. Every re-encode degrades quality, be it noticably or not, plus to re-encode any material of any decent length takes hours, which is time that could be better spent if you capture to the right settings in the first place.

In this case, the encoding is performed by the Hauppage hardware. I chose that card because my PC hardware is quite obsolete.

OK, I now know that there are some advantages to encoding on-the-fly. Are calculators reliable? That is, do they always provide the exact settings that would create files that would tightly fit in a single DVD-R?

I understand that with low-quality sources such as Cable and VHS (my first projects) the issue is moot but I'd really like to know how to produce top-quality results if I want or need to. I'm particularly intrigued about two-pass encoding.

Thanks again.

[jimmalenko]

In this case, the encoding is performed by the Hauppage hardware. I chose that card because my PC hardware is quite obsolete.

Even so, you still need a decent CPU, RAM and Hard Drive to be able to keep up the throughput of data for the Hauppage to do its thing.

Are calculators reliable? That is, do they always provide the exact settings that would create files that would tightly fit in a single DVD-R?

I use VideoHelp.com's Bitrate Calculator, and I subtract 50kbps from the suggested video bitrate to allow for a simple menu if required. I have found that the calculator works extremely well.

[ZippyP.]

Would DVD2AVI creat a huge AVI file? I think I know what frameserving is but I'm not sure.

I think your other questions where answered so I'll only field this one. Frameserver definition. No large intermediate file required. This guide should help.