iDVD / Toast Compression No Longer Working?

[toxicquack]

Hi Guys.

I am trying to create a project for a client and it slightly overruns the allowed disc space:

Project:
- total project duration: 132:30 minutes
- total project capacity: 4.199 GB (max. available: 4.172 GB)

In the past when this has occurred I have followed the usual work around of creating a "video_ts" folder in iDVD, and then using Toasts "fit to DVD compression". However this time it won't work. I have changed the encoding in "Project Info" to High Quality and this has usually allowed me to create either a video_ts or disc image. However this time I get "Your project exceeds the maximum content duration. To burn this project, remove some content."

In the past I have changed the DVD type, once again in project info, to Dual Layer - which then allows up to 7.7GB of data. When I select this option I am able to export as either a "video_ts" or "disc image" but the file size suddenly jumps up from 4.199GB to 7GB - so Toast's video compression causes a huge loss in quality.

What am I doing wrong? I have done this a number of times before but for some reason this time it wont play ball. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[terryj]

Something in your project is causing iDVD to flag the "maximum content duration" warning:
Either go back into the project and start simplifying it.
Remove any movies that might be playing in the Menu, remove any extra music,
cut down and keep the Chapter menus simple.
Usually people want to put a fancy movie file on EVERY MENU
screen, and that causes the project to often exceed size.

if after simplifying the Menus it still flags "max content duration",
then your only choice is to look at the content. Your run time is
2hrs12minutes30sec ( 132:30) so you are a little over for
high quality setting, which likes to keep everything at under 2 hours.

Your only choice then would be to just go back to your NLE
(imovie, FCE) and export a QT movie of the project, and use
Toast To author the DVD as a DVD-DL VIDEO-TS, thus maintaining
high quality. Once you do that, then use DVD2ONEX to shrink it
to DVD-5 ( DVD-R) and it will fit with great quality.

[toxicquack]

Thanks for your reply. I had the bare minimum in menu design etc. I attempted a mini experiment and under the Project Info I set the film to "Dual Layer" and "High Quality" - iDVD said it would need to re-encode, which was fine. It then exported the film to a "video_ts" folder (this took a few hours, similar to burning the actual DVD). which for some reason it now allowed me to do, without me changing any content on the DVD.

The video_ts file exported, I put it into Toast and chose "fit to DVD" compression. The video_ts file said it was over 7GB in size. Toast also said there would be a 37% percent compression (which sounded like a lot). Purely for experiments sake I began to compress / burn the film -- which only took about 30 minutes.

Once finished I checked the quality of the film and it was actually OK. Considering it said there would be a 37% compression I was expecting a lot worse.

Once again for experiments sake, I did remove some content from the DVD (a couple of images in a slideshow and shortened all of the menus to 5 seconds each) which made it just fit on a single layer disc without compression. I burnt the film at "professional quality" and waited once again (took about 4 hours to encode and burn).

Once the film was done I compared both of them and to be honest there was only a slight difference between the qualities. I noticed it as I work on films professionally so I picked up slight pixellation around text etc, but the difference between the two films was very slight. Most folks wouldn't notice any difference.

I dont know why it started allowing me to export a video_ts, however my initial concerns about compressing 7GB to 4.2GB were not really necessary. Thanks for your advice, it was a great help.

[terryj]

Your welcome!
I can't tell from your computer specs, but when iDVD polls the system
and it doesn't have access to a Dual Layer drive, it usually
gives the option to create a Video-TS folder instead of direct
author and burn. That may be why it "now allowed you to do."
Re-encoding whould be correct, it would take the original source
and re-encode it to the Target disc size ( DL) instead of the previous
(SL).

Glad you got it working!
If you have a link, post it to some of your film projects!
i'm always interested in what others are working on!

best,
terryj