2 hour disc

[devdev]

hi there



I need to create a two hour long dvd with four chapters



The film will be given to me as one quicktime file (itwas shot sd 16:9 720x576) and then i'll have to split into four chapters.



Normally i use video mastering 4 to create the mpegsfirts (6500 kbs) and then authoring works 4 to create dvd but this time im notsure without that i can achieve this using the single layer standard -r dvdsthat i normally use because of the length (and i do not want reduce quality)



Questions:



1. Do you think that i can achieve this with a singlelayer -r disc without reducing quality?



2. If not, what do you recommend?

3. Should i use a double layer disc and if i have to - which brand since i am concerned about the quality as its a biggish duplication job

[aedipuss]

a quicktime file would have to be re-encoded anyway, it's not dvd compliant. use a bitrate calculator to determine the best bitrate(it should be around 4500kbps not bad but not great). not having seen the source it's hard to know if there is any quality that would suffer.

http://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php#Calculator

[sanlyn]

The bitrate you choose depends on the quality of the video. All re-encoding entails a loss to some degree, but it can be minimized with a high bitrate. You're better off using a high bitrate and burning to Verbatim dual-layer DVD+R. Lowering your bitrate for the new encode will defintely show a quality loss. Two hours of MPG on a single disc would entail something like a bitrate of 4500 VBR or thereabouts. That's not enough for a quality re-encode.

[jman98]

To echo what sanlyn says and to be sure you understand ...

If you decided to burn to a dual layer disc, then ONLY burn to Verbatim DVD+R DL.

If you cannot get Verbatim DVD+R DL discs or don't want to pay what they cost, then burn to a single layer disc.

If you burn to ANY other DL disc, you probably will have wasted your money on it.

[manono]

That's not enough for a quality re-encode.

Depends on the source, I'd say. Shaky handheld camcorder stuff, sure. A guy at a desk reading the news, no problem.

Me, I'd do a quality-based encode first to determine if it can be done for good quality to a DVD5, adjusting the quantization matrix used if necessary. If nothing can make it fit on a DVD5 with decent quality (quality for my own personal standards), then go to the DVD9. But I've seen plenty of good 2 hour videos on a DVD5 and made plenty more of my own. Sometimes some judicious filtering can make it more compressible without damaging the source noticeably.

[sanlyn]

Agreed. I have many good 2-hour DVD's myself -- from originally clean sources, or from carefully processed intermediate steps. I don't think the O.P. is going to go through a lot of cleanup. But you're correct, it depends on the source. Not much has been said about the original.

[devdev]

Hiya

And thank you all - one other question:

what's the likelihood of compatibility confilicts using DL+R verbatum discs for most destop dvd players ?

[sanlyn]

I've seen no complaints. AFAIK there are no major brands of dual layer DVD's other than DVD+R/DL. I might be wrong in that respect, and some older players might have a problem. But the standard in use today is DVD-R for single layer, DVD+R for dual. Single-layer DVD+R is still a problem for some machines.

[Janssen]

Yep it depends on the type of movie that's given. I crammed 9h30mins of video on one DVD (4.5GB), at 1000kbps and the results were surprisingly good in the circumstances. It was just me talking in a front of a static camera. No movements except me.

The kbps is relative to the source film.

As far as DL, i didn't go with that because of it's cost for xx copies. Altho if in the US there's some good deals here and there for DLs so it's cheaper, not necessarily elsewhere. Otherwise i'd have gone with DL.