DVD Bitrate Calculator Roundup

[groyal]

DVD Smart Bitrate Calculator
Features: Multi-VTS, multi-angle, multi-subtitle, multi-track bitrate calculator. Allows up to 10 VTS definitions, each with up to 8 audio tracks (five audio formats, up to seven channel modes per format, up to 20 selectable bitrates per mode). 1% - 9% variable safety margin. Automatic rate control (CBR or VBR MIN / AVG / MAX) calculated for each VTS independently. Detailed bitrate and file size analysis. User's guide.

Rui del-*****'s Bitrate and GOP Calculator
Features: Two audio modes / bitrates with manual override. Unlimited audio streams. Selectable rate control (CBR or VBR MIN / AVG / MAX). Mini-DVD and [S]VCD support. Custom media sizes. 2% fixed safety margin. Calculates suggested GOP settings. Displays estimated size of encoded audio and video assets plus remaining media capacity. User's guide.

VCD Help Bitrate Calculator
Features: General purpose bitrate calculator supporting DVD, Mini-DVD, [X][S]VCD, CVD and DivX. Multi-disc option, custom media sizes, provision for other assets. Unlimited audio tracks with manual bitrate override. On-site documentation.

Furball6969's DVD Bitrate Calculator
Features: General purpose calculator. DVD, Mini-DVD, [X][S]VCD and DivX support. Multi-disc option. Single audio track, selectable audio format and manual bitrate override. Fixed safety margin (25 MB DVD, 5-7 MB CD). Provision for other assets. Variable multiplex setting for MPEG-1 layer 2 audio. README file included.

PowerBIT
Features: Two audio tracks with up to 9 streams per track. DVD and Mini-DVD support. Provision for other assets. Estimated encoded audio and video sizes. No documentation.

CCE Guesser
Features: Optimized for conversions (such as DVD-9 to DVD-5) using CCE. Single and multi-pass calculation options. Variable safety margin. Reports estimated encoded video file size. No documentation.

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Anybody know of other calculators geared to DVD / Mini-DVD?

[dsilva42]

I tested some of those, and here are my impressions:

DVD Smart Bitrate Calculator: Looks powerful but a bit too confusing for me (keeps opening new windows). At one point it told me it was adding a safety margin of 30%, which sounds way too much. This seemed to be related to the number of subpicture streams (I don't know how it can calculate how much space these will take, since it's so variable). I would also prefer to see the results on the same page as the calculator, updated as I changed the values (so I can see exactly what effect my changes are makng, without having to click "calculate" when I make change).

Rui del-*****'s Bitrate and GOP Calculator: Nice (especially nice in Mozilla). I would prefer two separate fields for the available space, though (media size and existing asset size). It's easy to get around that (just subtract the values), but I'm lazy. The GOP suggestions are a nice feature. The rest of this site is also very good: plenty of information but presented in a way that even a relative newbie can understand.

VCD Help Bitrate Calculator: Nice and compact. Doesn't have GOP values like the previous one but it's very customisable. I suspect the values it produces are a bit too close to the limit, though (probably no security margin for muxing overhead, file headers, etc.). It also says 74-minute CDs have 738 MB, which is odd (my 74-minutes CDs say they have 650 MB).

PowerBIT: Pretty basic. The instructions on the site actually tell you not to trust the values reported by the calculator, and use a lower value. Why didn't he just change the calculator, then...??

- DS

[dilligaf]

Ive been using the bitrate calc in Ifoedit, I use 4500 Mb as the dvdr size, then usually lower the resultant bitrate a whisker for tmpenc. Eg if it calcs 4600 bitrate I'll use 4500.

[dsilva42]

I've never tried that one. In my experience, current versions of TMPGEnc actually keep about 2% below the average value you set, so it should be safe to use the calculator's value directly (unless it messes up the calculations, or the 1000 vs. 1024 conversions).

- DS

[Baldrick]

dsilva42: In vcd and svcd mode you can fit about 738 mb mpeg on a 74 min cd(minus some overhead = 735 MB). Read this http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/userguides/135642.php

Change to divx in the calculator and it calculates with normal 650 MB for 74 min.