5 hours needs DVD-9 but should I just use DLT?

[Michael Sacci]

It is more than writing to two DLT your project needs to be a DVD-9 with a valid layer break. Most retail DVDs are DVD-9s. The majority of problems are authoring mistakes. A DVD-9 would be a lot cheaper to manufacture than 2 DVD-5s.

5 hours is a lot to get onto a DVD-9 so you will be lowering quality. Need to average 3.4 Mbps on the video if you use ac3 audio at .192 Mbps.

[Corey Rybicki]

I agree…this needs to be a DVD-9.

I was a lil freaked out too when I had to burn my first dual layer. I thought there was a different process and figured it was just a jerry rigged technique to create a “real” DVD anyway…but just as Michael said in the previous post, almost every DVD you buy or rent is a DVD-9 and the process is almost exactly the same as if you were authoring a DVD-5.

The only real difference is setting the layer break point. Encore will set it automagically, but if it has a problem, it will let you set it manually. Encore help has a detailed section on how to do this. Just do a search for “layer break” it’s really not a big deal… Place it at the beginning of the 6th episode if you have to do it manually and it should work just fine.

Also, you’ll need to change the settings to dual layer in the disc settings panel…and if you need help with transcoding at 3.4 Mbps, just let me know…

Regards

[Bob Cole]

Michael, how did you come up with that 3.4 Mbps so fast? Do you have access to a data rate calculator? I found one on this page https://www.planetoftunes.com/dvd/videocalc.html
but it jumps from 3 Mbps to 4 Mbps depending on exactly how many minutes of video I input.

[Corey Rybicki] “if you need help with transcoding at 3.4 Mbps, just let me know…”

Corey, is there a special trick to transcoding at such a low data rate?

I have a Digital Rapids card housed in a HP8200 and was planning just to reset a Profile to the appropriate data rate — but I’ve never used such a low data rate, so if there are some “gotchas” I’d appreciate knowing more about them.

Thanks Michael and Corey. I feel very much reassured that this will not be the Hindenberg of DVDs…. possibly.

Bob C

[Corey Rybicki]

“is there a special trick to transcoding at such a low data rate?”

Nope, no special tricks. If you want to customize your bitrate settings in encore, goto file>transcode>edit project transcode presets. Just remember to save the preset. There are three icons at the top next to the preset drop down menu that will allow you to import, save, or delete a preset.

I typically use VBR(variable bit rate) but you will be good using a CBR(constant bit rate)of 3.4Mbs for now, and will have about a half gig of space to spare for menus and anything else. Using CBR will be the fastest and least complicated method. For audio use dolby digital 192kbps at 48kHz(default)

I would recommend transcoding one episode with these settings, if the quality is acceptable, and the the size of the m2v file(mpeg2) is just under 750Mb’s and the Ac3 is under 45mbs you’re good to go. These files are located in the folder with the same name of your project and in the same directory you saved your project. once you open the folder, goto sources>transcodes and you will see the files.

If there are extreme artifacts, its most likely that there are some fast movements in the video and you’ll probably have to do a VBR 2 pass transcode to clean this up.

I have to run, but if you have any specific questions or run into problems just keep posting…

regards