best render settings for DVD

[Steve Rhoden]

Thats funny,
Because “mpeg2-DVD architect video stream/Blue-ray video stream”
are the correct templates to use when rendering your projects for
DVD…You may think WMV is giving you better quality if you
play it back in windows media player.

Any way if you search the forum you can see this topic
covered more in-depth.

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.
sample bits at
http://www.youtube.com/hentys

[Gwendle Murray]

Well that is funny, because I can notice a considerable difference in quality when I export the files as wmv instead of the DVD architect template, and not just on the computer but on the TV where it matters.

[Steve Rhoden]

Well, I’m Pointing you in the professional approach or
the format set by the industry for definite reasons.
….But, whatever works for you….

Steve Rhoden
Creative Director
TNX EFFECTS STUDIOS.
sample bits at
http://www.youtube.com/hentys

[Lee Wise]

Excuse me for jumping in here, but I have been following this thread with interest and I have tried your suggestions, Steve, and DVD Architect 5.0 is giving me a little trouble. I rendered to mpeg-2 a 70 min. video. After importing it into DVD Architect, it tells me that there is not enough room for this video on a 4.7GB DVD. I clicked on the fit to disc button which adjusted the bit rate down to where the video would fit. But then when I try to make DVD, an error message pops up that says it can’t re-compress because the bit rate is set too low.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Lee

[David Shirey]

It’s not a great idea to render an mpeg2 then have DVD Architect recompress it to a smaller mpeg2. If you’re not sure about what bitrate you’ll need to fit a project on a dvd-r, I would either A) Export from Vegas as an uncompressed AVI then let dvd architect fit it to mpeg2, or B) use a video bitrate calculator either on the web or a downloadable program like VideoCalc, to determine the best bitrate you can use and still be able to fit on a 4.7 gig dvd-r.

As for the guy playing WMV’s on a tv… I don’t know a lot of dvd players that play wmv files. Standard definition mpeg2 may not be perfect but it’s kind of what we’re stuck with in terms of market saturation at this point. If you’re playing the mpeg2’s in windows media player then they aren’t going to look as good as they will once they’re burned to a dvd and played on a decent dvd player.

[Mike Kujbida]

Lee, what render template(s) did you use?
The settings in the default “DVD Architect NTSC video stream” template will definitely allow a 70 min. video to fit on a 4.7 GB DVD.

edit: even with a custom CBR setting of 8,000,000, a 70 min. video will still fit on a single-layer DVD.

[Lee Wise]

I used the Main Concept MPEG-2, and the DVD Architect NTSC video stream template. Did I miss any option settings?

Thanks,

Lee

[Mike Kujbida]

You can accept the default settigns for this template or make the following changes.

Click the “Custom” button and then the “Video” tab.
VBR is the default for this template so, if you’re going to use it, I’d change the “Minimum” setting from 192,000 (IMO, that’s far too low) to 2,000,000.
Save this as a preset by going to the bar at the top of this tab and (my suggestion) add the word “mod” to the end of the Template line.
This way, it shows up as a render option and all you have to do is select it instead of going through these extra steps.
As I said, VBR is the default but I generally prefer to use CBR.
Click the CBR button and make sure it’s set to 8,000,000.
Save this as a preset by adding (again, my suggestion) “8MB CBR” to the template line and saving it.
If your final video is no longer than 70 min., an 8MB CBR setting will work.
If it’s longer than this, you’ll need to use a Bitrate Calculator to determine proper settings.

All the above is for MPEG-2 only.
You’ll need to render an AC-3 file for the audio as well.
As long as both files have the same surname (eg. myvideo.mpg & myvideo.ac3) and get rendered to the same folder, when you load the video file into DVD Architect, the audio file will follow automatically.
You’ll need to tweak the AC-3 settings to get consistent audio on playback as follows:

Encode set to AC3;
Click on custom tab;
Dialog normalization: -31 dB;
Dynamic range compression: None;
On the first tab set diag. norm to “-31”;
On the last tab marked preprocessing;
Set the Line Mode & RF mode profiles to “None”;
Now save this as a preset.

[Lee Wise]

Thanks, Mike! I will certainly give these settings a try. I appreciate the detailed response–and so quickly, too. This is turning out to be one of the best forums I have participated in. Thanks to ALL! And keep up the good work!

Lee

[Jordan Abbey-young]

Mate there is a way to fit any Video size to a DVD.

I was making a DVD for a local Quad Rally, it ran for 2 and a half hours and was 30GB in AVI Form. It would not fit through normal DVD Architect means of course.

So I got DVD Shrink. Through DVD Arhcitect you have the option to burn and ISO Image, with DVD Shrink you take the ISO Image which has everything in your DVD Menu and it will fit that menu to fit either a 4.7GB DVD or an 8.5GB DVD, depending on your choice. 30GB’s go fit onto a 4.7GB with no loss of quality.

Give it a go, it saved my butt a lot.

https://www.dvdshrink.org/

Life’s about being entertained.