bitrate calculation

[Marlen Mathers]

I’ve got a couple I can share, but not sure how to post them here..

[Graham Bernard]

Love it!

https://www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip

Grazie

[Mike Kujbida]

As usual, Grazie’s right.
I’ve been using that calculator for several years now and it’s never let me down.
A few suggestions for you.
In spite of what the calculator says, never go over 8,000,000 for a MAX value.
Burned DVDs (what we create) can have problems on some players if you exceed this value.
Always use name brand media with Taiyo-Yuden and Verbatim being the most recommended brands.
If the project is under 70 min. long, use a CBR of 8,000,000.
If it’s longer, use the calculator to find the proper VBR numbers.
If the video is of even slightly marginal quality (poor lighting, etc.), do it as a 2-pass.
This will take longer to encode but the result will be worth it.

Lastly, I get the following numbers for your project.
8,000,000 / 5,040,000 / 3,024,000

[Pikea Manley]

Thanks, guys. This whole digital media thing is killing me. I got totally different responses with my attempts at the calculator and just don’t understand the process. I’m reading through the documentation on the calc and trying to figure out what it all means, but using Mike’s calcs for a new rendering and just sort of hoping it works out.

Thanks for taking the time to help the newb. This is my third martial arts instructional project and my longest by 40%.

[Pikea Manley]

Yikes. 4.6 gigs. I’ve been trying to duplicate your calcs with the calculator and I guess I’m missing something here. Can you perhaps through me an assist and help me get it down to about 4.4 so I can get the theme song in there? Thanks guys!

[Mike Kujbida]

Pikea, unless you have some motion menus in your project that you haven’t mentioned, the numbers I gave you should work.
BTW, this assumes AC3 audio as a WAV file would be far too large for a project of this length.

To be on the really safe side, bump it up to a 2 hr. DVD and use the following settings:
8,000,000 / 4,688,000 / 2,808,000

[Pikea Manley]

Okay…back on the project now. I just tried to duplicate Mike K’s numbers on the bitcalc and here is what I came up with:

m: 2976
Av: 4960
M: (never exceed 8M–their’s were more)

I bumped to a two hour per Mike’s suggestions. I tried using the original suggestions last night to finish this (endless….CEASELESS…God Help Me…) project and clocked in at 4.8G 🙁

I know I’m doing something wrong here, but I just can’t figure out what. I’m figuring 8 FIXED menus for the scene selection, 4 minutes for the credit and menu music, VBR, etc. I have no idea what VTS or DVD-Rom Data fields are for. I’m gonna give ‘er a whirl with Mike’s numbers.

[Mike Kujbida]

Pikea, I set my Safety Margin to 5% (the default is 1%) so I’m sure that’s why the discrepancy between your numbers and mine.