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  • Compression Suggestions

    Posted by Brian Lognner on August 18, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    Hello,

    Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have been put on a video project that I need some help on.

    I am using a mac running OSX 10.6.4 with a quad core 2.66 and 8gb ram.

    Using FCP 7.0.2, compressor 3.5.2 and DVDSP 4.2.2. All of which I believe are the latest versions.

    The video footage was taken off an XDCAM 50mbs tape, and using the XDCAM software, ripped and wrapped in quicktime (.mov) MPEG-2.

    Video footage is 720×486, 16:9, 29.97 fps.

    I hope that gets everything out of the way…

    Here is my issue. I have 4 volumes (66mins, 60mins, 44mins, 51mins) that I need on either 2 or 3 DVDs. I cannot split up the volumes in half, they are complete projects and need to stay intact. I have the ability to use DVD-9 and DVD-5s. How would you break this project up? would you put 2 volumes on a dvd-9 so you have 2 dvds?

    also: How would you change the compressor settings from the standard “DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes” to get the best quality because it is only compressing 60 minutes? I know that increasing the bitrate above 7ish will give DVD players issues. What else would you change?

    Is there a formula you guys use to help you figure this stuff out (based on video length)? any suggestions would be very helpful!

    Thanks a lot.

    Craig Seeman replied 16 years ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Chris Blair

    August 19, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    If you used dual-layer you could fit all four on one disc if you kept the compression to around 6 Mb/sec. That would be 221 minutes or 13260 seconds x 6 Mb (6000kb/sec) = roughly 7.9GB.

    There’s a DVD bitrate calculator on the videohelp.com site here that will give you a range of acceptable bit-rates you can use to fit your content on various disc sizes:

    https://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm

    Chris Blair
    Magnetic Image, Inc.
    Evansville, IN
    http://www.videomi.com
    Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog

  • Brian Lognner

    August 19, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    Chris,

    Thanks for your response.

    Any quick words on setting up the DVD layer break?

  • Chris Blair

    August 20, 2010 at 2:13 am

    No…not really…from what I’ve read there is usually a pause of from a half-second to several seconds as the laser transitions from the top layer to the bottom layer. I don’t know of any way to predict or reliably know where that will occur on the disc…so the only solution there would be to NOT use dual-layer and put two volumes each on a DVD-5 disc.

    Chris Blair
    Magnetic Image, Inc.
    Evansville, IN
    http://www.videomi.com
    Read our blog http://www.videomi.com/blog

  • Craig Seeman

    August 20, 2010 at 2:38 am

    I think ideally you try to find a natural break point so it’s not as noticeable. It would happen on the nearest I frame. At the end of a fade to black or on a still if there are any might be options.

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