conversion / compression question

[David Gordon]

Are you guys working on Macs or PCs?

What format are the MOVs in? (CODEC, frame size, frame rate etc)

[Matt Heeley]

Okay,

im using Sorenson Squeeze to convert the .MOV files to MPEG2 format.

the outputted files are the following spec:

MPEG2 frame size – 720 x 576
audio codec – mpeg layer 2 audio
video codec – mpeg-2 video
frame rate 25fps

what i need to know is how to get these MPEG2 files into a suitable format for burning onto a DVD to play on standard PAL DVD players in the UK.. or whether the specs above are suitable.. can i burn MPEG2 straight onto a DVD ?

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

You need a DVD authoring program.

A home theater DVD player (as opposed to a computer DVD player) can’t just look at MPEG2 files and play them. There has to be code on the DVD that tell the player how to access the data and how to play it.

So if you want to make this a playable DVD, look into any of the following programs – iDVD, Sony DVD Architect, Adobe Encore (Comes with Premiere Pro), even something as simple as Adaptech Easy DVD creator.

If you only have uncompressed video, most of these programs will convert your video to MPEG2 (which as you know can take some time) but if you feed it already-converted MPEG2 video many of them will skip that part, saving a lot of time.

But get one of those programs, or see if your computer came with a DVD authoring program.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com

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[Craig Seeman]

You didn’t mention whether it’s PC or Mac.
If it’s Mac I’d add DVD Studio Pro as a program to author DVDs.

You can create an “autoplay” DVD if that’s your intent.

You’d need to know how much info you’re putting on the disc to figure out the average data rate you’d need too. The range might be anywhere from 3.5Mbps to 6.5Mbps give or take but no one can give you that number without knowing duration and content per disc.