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How do they get all that film and extra’s onto a DVD? whats the process?
If people can get a whole film plus extras onto a DVD with such high quality. How does that work?
IS there a lossless decoder in our DVD machines i take it, but what codec are DVD’s written in to be able to get so much info at such high quality and how can i do it on my Mac at home with my 10GB projects?
Whats the process?
Thanks
Charlie
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4 Replies
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DVD’s use the MPEG-2 codec. It is very much not lossless.
There are several reasons why a commercially produced DVD can fit so much onto a single disc.
First, most commercial discs these days are dual-layer DVD’s, with a capacity of over 8GB. That’s twice the size of standard burnable media, though dual-layer media and burners are available now.
Second, commercial DVD production studios use very expensive MPEG encoding applications which let them fine-tune the encoding of the file. This allows them to manipulate the balance of quality and compression to give extra bits where it’s needed, and take them away where it’s not.
Third, they’re often starting with better source material which allows the compressor to do a better job. Consumer level video is usually quite noisy (visual noise), and noise wreaks havoc on the compression process. Starting with clean video from better quality cameras or from film eliminates a lot of the problems that folks like us run into.
Those are the main factors to my understanding. What can you do to make your DVDs look better and fit onto a smaller disc? I can only advise that you learn about the technology and the tools you’re learning. Since you’re asking good questions, you probably already know the basics. Compression is a balancing act, and it can get quite complex.
Adobe has a number of articles about digital video technologies that you may find are a good jumping-off point:
https://www.adobe.com/motion/primers.html -
Thanks for the information, will follow up with vigor.
theres so much to know and learn out there, ive mastered photoshop, illustrator, quark, getting there with AE slowly, teaching myself dreamweaver and DVD studio pro. and yet still have not got a job. Head and brick wall are words im well aquainted with now. c’est la vie.
I’ve only just discovered this web site and its a life saver. Thanks for all your help.
Charlie
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THIS IS WHY WE ARE CALLED PROFESSIONALS
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Well, SOME of us are called professionals.
I’ve been called a few other things too!
Jim
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com
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