max time on DVD

[Mike Kujbida]

The final length depends almost exclusively on the quality of your source video.
The better it is, the longer your final video can be.

For example, I shot a stage play last month that ended up being 2 1/2 hr. long.
I was a bit nervous about putting it on a single layer (dvd-5) vs. dual layer (dvd-9) disc so I checked to see what the the bitrate settings should be on the bitrate calculator I always use and encoded a short test segment (2-pass VBR).
I found it to be acceptable so I encoded the disc and haven’t had any complaints.

Just so you know, the play was professionally lit and I was using a 3 chip camera with 1/2″ CCDs and a good lens.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Mike,

I understand that it depends on many factors. Now I know that 2.5 hours is not impossible. I now have 3 related questions:

1. Is it safe to say that rendering an .mpg2 in Vegas Pro and using the default DVD Architect DVD production settings will provide a top quality DVD for my client?

2. Do I need to be concerned with all this CBR/VBR/1-pass/2-pass/bit-rate issues when creating a DVD?

3. Let’s say I have a simple (non-motion) menu system, and creating the DVD fron an mpg2 render.. what would be the approx. max video length on a single layer DVD?

I hope my question make sense.
GIlles

[Mike Kujbida]

1. Setting a custom bitrate takes very little time and maximizes your quality so I don’t see the point in using the defaults.

2. If it’s under 70 min. long, I use a CBR of 8,000,000.
Anything longer and it’s the VBR setting as determined by the bitrate calculator I use (https://www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip).
If the video is of questionable quality, I do it as a 2-pass VBR, otherwise single pass is OK.

3. I know of users who have done single layer DVDs that were over 3 hr. long.
It all depends on the content.
An evenly-lit talking head against a low contrast background will stand up to a long encode much better than a 3 hour concert with lighting levels all over the place.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Mike,

I see that I’ll have to learn how to master the DVD properly. I downloaded the bitcalculator. It’s quite daunting 🙂 !

Can you point me to an article on how to select all the correct settings to render a DVD at best quality?

Or…

is there a template in Vegas Pro that I should use?

CHeers,

[Mike Kujbida]

“I downloaded the bitcalculator. It’s quite daunting 🙂 !”

Trust me when I say that it looks more complicated than it is.
All I do is select the Disk Type (usually DVD-5), the Audio encoding (192 is the default AC-3 setting in Vegas), set the desired length and choose CBR or VBR.

The extent of my customization of it is clicking Settings (bottom left), clicking “1 Kilobit = 1000 bits”, setting “Audio encoding type and Bitrate” to 192 Kb/s and setting the Safety Margin to 5%.
This last setting ensures that my DVD will fit and, after years of using this calculator and those settings, it hasn’t let me down yet.

“Can you point me to an article on how to select all the correct settings to render a DVD at best quality?”

I always recommend Issue #1 Volume 7 of Edward Troxel’s newsletters.
It was written for an earlier version of Vegas/DVDA but most of what’s in it is still applicable today.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Mike,

I’ve downloaded the pdf.

Is there a vegas pro render template that will do a great job at rendering for a DVD without going through the bitcalculator, etc?
g

[Gilles Gagnon]

Hi Mike, Trying to put 135 minutes of video on a DVD. bit calculator says I should use a cbr of 4328 or vbr of avg 4328, max 7568. it says the quality would be “good” at 44% —– from your experience, should I go for this setting? will quality be acceptable? I’m wondering if I’ll have to put it on 2 DVDs instead.——-(I still don’t know why I can’t create a linefeed when I post…argggghhh!) —-Gilles

[Mike Kujbida]

Gilles, all I can suggest is to render out a short segment at this setting at see what you think of it.
Burn it to DVD and watch it on a TV that you trust.
That’s what I did when I encoded the 2 1/2 hr. play I mentioned earlier.
I rendered out a 5 min. section that had both light and dark scenes as well as static shots and ones with a lot of action.
This gave me something that I could judge with a good degree of accuracy.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Thanks Mike,

I hadn’t thought of doing a short segment at that rate.

Thanks!
Gilles