Variable Bit Rate for Vegas to DVDA (Media too large)

[Mike Kujbida]

Gilles, what puzzles me is that DVDA is supposed to be able to do this for you automatically.
Maybe there is an oversize limit where it refuses to work but I’ve never heard of it.

[Gilles Gagnon]

Yes, Mike… puzzling.

I ended up doing 2 DVDs. so if DVDA does it automatically, I’m curious as to why I would “compress” in the render phase?

Gilles

[Mike Kujbida]

You have a lot more control (CBR vs. VBR, 2-pass, etc.) when rendering from Vegas.

[Dan Myers]

Steve and Mike,

Thanks for your responses. I am in the process of rendering it now at the values Mike suggested and I will start experimenting with the bit rate calculator.

When I contacted Vegas tech support about this, they suggested I use a dual layer DVD. I understand that the capacity is much greater, but what about the compatibility with the variety of DVD players on the market? Is this an issue or are they relatively safe to use?

Thanks again for your quick responses.

[Stephen Mann]

And when you let DVDA do it for you, you are recompressing already compressed video. Do it all in Vegas and just use DVDA to prepare and burn the DVD’s.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[David Shirey]

That was always sort of standard to just say dual-layer discs are less compatible than DVD-R’s, and it is true. I no longer own any dvd player that can’t handle dual layer discs just fine, but you never know when some client could have a 10 year old dvd player or just a really cheap player that might screw up on the layer break. I won’t lie though, if you’re doing a full 2 hours on a single layer DVD-R, it’s going to look a lot better on dual layer. Whether that’s worth the risk is up to you though.

[Gilles Gagnon]

great info David. It makes me want to start using DL disks from now on.

Do I need a special type of burner?
Any other drawbacks aside from the potential “compatibilit” issue??

Gilles

[Dave Haynie]

Yeah, dual layer can be a real issue.

Older players had quite a list of bugs, and unfortunately, at the dawn of DVD, some of these bugs were in the Philips devkit code. So unless you were a company like Pioneer, who developed their own DVD implementation head to toe, you probably failed to read DVD-RW, maybe even DVD-R, on players made some years before these formats existed. I had a Pioneer from back then, and it worked just dandy on all of the newer DVD formats.

Much of this is based on reflection. A glass mastered DVD returns 80% of the light it’s hit with. A DVD-R has to return at least 45% to meet spec, and a DVD+RW at least 25%. But one of the bugs was that, if the player saw 35% or less reflectance, it automatically assumed a dual-layer disc (glass mastered, of course).

I haven’t seen any hard numbers on the reflectance of the second layer on a dual-layer DVD-R, but it can’t be great. And it’s kind of an exotic form .. BD-Rs cost less per disc than DVD-R-DL or DVD+R-DL. DVD manufacturers test with DVD-R and DVD+R, but DVD-R-DL is less likely. And more subject to issues as the disc and player age.

-Dave