VBR Rates for HDV

[Jim Murphy]

I’m rendering again with the output set to DVD. I am thinking that should work. Jim

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz

[Mike Kujbida]

Jim, that’s what you need to do for a regular DVD.
IMO, your bitrate is too low though.
My calculator gives me a VBR of 8,000,000 / 6,544,000 / 3,920,000.
The higher Average value means better image quality.
This assumes that you’re using AC-3 audio.

[Jim Murphy]

Mike, Here is what puzzles me. Even with the low VBR I am getting an error message. So, I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Any ideas? TIA, Jim

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz

[Mike Kujbida]

Jim, DVDA has a LONG history of incorrectly reporting file sizes.
Before I load the MPEG-2 & AC-3 files into DVDA, I double-check that the the combined total is under the allowable limit.
It always is but I do this anyway as old habits die hard 🙂
I then ignore any file size warnings that it gives me and tell it to go ahead.
Once I do this, it proceeds as normal without any re-compression or further warnings.

[Jim Murphy]

Mike, I was able to produce a DVD, but I am not happy with the results. I know I set the VBR rates lower than recommended, and that is what makes the DVD look crappy in places, but even with those low rates my less than 80 min. project ended up with 4.8 GB MPEG2 file after the render. I know I had a fair amount of color correction etc., but I don’t understand what is going on. Here are my settings on the “render as” screen:

Template: HDV 1080-60i

On the “custom/video” screen:
Output: HDV
Width 1440;height 1080;aspect ratio 16:9; profile main; level high 1440; video quality 15
For the audio I am using AC3.
Variable bit rate, 2 pass: I think the last average rate I set was 5,542,000 with a max of 8,000,000 and a minimum of 2,000,000. Again, I realize these are lower than they should be, but why am I getting such a large MPEG2 file?

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz

[Mike Kujbida]

Output: HDV

That’s probably why.
I’m assuming that you want to make a standard single-layer DVD, not a dual layer or Blu-Ray DVD.
If this is the case, you have no choice but to use a DVD template, not an HDV one.
Try the “DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream” template with the following VBR settings (good for an 80 min. program):
7,848,000 / 7,136,000 / 3,568,000

Understand too that you’re taking an HDV signal and compressing it down to SD quality so the result can never look as good as your source material 🙁

[Jim Murphy]

Mike, I’ve been trying so many variations I am getting my aging brain fits…I should be keeping a record of what I am doing. I did try the output as DVD a time or two, but I got error messages, so I gave up that attempt. That happened even after I switched to the NTFS drive.

I will render again using the settings you recommend.

BTW, could you leave a link to the VBR rates you are using? Thanks again for hanging in there with me. I appreaciate it. Jim

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz

[Mike Kujbida]

Jim, these posts will remain here almost forever.
If you ever lose this thread, do a search on your name, my name or the thread name and you’ll find it.
BTW, here’s a link to the bitrate calculator I use all the time.
https://www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip

[Jim Murphy]

Yes, that’s the link I was looking for. Thanks, Jim

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz

[Jim Murphy]

This worked very well. Thanks for all your help. Jim

Vegas Pro 8 DVDA 5 Excalibur

Dell Quad Core 2.67 GHz