[Mike Kujbida]

Rick, I personally don’t go below 4,000,000 either as a CBR value or as Average for VBR.
Depending on the quality your source material, this may need to be even higher.
My usual recommendation is to burn a short segment (just a few minutes) at the intended setting to an RW and see what it looks like on a TV.
That method, better than anything else, will tell you right away if it’s too low.

[Mike Kujbida]

Mary,
You’re quite welcome and I’m glad to know that it worked for you.

[Mike Kujbida]

Mary, is the white at an RGB value of 255-255-255 ?
If so, try it at 235-235-235 (maximum recommended for pure white for TV).
BTW, the recommended value for pure black for TV is 16-16-16.

[Mike Kujbida]

I forgot to add that, no matter what the bitrate calculator says in CBR or VBR mode, I never go over 8,000,000 for the Max. setting.
From various posts here and elsewhere, this is acceptable for a replicated DVD but not a burned one (what we all do) as exceeding this limit may lead to player problems.
It’s better to be safe than replacing an irate client’s DVD(s) 🙂

[Mike Kujbida]

The maximum (audio & video) file size for a single layer DVD can’t exceed 4.3 gigs so yes, you do need to adjust the bitrate when rendering from Vegas.
My bitrate calculator gives the following settings. This assumes AC-3 audio.

CBR: 5,000,000
VBR: 8,000,000 / 5,000,000 / 3,000,000
(Max. / Avg. / Min.)

Here’s a link to an online calculator on the VideoHelp site.

Here’s a link to Edward’s newsletter detailing the DVD authoring process.

Here’s a link to the bitrate calculator I use.
Note that this links to a zipped file.

Check my responses in the Correct Bitrate settings in Vegas for DVD Architect thread for the settings I recommend and why I do so.

[Mike Kujbida]

Sorry for the delay folks but, even on my quad core, a 2 hr. program still takes 2 hr. to render 🙂
Add to that the fact that I was installing trim in our newly painted bedrooms all day so I didn’t have a lot of time to “play”.

Here’s the details.

Program length – 2 hr. 8 min.
Render format:
AC-3 audio: (192 Kbps, 48,000 Hz, Stereo)
MPEG-2 video: (4:3) customized DVD Architect NTSC video stream.

All renders were single-pass VBR.

The bitrate calculator used was Mark’s DVD Bitrate Calculator version 1.06 with the Safety Margin at 1%, 3% and 5%.
Fixed menus was set to 1.
1 kilobit = 1024 bits was selected.

All render numbers were rounded down (for example, 2,680,000 becomes 2,600,000).

Here are the VBR settings (Max, Avg, Min) and resulting file sizes (according to the “Detailed View” in My Computer – more on this in a moment):

AC-3: 179,063 KB

MPEG-2 (1%): 4,195,478 KB
VBR:
7,800,000
4,400,000
2,600,000

MPEG-2 (3%): 4,101,242 KB
VBR:
7,600,000
4,300,000
2,600,000

MPEG-2 (5%): 4,006,802 KB
VBR:
7,500,000
4,200,000
2,500,000

According to these numbers, a 1% safety margin would put it over the allowable 4.3 GB limit but you think you’d be OK with the 3% and 5% margins.

However, here’s where my discrepancy comes in.
When you right-click on the files and select “Properties”, you get 2 different set of numbers (“Size” and “Size on disk” as shown here:

AC-3:
Size: 174 MB (183,360,000 bytes)
Size on disk: 174 MB (183,361,536 bytes)

MPEG-2 (1%):
Size: 4.00 GB (4,296,169,472 bytes)
Size on disk: 4.00 GB (4,296,171,520 bytes)

MPEG-2 (3%):
Size: 4.08 GB (4,383,031,808 bytes)
Size on disk: 4.08 GB (4,383,035,392 bytes)

MPEG-2 (5%):
Size: 3.82 GB (4,102,965,248 bytes)
Size on disk: 3.82 GB (4,102,967,296 bytes)

And, so you don’t have to do the math, here they are combined (what you need to figure out if it’s OK for DVD Architect):

Combined AC-3 + MPEG-2 (1%):
Size: 4.17 GB (4,479,529,472 bytes)
Size on disk: 4.17 GB (4,479,533,056 bytes)

Combined AC-3 + MPEG-2 (3%):
Size: 4.17 GB (4,479,529,472 bytes)
Size on disk: 4.17 GB (4,479,533,056 bytes)

Combined AC-3 + MPEG-2 (5%):
Size: 3.99 GB (4,286,325,248 bytes)
Size on disk: 3.99 GB (4,286,328,832 bytes)

As you can see, only the 5% Safety margin would be OK for DVD Architect.

My question for the computer gurus amongst you is “can we trust the first set of numbers or do we use the last set?”
Call me anal but I always use the latter set of numbers (right-click – Properties) as they’re the largest.
Unless I completely mess up my authoring procedure (it’s been known to happen!!) DVD Architect never tells me it has to re-render anything.

I hope this helps some folks and promotes further discussions on this issue.

[Mike Kujbida]

5% is probably a very conservative setting.
I’m doing renders on a 2 hr. project right now at 1%, 3% and 5%.
When they’re done, I’ll report my size findings.

[Mike Kujbida]

Rich, my solution was to go into the Settings and increase the “Safety Margin” to 5% (default is 1%, right?).
Based on past renders being well under the limit, this can probably be dropped 1% or 2% but I haven’t bothered doing it yet.

[Mike Kujbida]

When creating files for YouTube, render either a WMV (256 Kbps Video preset) or the iPod format [(MainConcept AVC/AAC(*.mp4)]. Use the 640×480 size if it’s available.

[Mike Kujbida]

Sorry Allie but that still doesn’t tell us anything about the codec being used.
Download and run a very helpful utility called GSpot (yes, that’s what it’s called) and let us know what it says as far as a codec.
Armed with that information, we might be able to help you.
Another thing that would help is if you could post a few seconds of a clip on a website somewhere for us to download and look at.