[Rob Neidig]

It is absolutely possible to get 96 minutes on a single layer DVD-R with decent quality. You do not state what gear you are using, etc., but I would say that the order of importance for getting good quality are as follows:

1. A great source to start from. Hollywood movies look great to begin with, thus they are easier to compress and retain quality. Hollywood movies also cost millions to make.

2. A good MPEG2 encoder. I find that the Main Concept encoder that came with Premiere Pro is not all that great. I use Cinemacraft instead and get much better results. Hollywood uses systems that cost anywhere from about $50,000 for the encoder and authoring, up to about $250,000. Not quite the same as Encore and a cheap software encoder.

3. Some knowledge of how to do bit budgeting. You want to use the highest bit rate you can that will allow you to fit your content on the disc. Sure, if you do a dual layer disc like many Hollywood movies you can use a higher bitrate. But you also have the other issues of a dual layer disc, like the layer break, like trying to burn one yourself, compatibility with set-top players, etc. 96 minutes on a single layer DVD-R would mean you could use a rate of 6 megabits per second, assuming you are only doing a stereo dolby audio track. That should result in some pretty good quality – if you have good quality to start with.

For further reading:

“DVD Demystified” by Jim Taylor.
“DVD Authoring and Production” by Ralph LeBarge

Both are available through amazon.com I believe.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Producttions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

Once you have finishded your project in Audition, you should resample it to 16 bit, 48kHz before saving the files to import to Premiere. Otherwise you could end up with files not playing back as they should. I believe Premiere actually does this resampling for you (hence the folder with all the “Conformed audio” clips), but I would do it in Audition first to be sure it sounded like I wanted it.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Producttions
Eugene, Oregon

[Rob Neidig]

The Redbook audio specification (that’s tech talk for making a legal CD) requires all audio to be 16bit 44.1kHz. So your 48kHz audio is being played back as if it were 44.1, resulting in it sounding slow. Just use Audition to resample to 44.1 kHz before writing to CD and all will be well.

Have fun!

Rob

Rob Neidig
R&R Media Producttions
Eugene, Oregon