How Much Fits on a DVD?

[tyty998]

I found information in this forum indicating that how long a movie fits on the DVD depends on the bit rate. I know that I have faced this issue before, and after wrestling with VideoStudio 8 for a while, I found where to change settings to enable a file longer than an hour long fit on a regular DVD.

I am feeling a bit foolish now, but I can't figure out where to change that again. Can anyone direct me?

[Ron P.]

Hi tyty998,

In VS8, in the Burn Module, click on the cogwheel icon at the lower left. This will open the Project Settings pop-up dialog box. Then click on the Change MPEG Settings. Scroll down to Customize, select it. Now the Customize dialog box opens, which has 2 tabs. Choose the 2nd one (Compression). Now you should see where you can set the bit rate...


Hope that helps...

Ron P.

[tyty998]

Thank you, Ron.

Found it. This makes my life much much simpler.

[2Dogs]

and if you're looking to get the highest video bitrate possible, use a compressed audio format instead of LPCM. Since you have VS8, and unless you have the Dolby digital plugin, you'll be limted to a choice of LPCM or MPEG audio. Although MPEG is not part of the NTSC standard (if you're in NTSC land) it is generally supported by most set top NTSC DVD players.

[daddog]

I never played with the bit rate before. In VS9 what would I want for a high quality?

[Ken Berry]

Difficult to say, not knowing what your source files are. If they are digital and have been captured as DV format for editing, then the end product would look something like this for the best quality:

720 x 480, Lower Field First, Bitrate VBR max. 8000 kbps, LPCM audio (or Dolby AC-3).

But if the source is analogue, then you would probably (depending on which capture device you use) be using Upper Field First and there would not be much point using a Bitrate of more than 6000 kbps as there will probably be no detectable improvement in visual quality above that. Indeed, 4000 - 5000 kbps would probably be sufficient.