First I must remind members on the board's rules regarding PMs to Moderators and Admin. It is best to post questions in the open forums. Doing so, others may benefit from the answers provided, and there are many members with a great amount of knowledge and experience that can provide the answers.Thetracer wrote:Hi, I am directly contacting you as you seem to have given me the best answers regarding my questions.
My situation is that after putting the project together, it came out to be larger than my DVD which is 4.7GB. So I ask..
- Is there any larger DVDs that I can buy? i have searched around and noticed there is double sided disk that come up to a total of 9GB, If I was to use one of these, would it still be like a normal DVD? will the menu still be intact or will it be split, as in 4.7 of the menu and its content on one side then the remaining 2.3 GB on the other along with the relevant menu sectuin? (if that makes any sense) Or will it will be a complete menu and not require a flip over while watching.
-Is there a way to save the project including the modifications made to the menu? I have saved the project as it is, but will need to do the menu again when I get a bigger DVD disk.
-I am currently burning the entire proejct as a .iso in hopes that once I get a disk I can just burn that straight onto the DVD, however its coming out to be 14GB will this be the case when I burn it onto the DVD? or am I mistaken some how.
Thank you for your help
First question "Are there any larger DVDs (then the 4.7 gig)..."? Yes as you have pointed out, there are DVD9 discs. Which are not double sided, but Dual Layer discs. They hold about 8.5 gig on a disc. A true DVD9 is a pressed disc. The ones that you would use to burn are often referred to as DVD9 but are really DVD +R DL.
With that being said, you can only fit about 8.5 gig on a disc. So if your video file size is 14 gig, it will not fit on a Dual Layer disc. There are some adjustments that can be made. This needs to occur when you create your DVD Compliant MPEG-2 video file. You will need to use a lower bitrate. This also depends on where your source video came from. Is it video from a SD (Standard Definition) camcorder, a VCR, TV? If so you can use a bitrate of 4500kbps-6500kpbs and not loose any quality. This will allow more space for your video to fit onto a disc.
You need also to consider your audio format. LPCM is a raw audio format, and yields large file sizes. Dolby digital is a compressed audio format, that maintains it's quality, but yields a much smaller file size.
As far as the menu structure for Dual Layer Discs, I'm at a loss, as I don't use them. I would suspect that you will need to create your ISO file, as a dual layer disc. It probably will not be able to adjusted after the fact.
Next there are programs available that "shrink" your video files so that that can fit onto DVDs. Have a look in our Free Stuff for Ulead Products section for helpful applications to shrink, and even a bitrate calculator that will aid in determining what bitrate you need to encode your video files, so they will fit onto your DVDs.
Yes you can save your project, and open it later. I don't know if you're using VS (and what version) or DVDMF (which version). Before closing the program make sure you elect to save it, and be sure to give it a name. Once you click to close the program, and it gives that "false" prompt about saving your project, if you do not elect to "Save or Save As" from the File Menu, then it does not save anything.