Time to Render 30mins of MP4 to to 4.3GB DVD ?

[zzippy]

Hi

I'm a new user to VideoStudeo 11.5+ software with no previous experience in video editing.

Whilst finding the editing bit quite easy, I was surprised that it took over 5.5 hours to render 31min of MP4 clips to 4.3GB of DVD using my laptop pc - is this usual or do I need to optimise some settings ?

Is there an easy-to-understand tutorial or idiots guide someone can direct me to to explain time rendering should take ? If this process takes so long is it a job that everyone does overnight ?

Also is there an easy way I can find out how many mins of MP4 clips I can put on the timeline without exceeding the 4.38GB limit for DVD conversion without having to go into Share tab and load project - or is it always about 30ish mins equal full DVD ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Clevo]

Howdy zzippy,

Wikipeadia has lots of info on video formats and a good place to start.

The speed at which these rendering and authoring takes depends a lot on your PC system. Even then, you might have applications and processes open in the background that could slow things down even more. Considering each person's system is unique calculating rendering times is subject to too many factors to have one calculator that can calculate these times. Even if you have given us your PC configuration there is no certain way of providing any reference to the times taken in any precise manner.

However, MPeg4 is a very compressed video format and you are UP sizing to a better quality DVD Mpeg2 format. You system has to ADD lots of extra information from the very compressed information you are giving it. So I'm not surprised that 30 mins of MP4 is taking that long to render.

I'd be interested to see what you think of the quality afterwards.

and yes... it's normal to do these things overnight.

[Ken Berry]

In addition to what Clevo has said, you are not only up-converting, but doing it on the fly as part of a burning process. A much more usual workflow would be be to first convert the mpeg-4 to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 using either the Share > Create Video File > DVD option in Video Studio, or else using a third party application like SUPER.

And I *never* render overnight. First, the time my computer takes is never so terribly long (though I agree that some processes on some computers can seem to take forever). And second, I am probably too much of a Virgo control freak who likes to be aware immediately if something has gone wrong with a render; or conversely to see if one has gone right immediately it has finished!

[Clevo]

And I *never* render overnight. First, the time my computer takes is never so terribly long (though I agree that some processes on some computers can seem to take forever). And second, I am probably too much of a Virgo control freak who likes to be aware immediately if something has gone wrong with a render; or conversely to see if one has gone right immediately it has finished!

Hehe...I'm a bit of both. Sometimes I just need to keep an eye on things.

[etech6355]

MovieFactory 6+ has a feature "Shutdown the computer when finished rendering/burning".
Nice feature to have when you need to go out and leave the computer unattended.

[2Dogs]

However, MPeg4 is a very compressed video format and you are UP sizing to a better quality DVD Mpeg2 format. You system has to ADD lots of extra information from the very compressed information you are giving it. So I'm not surprised that 30 mins of MP4 is taking that long to render.

If the footage was converted to DVD compatible mpeg2 format, using 4.3Gb for a 31 minute clip, I can only assume that it was HD. SD mpeg-2 would use a maximum of around 2.1 Gb at the highest DVD compliant bitrate.

If it is HD, it really isn't too surprising that the rendering time is so long. Perhaps people don't appreciate how much more processing is required for HD video.

If, on the other hand, the video output is in fact SD mepg2, it will not be playable on a standalone DVD player. It's possible to choose mpeg-2 in VS, as opposed to DVD, and set the video bitrate to 20,000 kbps or more. You could then decide to fill a single layer disc with the video, and thereby "maximise" the resulting image quality. That would be misguided. You can't add to the picture quality of the original mpeg-4 footage - any re-encoding will result in a loss of quality. Encoding to such a high bitrate would not take significantly longer than encoding to a normal bitrate, though possibly a bit longer on a laptop with a single, relatively slow hard drive.

I guess it shows that in order to give any meaningful answers, more information is required, and HD video will increasingly result in more deeply confused users.

[etech6355]

I think he's reading the 4.3 gig size in the burning module, meaning a single layer dvd.

[2Dogs]

I think he's reading the 4.3 gig size in the burning module, meaning a single layer dvd.

Could well be, but let's face it, without any hard information, we're just guessing.

It's like posting "My car won't start! What's wrong with it?"

[etech6355]

Yes, and there are so many helpful users on this forum if the person is new to video editing they may feel intimidated to post back again. It's like "What the heck are they talking about", I thought this would be easy.

If you read the VS retail box or ads (or any video editing software), all these programs make video editing appear easy.

BTW- Some MP4's that are using the h264 codec 1280x720p take an extremely long time to convert to mpeg2 format. I downloaded some samples on the internet from the Sanyo camcorder and even on my Q6600 machine it took a very long time to convert them to dvd format in VS11+. They were in the MP4 container format.