Secrets of commercial DVDs

[Banji Abereoje]

I read a whole lot round this site lately: I saw myself doing some things I least imagine I could do. Whao! This site is rich & full of brains. You guys are just good. Thx.

I’ve read interesting contributions of pple like Ken, Steve, Ron, BlackLab, etc on how a computer will do a standard down conversion DV > Mpeg2 in about 1.25 to 1.5 times real time of the original video & in some cases about 1.5 to 3 times the original following the forum recommended procedure. This is still getting me stunned.

What then is the secret of commercial DVDs most of which have over 10 full movies inside 1 disc? Could they have spent months to make 1 movie disc? Or what are compression devices or bit rates being used, yet they have good qualities?

BA

[mitchell65]

I think you will find that commercial DVD making uses programs and hardware costing many, many thousands of pounds, dollars etc

[Ken Berry]

Not only do they have highly expensive studio programs which can do up to 20 passes to squeeze the most video in yet still get good quality (we only get up to 2 passes), but commercial videos are 'pressed' into the disc, and not burned as we have to do...

[oRBIT2002]

What then is the secret of commercial DVDs most of which have over 10 full movies inside 1 disc? Could they have spent months to make 1 movie disc? Or what are compression devices or bit rates being used, yet they have good qualities?

BA

I've never seen "10 full movies inside 1 disc".. The secret however of fitting two movies (perhaps one theatrical and one directors cut) into one disc is "seamless branching". Which means that only the part of directors cut that's not included in the theatrical version are encoded and then "inserted" into the theatrical version during playback. A pretty clever idea.

[mitchell65]

I've never seen "10 full movies inside 1 disc".. The secret however of fitting two movies (perhaps one theatrical and one directors cut) into one disc is "seamless branching". Which means that only the part of directors cut that's not included in the theatrical version are encoded and then "inserted" into the theatrical version during playback. A pretty clever idea.

Not something to attempt in Video Studio, I guess?

[Ron P.]

Oh sure you can do that in VS.. as long as those 10 movies don't exceed the capacity of the disc.. 10 movies, 6 minutes each..

[sjj1805]

I think the cost of the software and equipment they use in Hollywood far exceeds that of the average domestic computer!

[Ron P.]

I think the cost of the software and equipment they use in Hollywood far exceeds that of the average domestic computer!

The house I currently live in is valued at about $30k with a very large detached 2-car garage/shop. I could buy 3-4 of my houses for the same cost of the multi-pass encoders that Hollywood uses..

[mitchell65]

I think the cost of the software and equipment they use in Hollywood far exceeds that of the average domestic computer!

Lets all have a word with Accolades

[sjj1805]