Movie too long-cannot burn to DVD (AVHCD Format)

[sgallant]

I'm new to video editing and also VS X4, but have been able to create a movie from Canon HFM 301 camera using imported clips (AVHCD). The total movie length is 1:25. When I go to burn disc, it informs me it is too long and canot fit on a single disc (4.7 GB) but there seems to be no alternatives available, for example, how to compress, etc. Do I have to manually create a second movie for a second disc? Are there settings or another step I need to take?

Thanks!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Welcome to the forums.

When you create a video file the Bit Rate (Data rate) controls the size of the file.
The longer the video the lower the bit rate, this will then create a file small enough to fit to disc.

You could create the video file first ensuring it is under 4.3 Gb
However I assume you have completed the editing, then Share Create Disc-Avchd

There is an icon shaped like a cogwheel, lower left (Project Settings)
Change Mpeg settings-Custom will allow you to reduce the Video Data Rate.

The lower green bar should indicate the size of the final file.

Having said all that…………
I think your movie is quite long at 85 minutes when burning to a standard DVD.
4.3 Gb is small when using HD.

So yes to keep full quality you may have to create two discs

[sgallant]

Trevor:

Many thanks for your prompt reply and suggestion, which I will try. Is the only way to create two discs, if needed, by splitting the movie clip by clip, or is there another way to split it?

Thanks again!

Stuart

[BrianCee]

another option would be to burn a dual layer disc - providing you have a capable DVD burner in your computer.

[Ken Berry]

If it is all one single project, then it would be logical to find a point roughly midway through it to make a cut. Delete the second half and save the remainder as a New Project with a different name. Then close that new project and reopen your original project. It will still be there in its full form. Then make the same cut again but this time delete the first half and save the second half as a new project with a different name again. So now you will have two projects which can be burned separately to different discs.

I trust you realise first off that an AVCHD disc can only be played on a Blu-Ray player rated to play such discs. Your player would need to have a sticker along its top which looks like this:

AVCHD Logo.jpg (4.76 KiB) Viewed 1978 times

Second, even an AVCHD disc which has 42 minutes of AVCHD is rather long for such a disc. It would use a maximum bitrate of somewhere down around 10 - 12 Mbps compared to your original which would be anything between 16 and 27 Mbps. So the quality will be considerably less than the original and not much better, if any, than a standard definition DVD. I have burned about 52 minutes of AVCHD to an AVCHD disc, but the resulting quality was so poor (to me, at least) that I never did that again. Instead, I use the maximum bitrate possible for such discs, which is currently 18 Mbps, and the quality was excellent. But this only allows about 20 minutes of AVCHD to be burned to a single layer DVD Others seem happy to use a much lower bitrate and squeeze more video in. But you would have to try it yourself and see what is acceptable to you. And at least DVDs are cheap enough these days to be able to experiment.

And to avoid even using an actual DVD, on the final page of the burning module you can get VS to "burn" an AVCHD Folder instead. This can then be played in a software video player which can play high definition. That way you can see the quality and judge for yourself before actually burning it to disc.

[sgallant]

Ken:

Thanks for your thoughtful and very helpful suggestions - especially the Project splitting, which seems the easiest! I appreciate also the insight to the AVCHD issues as well.

Thanks again!

Stuart

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Stuart

Another option to splitting the project is to simply render it in two halves.
Using the Project Playback Range you can select the first half, showing below the preview screen as a white bar (for X4)
Share Create Video File -**** will open the Create Video File Window, select Options button and choose Preview Range.

Some info regarding the white bar.

[sgallant]

Thanks, Trevor. This is quite useful, as a new User I was unaware of all the functionality that you just indicated, so I appreciate the new info!

Regards,

Stuart