Layer 2?????

[bill in pa]

As usual, I only write when I’m in trouble and this one is a beauty!
All sudden, the program is telling me to check to see if there is enough
room on the disk (DVD)? Burning a 1 ½ hour show onto a blank DVD that
has a two-hour capacity. Now I see Layer 2 as I am being told to check for more
space????
Senior members of the group, I ask for your forgiveness in that Layer2 could have been there all along and I just noticed it Now!!!! As I am aging I notice my typing abilities seem to be falling off a bit and maybeI hit something or need a re-set?

Regards,

bill in pa

[Ken Berry]

Where are you seeing the reference to Layer 2 -- somewhere in the burner module?

Most people use Video Studio to burn to single layer DVDs i.e. a standard blank disk which can take up to 4.7 GB including the menu (though in fact more properly said to be 4.3 GB). And you would be able to burn a 90 minute video to a single layer DVD if you adjusted the bitrate of the project down to around 7000 kbps. (Using Dolby audio would also allow you to burn about 10 minutes more of video to the disk.)

But there are also dual layer blank DVDs which can accept up to 8.5 GB of video. It could be this that has been used to say that the disk can take two hours of video -- one hour on layer one using the highest quality bitrate of 8000 kbps and the other hour at the same bitrate on layer 2. Such a dual layer disk would easily take your 90 minute project using the highest quality bitrate of 8000 kbps, with an hour going on Layer 1 and the remaining 30 minutes going on layer 2.

But that would presume you have a dual layer DVD and burner which will burn dual layer disks (not all of the them do apparently). Moreover, most users who have tried to do this with Video Studio report failure. It has only been a very small number who have reported success. Using a third party burning program like Nero, Roxio or the freeware ImgBurn might help in this regard. But we usually advise people to forget about layer 2 and to divide their project into two and burn each part to a separate single layer DVD.

As I have already said, though, your project can be easily burnt to a single layer disk. But the only adjustment you would need to make would be to reduce the bitrate to 7000 kbps. And you would still get a good quality DVD with that.

[bill in pa]

Hi Ken,
Thank you for your prompt return. Although I understand what you are telling me, I seldom use or
adjust any parameters on a project. I accept what the program defaults to and work from there.
As is the case here, the bitrate was fine as is, at 8000 kbps but the program itself was telling me that I was using the dual layer disk you mentioned???? I made an adjustment to this from the share tab inside the burning module that you mentioned and everything else was fine from there on.

As equipment goes, I must confess, I do have the ability to burn dual-layer but not the confidence
or need. Most of the time my projects run from 90 to 120 minutes and the program does grant a little bit extra squeeze to a full 120 minutes if necessary. The program does have many facets as you
know, but I usually get by with the basics. Trying to adjust frame rates and file size in order to get a full aspect picture ratio with relation to frame size are better left to the “Pros”. I have dabbled in these a bit
but generally came away with less than the stellar results I was trying to achieve.

Regards and thank you again,
bill in pa