How do I fit the proper amount on my DVDs?
October 15, 2006 10:53 AM Subscribe
So, I've had a DVD+R drive for about 2 years now, and I never really noticed this before. The pack of DVDs says 4.7GB/120min, but it seems no matter how I author the disc, I can only get 60 minutes of movie on there. Is there some setting or something I can use to squeeze more on there? 4.7 GB for only 60 minutes seems a little big, and I know that most people fit 120 minutes on a disc... so what am I doing wrong? For the record, I've been using DVDStyler, but I also had the same problem with Sonic.
Yup, you need to drop the bitrate on the mpeg2 compression or drop the resolution with the same quality settings to fit 120minutes on a single DVD.
posted by pharm at 10:59 AM on October 15, 2006
posted by pharm at 10:59 AM on October 15, 2006
Get DVD Shrink and have a look at what's actually on a DVD. Menus, Subtitles, extra soundtracks etc takes up a LOT of space. This of course assumes that you are going from DVD to DVD.
posted by Ferrari328 at 11:00 AM on October 15, 2006
posted by Ferrari328 at 11:00 AM on October 15, 2006
Response by poster: So if I take my mpeg files and run them through DVDStyler, then run them through DVDShrink, then burn them with Nero, I should be set?
posted by fvox13 at 11:03 AM on October 15, 2006
posted by fvox13 at 11:03 AM on October 15, 2006
That will work, creating a lower-bitrate MPEG from another MPEG won't look so good.
You're better off getting whatever is creating the original MPEG in the first place to use a lower bitrate.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:05 AM on October 15, 2006
You're better off getting whatever is creating the original MPEG in the first place to use a lower bitrate.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:05 AM on October 15, 2006
Response by poster: Thanks guys (girls?). I'll try this out.
posted by fvox13 at 11:46 AM on October 15, 2006
posted by fvox13 at 11:46 AM on October 15, 2006
This of course assumes that you are going from DVD to DVD.
Something is screwy, here. If you are going from DVD to DVD, you should just be able to rip the .VOBs to your hard drive from the DVD using DVDDecrypter (etc.) and then burn them back onto a blankie using Nero, etc, with no additional compresison nescessary.
If you are talking about movies you've shot yourself, then you need to export the MPEG-2 at a lower bitrate. This bitrate calculator says that to get 120 minutes on a DVD you should use around 9kBps.
If you are talking about movies that you've downloaded as DivX AVIs or whatever, then there really isn't a good way to do this without sacrificing quality, but probably the best way is using TMPGEnc (etc). You'll have to transcode the AVI to a lower bitrate MPEG, which will take some time, and then package them up into VOBs using Encore (DVDLab, etc) then use DVDShrink to package the VOBs as an ISO, then finally Nero, etc to burn them.
VideoHelp is by far the best site for questions like this.
posted by ChasFile at 11:49 AM on October 15, 2006
Something is screwy, here. If you are going from DVD to DVD, you should just be able to rip the .VOBs to your hard drive from the DVD using DVDDecrypter (etc.) and then burn them back onto a blankie using Nero, etc, with no additional compresison nescessary.
If you are talking about movies you've shot yourself, then you need to export the MPEG-2 at a lower bitrate. This bitrate calculator says that to get 120 minutes on a DVD you should use around 9kBps.
If you are talking about movies that you've downloaded as DivX AVIs or whatever, then there really isn't a good way to do this without sacrificing quality, but probably the best way is using TMPGEnc (etc). You'll have to transcode the AVI to a lower bitrate MPEG, which will take some time, and then package them up into VOBs using Encore (DVDLab, etc) then use DVDShrink to package the VOBs as an ISO, then finally Nero, etc to burn them.
VideoHelp is by far the best site for questions like this.
posted by ChasFile at 11:49 AM on October 15, 2006
Something is screwy, here. If you are going from DVD to DVD, you should just be able to rip the .VOBs to your hard drive from the DVD using DVDDecrypter (etc.) and then burn them back onto a blankie using Nero, etc, with no additional compresison nescessary.
No, because commercial DVDs come on dual-layer discs, which have twice the capacity of regular 4.7GB DVD+Rs.
posted by chrismear at 11:52 AM on October 15, 2006
No, because commercial DVDs come on dual-layer discs, which have twice the capacity of regular 4.7GB DVD+Rs.
posted by chrismear at 11:52 AM on October 15, 2006
The dual-layer thing is important to keep in mind. 60 minutes sounds about right on a single-layer DVD disc (plus menus,etc). You have to have a dual-layer burner to use dual-layer discs, which would allow you to essentially duplicate most movie discs.
posted by arco at 11:59 AM on October 15, 2006
posted by arco at 11:59 AM on October 15, 2006
They call this bit budgeting in DVD authoring.
You have a fixed DVD size (a DVD-5 is 4.3 gigs).
The video is compressed into MPEG-2 Format. The greater the compression, the smaller the file, the more minutes you can fit on a DVD.
The formula generally is (when you control the MPEG-2 Comrpession) 560/min = ave bitrate (given 192kbs AC3 Audio).
Ok, back to the problem at hand - what you want/need to do is decrease the bitrate that DVDStyler uses.
What are you creating your mpeg-2s with? Whatever you're using you need to make the bitrate lower. If you're "Aquiring" MPEG-2s off the internet...you likely be recompressing something that is already compressed to get it to fit on a dvd (With something like dvdshrink).
posted by filmgeek at 12:09 PM on October 15, 2006
You have a fixed DVD size (a DVD-5 is 4.3 gigs).
The video is compressed into MPEG-2 Format. The greater the compression, the smaller the file, the more minutes you can fit on a DVD.
The formula generally is (when you control the MPEG-2 Comrpession) 560/min = ave bitrate (given 192kbs AC3 Audio).
Ok, back to the problem at hand - what you want/need to do is decrease the bitrate that DVDStyler uses.
What are you creating your mpeg-2s with? Whatever you're using you need to make the bitrate lower. If you're "Aquiring" MPEG-2s off the internet...you likely be recompressing something that is already compressed to get it to fit on a dvd (With something like dvdshrink).
posted by filmgeek at 12:09 PM on October 15, 2006
No, because commercial DVDs come on dual-layer discs
Right. Fair. I hadn't considered that's what he'd want to do.
The formula generally is (when you control the MPEG-2 Comrpession) 560/min = ave bitrate (given 192kbs AC3 Audio).
Well, you know, 560,000/ minutes ~= bitrate in kBps (as it usually is).
posted by ChasFile at 12:44 PM on October 15, 2006
Right. Fair. I hadn't considered that's what he'd want to do.
The formula generally is (when you control the MPEG-2 Comrpession) 560/min = ave bitrate (given 192kbs AC3 Audio).
Well, you know, 560,000/ minutes ~= bitrate in kBps (as it usually is).
posted by ChasFile at 12:44 PM on October 15, 2006
Response by poster: I'm burning mpeg-2 files I created in Sonic Foundry Vegas Video, using the "DVD-NTSC" template. I think I can decrease the bitrate there.... if not, I'll look into how to make DVDStyler do it.
posted by fvox13 at 1:48 PM on October 15, 2006
posted by fvox13 at 1:48 PM on October 15, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by geoff. at 10:55 AM on October 15, 2006