123 min. MPEG 2 too big

xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 2/22/2005, 5:34 PM
ok....i understand the average amount to fit onto a DVD is 120 min. But I took a chance with an 123 min file.

I used the standard DVD NTSC architect video stream setting but changed it to "2 pass"

The resulting file is 5.28 GB (5,674,881) and that's without the audio.

Does checking 2-pass make the file THAT much larger? It's just a home movie so i might not need to do that but i wanted it to be the best quality video it could possibly be.

i'm converting it from a DV-AVI. does that matter?

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 2/22/2005, 5:48 PM
Your standard NTSC DVD setting, not the default but the better one, will give you about 90 to 100 minutes (approx.) There are people here, hopefully they'll start writing after this, that have decent settings to give you 2 hours or a little more. The 2 pass shouldn't increase the size at all. It just makes it look a lot better, especially in the darker scenes. And you should use 2 Pass for a 2 hour (120 minute) DVD.
Do a search, I just saw some settings about a week ago.
xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 2/22/2005, 5:56 PM
what if i were to run the audio at 192?
ScottW wrote on 2/22/2005, 5:56 PM
For 123 minutes, you need to lower your average bitrate for video down to 4,700 Kb/s (assuming AC3 audio at 192 kb/s and no fancy menus).

2 pass VBR doesn't change the size, it just lets the encoder get closer to the average you ask for and allows the encoder to spend more bandwidth on more difficult areas.

I personally don't try to put more than 1 hour 30 minutes on a DVD-5. At the default of 6,000 kb/s this also lets me stay away from the outer edge, where more players seem to have issues.

--Scott
ScottW wrote on 2/22/2005, 5:58 PM
The difference isn't that great. At 192 its actually 4762 and at 224 it's 4729. 4700 gives you a a little room to breath in either case.
xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 2/22/2005, 6:11 PM
ok...thanks guys!!

i'm gonna try it at 4700. i'll worry about the audio later

-jay
Spot|DSE wrote on 2/22/2005, 6:23 PM
xjasonxisxdeadx, you might try using a bitrate calculator. Ed Troxel has one on his site, Fotis Vassis has one on the VASST site, there are several around the web for free that will help you figure out bitrates for audio and video for specific lengths of video, saving you this problem in the future. Once you start getting over 90 mins, it's a good idea to check it out in advance.
zstevek wrote on 2/22/2005, 7:07 PM
Go to this website and calculate your bitrate.

http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm

One thing to remember is to leave some extra space so you can add menu's and enable motion thumbnails if you want (they all take up disc space).
johnmeyer wrote on 2/23/2005, 9:14 AM
I took one of the Excel bitrate calculator spreadsheets and modified it to make it a good deal more "user friendly." It also shows the calculations for bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes to help explain why your disk says 4.7 GB, but other applications refer to the same disk and call it 4.37 Gigabytes.

Right click on this link and select "Save Target As" to download:

MPEG Calculator
WannabeGreat wrote on 2/23/2005, 1:23 PM
Is there a 120 minute render limit in Video Vegas?
Or are you just running into a burning issue to
fit in onto a DVD 5 disc.

B.Verlik wrote on 2/23/2005, 2:21 PM
They're talking about a DVD 5.
johnmeyer wrote on 2/23/2005, 3:29 PM
Is there a 120 minute render limit in Video Vegas?

Definitely not.
xjasonxisxdeadx wrote on 2/23/2005, 5:04 PM
ok....well....another 14 hour render complete and it still shows up as 4.8 GBs in Architect. But the file + the ac3 audio is only showing up as 4.31GB (4,633,268) on their own. So i'm gonna try preparing it anyway to see if it's too big. This certainly is getting frustrating. I've used the bitrate calculators....and i guess i'm not getting the hang of them for some reason.

will let you know how it went.
johnmeyer wrote on 2/23/2005, 5:21 PM
4,633,268 - You're going to be pretty darn close. The estimates on size in DVDA are generally way too conservative. You can usually burn when it shows 103%.
B.Verlik wrote on 2/23/2005, 10:19 PM
I've actually successfully burned a DVD listed as 4.9 (barely) gigs in DVD-A (also 4.3 gigs before DVD-A). Since my burn only takes about 14 to 15 minutes, I'll try if it says 4.8 or 4.9 gigs and it'll tell me during the DVD render if it'll work or not. Haven't burnt any coasters this way yet. (I haven't had a problem with the edges yet.)