Calculating data rate for MPEG-2 encoding

ScorpioProd wrote on 7/16/2009, 2:04 AM

What's the latest recommended way to calculate what your data rate should be when doing a MPEG-2 render in order to fit your project on DVD?

I use TMPGEnc from Vegas via the Frameserver, so I just use the wizard in that to find the average bit rate I need. But a friend of mine has been rendering out to AVI and then putting it in DVD Architect and letting DVD Architect figure out the optimal data rate. Now he wants to render (and get the advantages of 2-pass VBR) directly in Vegas, not to mention not needing to render out the AVI first.

So what's the easiest way for him to calculate the data rate for his MPEG-2 video to go with his AC-3 192kb/s audio?

Thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 7/16/2009, 3:26 AM

Divide the length in minutes into 600. The result is the combined audio/video bitrate in Mbps. Subtract 0.2 for the audio and the result is the average video bitrate. For example:

length: 104 minutes.
600 / 104 = 5.769.
5.769 - 0.2 = 5.569.

So, an average video bitrate of 5,569,000 would just about fill the disc.

Of course, you may want to reduce that a bit to make room for menus.

rs170a wrote on 7/16/2009, 5:12 AM

I use this bitrate calculator (note: link is to a zipped file).
It hasn't let me down yet.

Mike

farss wrote on 7/16/2009, 5:45 AM

Pretty certain that's the same one I've bee using for years as well.
No way I can see it could be improved upon.

Bob.

musicvid10 wrote on 7/16/2009, 8:32 AM

This one is quicker to use, but of course doesn't have as many options. Very accurate too.
http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm