DVD Architect 2

Mr_Plant wrote on 6/1/2004, 4:26 AM

I am thinking of upgrading to the new versions from Vegas 4, DVDA1.

I have heard there is a new FIT TO DISK button in DVDA 2.
Does this mean you could load in a large DV format AVI file and just click the fit to disk option and it will do what it should? There was nothing worse than rendering large files for hours and then later finding it wouldn't fit and DVDA1 wanted to recompress again...
Also - if you are rendering in this way from DV AVI to MPEG2 using DVD Architect2 - do you get any say in the settings used - at all?

Would appreciate info on this.
Thanks.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 6/1/2004, 10:13 AM

I have not used the fit to disk feature, so someone else will have to comment on whether it works or not.

However, in general, as noted by many, many people, the size estimates in DVD Architect 2.0 are very poorly done, and general off by at least 10%, sometimes more.

Cunhambebe wrote on 6/1/2004, 7:26 PM

If your project is bigger than the regular DVD single layer size, you can always use DVD Shrink (freeware, you can fid it at www.videohelp.com) to shrink (compress) whatever you want (for instance, menus, extras or main movies). How does it work? You open your project with DVDA 1.0 or even 2.0, click <make dvd> choosing <prepare and burn> or only <prepare>. If your choice is <prepare and burn> at the end of the first step which is prepare, you'll get a screen saying the dvd project is bigger than the DVD single layer regular size at the same time that the DVD driver opens. That means DVDA 1 or 2 refuses to burn your project.
Minimize DVDA 1 or 2, close the driver, create a new folder*** giving it any name you want. Open DVD Shrink, open the folder DVDA has just created and reauthor it (shrinking menus, main movies or extras - files will be compressed). Save your work in that fodler you've just created***. Now, with DVDA 1 or 2, choose <burn> selecting same folder that was just reauthored***. It does work out perfectly!!! Note that for each movie or the whole DVD in general, the quality should be at least at 80% of the original size. Working with compression rates as 75% 70% or less, decreases the final quality a lot.

Now, about the feature called "fit to disk", I haven't tested it yet because I prefer to author a DVD the way I've just described above. This new feature may work for the ones who prefer not to work with DVD Shrink. Anyway, fitting to disk option must compress video files as DVD Shrink does. I still doesn't know if it let's you choose what you wanna compress like DVD Shrink or if it compresses the whole thing.

One more thing: on the right, at the bottom of the DVDA 2.0 screen, there's a bar that turns from green and yelllow to red, showing DVD size in percentage.

Cunhambebe wrote on 6/1/2004, 7:45 PM

I've just checked it out. Fit to disk doesn't fit anything. It just tells you if your project fits or not into disk. I'll explain that!
-Choose Prepare and burn;
-Choose optimize dvd
-There you can see the button fit to disk. When you click on it an error "X" message appears: "Media file is too big and could not fit into single DVD disk. Consider making more media assets for recompress or removing some media assets".

What can you do?
On that same screen (optimize dvd), select individually which file (on the left) you want to recompress; on the right, under <video>, choose <recompress> - it works like DVD Shrink. Then later, and only later, you can click on <fit to disk> - if the error message described above doesn't appear anymore, then the project is fit to disk. Got it?
Hope this helps.