DVD bitrate calculator

megabit wrote on 11/3/2008, 10:44 AM

I need to encode my music project for DVD, but it will only just fit so I'd like to use some custom bitrate. Now, most of the calculators use bitrate for audio (Vegas only gives a bitrate choice when encoding to compressed formats; I'm using PCM 24/48 uncompressed) - which audio bitrate should I enter into the calculator?

Also, most calculators output a single value of video bitrate; I need the max, avg and min - is there a free calculate out there which would give me all the 3 values for Vegas? Or - if I only get a single value - is this the max or average bitrate to use?

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 11/3/2008, 10:53 AM

Don't change min and max. The defaults work fine and there is no reason to change them. It won't change the quality of the encode, and won't make the disc play more reliably (although some claim that if you lower the min to zero some players may choke.

As for audio bitrate, you use the rate that matches the audio you are using. For PCM24/48 that is 1,536 kbps.

Here's a link to my Excel bitrate calculator. You enter the length of your video, and also enter any other data on your DVD (in an "extras" folder, if you create one, or if you have already encoded other video and audio, then enter the total size for these items). You can select the standard audio bitrates from the drop down. You can also select either DVD5 or DVD9 (dual layer) from a drop down.

Here's a link (good for seven days):

johnmeyer Excel bitrate calculator

John_Cline wrote on 11/3/2008, 11:13 AM

Actually, 48k 16bit stereo PCM is 1,536 kbps, 48k 24bit stereo PCM is 2,304 kbps.

farss wrote on 11/3/2008, 12:41 PM

"is there a free calculate out there which would give me all the 3 values for Vegas?"

Yes. I've been using Mark's DVD Bitrate Calculator for years. Covers all sizes of DVDs and most of the audio options as well. I can no longer find a site to download it from. If you want a copy drop me an email.
The minimum bitrate that Vegas uses as a default is too low and can players to falter.

Bob.

John_Cline wrote on 11/3/2008, 12:50 PM

Bob,

I've had Mark's Bitrate Calculator available on my website for years:

www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip

John

johnmeyer wrote on 11/3/2008, 12:52 PM

Actually, 48k 16bit stereo PCM is 1,536 kbps, 48k 24bit stereo PCM is 2,304 kbps. John, thanks for that correction.

megabit wrote on 11/3/2008, 1:07 PM

Thanks guys.

John (johmeyer), you say the min/max values shouldn't be changed, and yet in your own Excel calculator, as well as in the one I found here: http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm
- both average (calculated) and maximum values depend on the space calculation.

So, using Vegas templates for DVDA, should I change both, or just the average?

farss wrote on 11/3/2008, 1:39 PM

Thanks,
just tried to Google it again and Google didn't find it. Thought you might have taken it down. I have a copy backed up in multiple places myself.

Bob.

megabit wrote on 11/3/2008, 2:17 PM

Gents, my deadline for DVD is coming within a couple of deays... Please answer my question above (about changing bot the the maximum and average - or just the latter - bitrates to fit on disk).

Also, I'd like players like WMP, Nero Showtime or PowerDVD to display my proper names, instead of "Tile x", Chapter y" - how do I do it in DVDA?

Thanks for your patience with me,

Piotr

johnmeyer wrote on 11/3/2008, 4:48 PM

Please answer my question above (about changing bot the the maximum and average - or just the latter - bitrates to fit on disk).I have answered this already: Don't change them.

The only reason why the Bitrate Calculator at videohelp.com and also my bitrate calculator have a max bitrate readout is just to remind you not to set the max bitrate too high if you should use a really high bitrate for audio. However, even with PCM audio, the maximum bitrate is still higher than the default 8,000,000 bps provided by the DVD Architect templates in Vegas. If you have played with these bitrate calculators, you will see that only thing that causes the max bitrate to change is the audio setting and that is because the DVD spec has a maximum bitrate for video + audio + subpicture (subtitles), and so as you increase the bitrate for these, you have to keep the video maximum bitrate from going too high.

So, my original advice still stands: just leave the min and max settings alone.

farss wrote on 11/3/2008, 5:18 PM

My advice based on having to replace a lot of DVDs is not to let the minimum bitrate be below 25% of the maximum.
What we had happen was the STB players would stall where there was a huge jump in the bitrate due to a cut from clean black to a very noisy few frames. The bitrate went from next to nothing to 8Mbps in a few frames when we looked at the stream with an analyser. Why this caused the players to stop I don't know, in theory they should have coped. Then again I can see no upside to letting the bitrate drop to very low figures, even with a 2 pass encode the encoders don't seem smart enough to carry the saving forward.

Bob.

darkframe wrote on 11/4/2008, 4:23 AM

Hi,

Also, I'd like players like WMP, Nero Showtime or PowerDVD to display my proper names, instead of "Tile x", Chapter y" - how do I do it in DVDA?

if you're talking e.g. about the "side bar" in WMP I'm afraid, there's no way to accomplish that as such a feature is not supported on DVDs due to the DVD limitations. Any chapter name and such is not stored into the VOB structure of a DVD.

Cheers

darkframe