DVD size limits!

drguitar001 wrote on 9/26/2005, 7:17 AM
I'm hoping that someone knows of a work around for the following problem. I often record programs of various lengths. Some are as long as 2 hours. I dump the video into VMS Platinum, edit it down to around 110 minutes and then render it to DVD format only to find that it will not fit on 1 DVD! Why can't this program render 2 hours of video on to one DVD? Why is there only one setting for rendering? It makes VMS useless to me. So instead I have to render to an AVI file (huge) then use a program with the ability to render to any quality/size (TMPGEnc 3). Here is the kicker, DVDA that comes with VMS takes the TMPGEnc file (that is the right size) and rerenders it so that it will no longer fit on a DVD!!!!!

Yikes... what can I do to fix this?!?!?

Mike

Comments

Shaz wrote on 9/26/2005, 7:42 AM
I just fit two hours and 44 minutes of footage on a DVD burned with DVDA through VMS Platinum, so don't panic.

What you need to do is render your video footage in VMS, then open DVDA and insert the video file(s). Go to File>Optimize DVD, then press Fit to Disc and it will reduce the bitrate to fit your footage.

There is still a limit... I don't think it will allow a bitrate under 2.0, and of course your video will be pretty fuzzy when you get down there, but it will allow you to get well over two hours on a regular DVD.
Jose M. Estrada wrote on 9/26/2005, 9:01 AM
drguitar001, like Shaz mention it , you can fit up to 2 Hrs in a single layer DVD. IMO is much better to render an AVI file from VMS than to render to Mpeg, in that way you'll have more control in bps. If you render to mpeg in VMS and the file ends up to big DVDAS will recompress the file and you will lose quality.
Too Tall Tex wrote on 9/26/2005, 5:46 PM
Yikes... what can I do to fix this?!?!?

Mike, Vegas Movie Studio 6.0 Platinum & reg. 6.0 will only hold approx. 1 hr and 10 to 15 min. on a single layer disc. I haven't tried
dual layer yet. You can squeeze a little more if you lower the bit rate
but the more you lower it the lower the quality of the picture.
Shaz wrote on 9/27/2005, 6:52 AM
As I said, VMS/DVDA can burn almost 3 hours (!!!) on a single layer disc if you choose 'Fit to Disc' under the Optimize DVD selection. I've made several very workable and though somewhat grainy, still very watchable DVDs that are 2:44 in length, using only VMS 6 and DVDA3.
drguitar001 wrote on 9/27/2005, 2:53 PM
Thanks guys. I did what Shaz said and it worked. Whew! Now here is the $64,000 question. Is it better to render the video as an AVI in VMS and then rerender it as the DVD file in DVDA as BigJoe said? Or should I render it in VMS as an Mpeg2 and then again squash it down more in DVDA?

Mike
Tim L wrote on 9/27/2005, 4:35 PM
You should render to AVI from VMS, pull the AVI files into DVDA Studio, and then let DVDA render to MPEG2 (using "fit to disc" to let DVDA select the highest possible bitrate).

Rendering to "AVI" is essentially keeping the project in DV format -- which is a less compressed and therefore a better quality format than MPEG2. Keep your video in this higher-quality DV format all through the editing process, and do the "down conversion" to MPEG2 just once, at the very end of the workflow (just before burning the DVD).

Tim L