Help! What type of movie file should I render?

special k wrote on 11/10/2008, 6:40 PM
I have a hour long .wmv video that I've edited down to 20 minutes and I want to fit onto a DVD that I'm making that already has 4.3 out of 4.7 GB filled. Is that possible? What file type should I render it?

Do I need to adjust bitrate (for .wmv; I can't do that for mpeg since I don't have Pro) so that it doesn't take forever to render and will fit on the DVD?

Please help?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/10/2008, 7:21 PM
A 4.7GB DVD really only holds 4.3GB, so your disc is already full. You don't have room left for a 20 minute video. Even if you did really have .4 GB still left, fitting 20 minutes into that space would require a bitrate of about 512Kbps, which is barely good enough for scummy web videos at 320x240. You wouldn't want to watch that on a TV.

DVDs MUST be MPEG2. There is no other option. If you use any other file type then DVD Architect will convert it to MPEG2. If you use a highly compressed format like .wmv then there will be a lot of quality lost during the conversion to MPEG2.

Overall you'd be better off putting this video on a separate disc.
richard-amirault wrote on 11/10/2008, 7:34 PM
OR .. compressing the existiing video to make room for the new video.
special k wrote on 11/10/2008, 8:54 PM
Thanks so much for the replies.

if I can get this file to a reasonable size, I can reduce the other material on the DVD to fit it on. Right now, if I render it as a MPEG-2, it estimates it will be 4.5 GB.

Without having the Pro version to adjust the bitrate, is there a way to manipulate the file size of the MPEG-2?
spindle wrote on 11/12/2008, 5:17 AM
You can adjust the bit rate using DVD Architect Studio.

In Move Studio use "Render As" to produce an AVI (this is not compressed so is about 20GB); then create a new project in DVD Architect; use Import Media to read your AVI; Make DVD and then "Optimize" to set the bit rate.

One of Sony's knowledge based articles recommended not going below 4Mbps.
special k wrote on 11/12/2008, 8:36 AM
Thanks!

Does it have to be an AVI file? Can I use the same process for an MPEG-2?
spindle wrote on 11/12/2008, 9:43 AM
Yes you can use MPEG2, but the problem is that MPEG2 is a "lossey" compression which means that each time you re-compress you lose some quality (even if you haven't changed anything).

If you capture in MPEG2, then generate MPEG2 from Studio, then regenerate from Architect then you have thrown away 3 lots of information. Best to use a non-compressed format up to the last stage (ie. Architect) if you can.

Studio claims to be quite good in that it re-uses compressed frames without re-compressing where it can, but reducing the bit-rate means it can't re-use anything.