How do fit movie onto DVD?

ausearch wrote on 2/25/2008, 1:19 PM
After rendering my project in Vegas Movie Studio 8.0, DVD architect tells me that the movie is 120% of the capacity of a DVD. The movie is 1 hr 36 minutes. I am reluctant to cut the project into 2 parts because it is the video of a visit by a consultant, and the information would best stay together on one disk.

My son works creating DVD's in an advertising agency (using Mac computers and high-end software), and he tells me that they often fit 1 hr 50 min onto a DVD without menus etc. But that involves changing the bitrate and/or compression.

Where can I change bitrate and/or compression in VMS or DVDA?

Thanks -

Comments

HaroldC wrote on 2/25/2008, 2:56 PM
This question is frequently asked. If you want more details you should find any number of threads on the topic. But just give you some info. A single layer dvd will hold about 1 hr and 15 minutes, give or take a couple of minutes. Also if you have a complicated menu it would be less.

As to details on VMS8 or DVDA4 I can't give you those. I'm still working with VMS6/DVDA3. So I don't know if you can alter the bitrate in VMS8. I'm thinking probably not, since that is one of the key (to my way of thinking) features of Vegas. There are two ways to fit a video on a single dvd.

Import your avi file into dvda. Then when you are offered the chance to Fit to Disc or optimize, hit that. DVDA will render the avi file into mpeg2 and then do everything else to make the dvd. It does take longer to render an mpeg2 in dvda than in vms.

However if you have already used vms to make an mpeg2. Import that into dvda. But only prepare a dvda, don't prepare and burn. The vob file that will be created will be to large to burn to a single disc. But if you run it through dvdshrink, it will fit afterwards. You can use dvda to re-render an mpeg2 at a lower bitrate. However that method causes a loss of quality and takes a long time.
Chienworks wrote on 2/25/2008, 3:05 PM
If you use the fit-to-disc option in DVDA then you can easily fit over 2 hours on a single layer disc, especially if the subject is mostly a talking head or a stationary subject. It all depends on how much you're willing to lower the bitrate before you find the result objectionable.

Render to dv-avi in Vegas and use DVDA's fit to disc. Let DVDA encode to MPEG. It will choose the highest bitrate it can to fit the video on the disc. No need for DVD shrink.
HaroldC wrote on 2/26/2008, 5:01 AM
Chien, you are far more knowledgable in the software than I am. But as I mentioned in the post. IF he had already rendered into mpeg2, then he could use dvdshrink to save the time of re-rendering.
ausearch wrote on 2/26/2008, 8:36 AM
Thanks for the help so far, people -

I have already rendered the project into Mpeg2. The Optimize screen will let me move a slider at the bottom, changing the bitrate to whatever I want, but when I click on the "Fit to Disk" button, it tells me that the project is too big for the disk. The project size remained the same in spite of the supposed change in bitrate, so I wasn't allowed to make a change in the Mpeg2 file.

I think the key is rendering the project as .avi. That will probably let me use the Disk Optimizer (this is probably the "dvdshrink" that you mention in an earlier version, HaroldC). I'll give that a try and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again -
Chienworks wrote on 2/26/2008, 10:16 AM
DVD Shrink is a separate program you can purchase that will decrease the size of MPEG files.

In DVDA you definitely do not want to use the fit-to-disc option if you have already rendered to MPEG2. That would cause DVDA to encode from MPEG to MPEG and that can lose a lot of quality.
dfred wrote on 2/26/2008, 2:12 PM
Something in your post caught my attention - the part where you said it takes longer to render a movie into DVDA than VMS.

That got me thinking. Generally, I load video from the camera (or other DVDs as I'm doing for a home-movie based project). The video is loaded into VMS and when finished, I save that project. Next, I click "Make DVD" which then renders it on to DVDA. I open DVDA and for some reason the previous file always opens so I save changes to "untitled' which is the new movie then make my DVD.

My question is - is this the best way to make a movie? Or can a movie be put onto a DVD directly in VMS? I've had no problems with any of my DVDs and I've done a lot of them but if there is a better or more efficient way to do this, I'd like to know and perhaps I can save myself some time.

Thanks.
Chienworks wrote on 2/26/2008, 7:17 PM
No, you can't author/burn to DVD directly from Vegas. You can create a VCD directly in Vegas, but it won't have the quality or the fancy menues that you can get on a DVD.

All of the Sony progams have an option under Properties / General to "open last project on startup" or some similar variation of those words. Annoyingly this defaults to on for every install. I highly recommend turning this off for every program. If you really want to open directly to a specific project then double click on that project's .vf/.dar/.veg/.frg/.acd/etc file. That also has the benefit that you can directly open any project file, not just the last one.