Need to burn 2 hour DVD for players and computers

TimTruthonTape wrote on 9/24/2004, 2:09 PM
Whenever I try to burn more than 90 minutes of program (rendered as mpeg2) architect will not compess or "fit to disk". If I render it as a ".avi for windows" then it will compress. Will "avi" rendered disks play in BOTH DVD players as will as computers, and (although quality is diminished) are avi files more likely to "not" play in players. Why cant I render as a mpeg2 anyways??
I just downloaded the latest version today of Vegas and Architect and it didnt help. You can call me at 800-444-9987 ext 1 M-F 9-5 cst. Ask for Tim.

Comments

Liam_Vegas wrote on 9/24/2004, 2:30 PM
Hmm.... I'm a little confused about what you are doing here.

MPEG2 is the only (acceptable) format for videos to be played on a DVD player.

AVI is actually higher quality than MPEG2 (1 hour of NTSC AVI is 13GB... as compared to MPEG2 which can be up to 2 or even 4 hours of video in just 4.,7GB)

When you say you render your 90 minute projects to MPEG2 and then DVDA2 will not recompress... this is the bit that I am confused about.

If your file is already rendered to MPEG2 do not EVER get DVDA to re-render (or re-encode) it again. Doing so will make much lower quality video as a result. You should always start with an AVI file and then either get DVDA2 to render (encode) to MPEG2 or do that using the supplied DVDA templates included with Vegas5.

When you render your 90 minute program to MPEG2 - how big is it? If it is too big to fit onto a 4,7GB DVD then you should modify the template you are using to reduce the average "bit-rate" of the MPEG encoding to allow the MPEG2 to fit within the limits of a DVD... that way DVDA2 will not need to re-compress in order to fit onto a DVD.

There are various "bit-rate calculators" out ther which help you decide what the settings should be to allow your video to fit within the max size for a DVD.

Hope that helps.
jetdv wrote on 9/24/2004, 2:30 PM
If you give DVDA an AVI file then IT will render it to MPEG2 before putting it on the DVD. However, you should be able to render it to MPEG2 just fine in Vegas. However, you HAVE to hit the custom button and adjust the bitrate for the length of your video. I have this all documented in my newsletter.
B.Verlik wrote on 9/24/2004, 7:06 PM
You may have a 4 GB limit. Check your mpg2 file and see how big it is. If it goes over 3.99 GB, you might need to break it into separate chapters to get it all on one disc. I've gotten about an hour and 37 minutes of fairly good quality ( 2 separate mpg2s) and no indication that I couldn't get more time on if I lowered the resolution.
B.Verlik wrote on 9/25/2004, 12:03 PM
For example, find a place in your original AVI to make a division. Now render each section to an mpg2 using the default setting in the rendering section. (this is pretty bad resolution, but will give you lots of time.) Then when you make the DVD, make each section, ie: Part 1 and Part 2. The user will have to start each part, but you can get the whole thing on one DVD. The only way I've found to cheat around this, is to rip that DVD and 're-author', using DVDShrink (freeware), which I think was shut down, I can't find it anymore. When re-authored, the menu no longer works, but it will play the whole thing continuously with only a slight lag between part 1 and part 2. Also, be sure that your mpg2s do not go over 4.37 GB added together.