Proper rendering specs for more video on dvd

jag5311 wrote on 7/29/2003, 3:59 PM
I am importing a bunch of footage from old vacations from a vcr. These are family vacations, and the idea I have is to get as much footage on 1 dvd as possible. Some tapes are only 20 minutes long, others may reach an hour. But I am going to have a couple menus that take you to different years, etc.. Well, what are the best options for me to make for rendering to maximize as much footage as I can on the dvd, but not "kill" the quality. I don't mind a little quality loss, but when I go to RENDER> and then choose DVD NTSC, and then CUSTOM, I don't know what to pick

What I have done so far is pick VIDEO QUALITY = Good, and then under the video tab, I set the quality to 20 instead of 31. Is that a step in the right direction.

Thanks

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 7/29/2003, 4:10 PM
You want to keep the quality slider at 31 as this allows the render to take the time it needs to make a better quality image while encoding. This slider has nothing to do with file size. It's more like a "how much time and effort should be spent getting the best picture possible" slider.

What does affect the size of the rendered file is the bitrate. The lower the bitrate you use, the more time you'll be able to fit on a disc. Of course, lowering the bitrate will lower the quality too, which is why you should keep the quality slider as high as possible to allow Vegas to render as best as it can at any given bitrate.
farss wrote on 7/29/2003, 4:27 PM
Also if you haven't already worked this out using AC3 for audio on DVD gives you more room for the video.

The only downside you'll find with AC3 is a serious drop in audio level. Not really an issue just crank the volume up on the TV. I think VV takes avery cautious approach to AC3 and its huge dynamic range, which would be fair enough at times, just wish there was away to turn it off / down.
Jsnkc wrote on 7/29/2003, 4:40 PM
I agree to use the AC3 audio and keep your bitrates around 3-3.5 Mbps and you should be fine. At that bitrate you can probably get 2 1/2 - 3 hours on 1 DVD.
jag5311 wrote on 7/29/2003, 6:03 PM
So, what I need to do is once I go to RENDER> and choose DVD NTSC, then for VIDEO RENDERING QUALITY, choose BEST.

Then click the VIDEO tab at the bottom. Near the bottom, there are the following choices

Constant Bit Rate (bps)

Variable bit rate

Max
Avg
Min

Do I want to use the Constant. If so, do I type 3,500,000, using your recommendation earlier
BillyBoy wrote on 7/29/2003, 6:37 PM
Nope. I didn't see anyone suggest you use BEST rendering quality. Leave at good. The only difference between best and good is the method Vegas uses to adjust pixels if it moves or changes them. For video you rarely want to use best since it will take much longer to render the project. Only if you have a lot of still images will you at times see noticeable improvement.

Lets walk it through. You want to make a custom DV NTSC MPEG-2?

1. Pick Main Concept MPEG-2 as file type.

2. Click on Custom button.

3. Under Project tab leave Rendering Quality as good.

4. Click on the Video tab, at the very top click on down arrow next to template.

5. If you're going to use DVD-A and make seperate AC-3 and video streams pick the DVDA NTSC stream, otherwise if you're using the default MPEG-2 template where audio and video are combined and DVDA will recompress the audio, pick that one.

6. Confirm the Video Quality slider is all the way to the right (31).

7. Decide if you want to use a constant or variable bitrate. If you use the constant bitrate you're probably going to defeat what you're trying to do since the entire file will get the same bitrate regardless if that portion of the project needs it or not and you'll end up bloating the file size for nothing. By selecting the variable bitrate you let the encoder decide what portions need a higher bitrate. Try lowering both the max and avg settings.

Click OK. Don't mess with anything under the Advanced video tab.
mikkie wrote on 7/30/2003, 8:56 AM
Adding to BillyBoy's post, *IF* you want to go to the time and trouble... Try inverse telecine to get the footage to 23.976 fps, and deinterlace. Even content originated for NTSC TV often undergoes IVT before being pressed to DVD. The time and trouble come in as you'll want to review your footage (I like to render to mjpeg avi and then use an external player), marking sections where the IVT causes jerkiness, then replacing or adding takes using the original footage for those sections. The new takes will be 29.97, and your proj will stay at 23.976, so it can take a bit of time to get it right.

This reduces your file size and can often help quality as mpg2 likes 24p. DVD players will add frames and interlacing, or you can use the 23.976 fps with pulldown setting in the mainconcept encoder.

Otherwise as you're going from VHS, might get away with SVCD bitrates raising the minimum to around 1M (check the templates but don't use the SVCD ones for DVD).

Might also compare results you get using the TMPGEnc encoder as it allows multi-pass which is good for reducing size. Check DVDRHelp.com for a bunch of templates and suggested settings to reduce file size.

As a final note, if you get into a situation where you're just over the target size, you can re-render a scene or two using minimal time compression - with mpg encoding, each minute does count.