>Can I utilize mp3s instead of wav files ?

You can use mp3s while you're editing, but the audio track wont be mp3. The NTSC DVD standard supports wav or ac3, and since MS doesn't produce ac3 you're stuck with wav - in theory. The PAL DVD standard supports mp2 and ac3 and this might give you a way out - just because mp2 isn't supported doesn't mean it wont work with NTSC. It's quite possible that your DVD player will play it, though it's not a good option if you're planning to distribute DVDs. I'd take Chienworks' advice - try it with a DVD RW and see what happens.

Ian G.

I suppose that you could also just 'prepare' the disc (which writes the DVD files to a folder on your hard-disk) and then see how big the folders end up? If it's less than 4.7GB, then it'll fit and you can then proceed with the burn.

It is possible to re-render the movie at a different bitrate of course (but quality will probably be sacrificed!)

john..

all good suggestions.

I could also buy AC3 software and convert my audio to that format right ? I dont know the cost though...any industry standard products out there for a home user ?

What puzzles me is the video is only a little over an hour and I was led to believe that you could get nearly 2 hours on a DVD R. My menus aren't that complex.

Also...since my Sony drive supports dual layer, couldn't I also go out and get some dual layer DVD discs (not exactly cheap) and burn it to one of those ?

Dual layer disks can certainly hold much more -- but an hour of DVD is just about right for one single-sided, home-burned disk.

Hollywood moviemakers have much more sophisticaed compression methods to allow them to squeeze much more on. But, for us non-pros, that's probably not the case (without sacrificing a lot of quality).

So you know, DVDAS (and it's big brother, DVDA) does not support burning DL disks, nor do the programs support the authoring for DL disks.

--Scott

oh ok...forget that idea. gotta remember to work within the confines of the program...

I captured a 1 hour vid from my DV cam and it's a 720x480 avi file...the file is like, 14 Gb ! Does that seem about right ?

What I am having trouble reconciling is a DVD only holds 4.x Gb so there is no way I will ever get that resolution on a DVD, at least not the entire hour...so I assume I will have to keep rendering it smaller and smaller until it fits right ?

What I am having trouble reconciling is a DVD only holds 4.x Gb so there is no way I will ever get that resolution on a DVD, at least not the entire hour

If you're going to produce a DVD you'll have to render to MPEG2. MPEG2 files are much smaller than the original mDV source because a lot of the original information has been thrown away! That sounds pretty drastic, but imagine you've just filmed a brick wall for an hour - you need the first frame, but all the rest could be the electronic equivalent of "ditto", so you don't need them. In reality, MPEG2 compresses the data by using a mixture of "real" frames, frames that describe the changes from previous frames and frames that describe the changes from future frames (!).

Ian G.