Video Quality

LongTallTexan wrote on 2/12/2004, 1:40 PM
I am currently working on a Live Concert DVD box set for release in April and was wondering what are the best settings for getting the highest quality video. I renderd a 1:45:00 file in the highest settings of the mpg2 settings and it said that the file was 45% too big to fit on the DVD. Is there a setting or default I could use to get the best quality possible and still get close to 2 hours on a disc. Just for the record I fire wired from a Sony DSR11 DVCAM deck. Any help would be apreciated.


L.T.

Comments

Former user wrote on 2/12/2004, 1:44 PM
At best quality settings, a Burned DVD will only hold about 1 hour of video. You have to reduce the bitrate to fit more on a DVD.

Dave T2
sdorshan wrote on 2/12/2004, 1:59 PM
I usually put 90 minutes on a DVD at 7000 VBR with MPEG audio.

For 1:45, you'll need to lower the bit rate. I don't know how AC3 compares to MPEG in terms of space, but for a concert, you're going to want high quality audio.

Try a sample that is a few minutes long at different bit rates. If you absolutely must fit it all on one DVD, then you may have to accept lower image quality.

Dual layer writable DVDs are supposed to be coming out this year.
Chienworks wrote on 2/12/2004, 2:02 PM
Go ahead and try reducing the bitrate enough to fit the entire 1:45 on the disc, then also burn what you can on a disc with a higher bitrate. Do some 'blind' screenings (so to speak) with impartial testers. Chances are they won't see any difference unless you point it out to them.
BE0RN wrote on 2/12/2004, 2:34 PM
Since it's for a concert, I wouldn't skimp at all on the audio. I've seen many videos of music-related events (recitals, concerts, etc) that look good but sound horrible, and the tradeoff isn't worth it. If it comes to sacrificing something, you should make it the video quality, not the sound. That's just my (unqualified) $0.02
Flack wrote on 2/12/2004, 3:12 PM
I did a family project that came out at 6.5 gig when rendered, and I wanted to keep it on 1 DVD, so I tried DVDshrink, and to be honest when I viewed the finshed DVD it looked just as good as the original footage.
I use it all the time now, its quick and easy and fits your file exactly to the DVD, and its cheap.

MJ.
stormstereo wrote on 2/12/2004, 7:30 PM
For a pro release like this I would use Scenarist or any other high end authoring software. Besides giving better control it can output to DLT-tape (or maybe they accept hard drives these days) and then you can make dual layer DVD's from a master, thus preserving your quality, at a pro disc manufacturer. Beware though, some set top players get hickups if the bit rate is at, or near, maximum.
Best/Tommy