Why does DVDA2 increase file size and want to recompress

jerryw wrote on 6/7/2004, 3:23 PM

I use a WinTV 250 card to capture movies. If I burn them with Ulead Movie Factory, they will burn without reencoding. I tried one movie with DVDA2 and it says the 3.5 gig file is 6.9 gig and must be reencoded. Why? The program is difficult enough to use in my opinion, not at all as intuitive as VEGAS, so why all this? Can't it accept another's usable codec? Where does the doubling of size come in

mike_2004z wrote on 6/7/2004, 7:04 PM

Hi,

Make sure you capture in DVD valid format resolution and your DVD project setting is corresponding to your MPEG-2 file (resolution). Your audio is also going to re-encode from Mpeg-Layer 2 to AC-3 and the total file size is larger if your project audio is 5.1 format.

I also use an hardware encoder and both DVDA-1 & 2 never recompress the video, only the audio to AC-3 (NTSC).

By the way, I remember reading somewhere (Google) that the WinTV2000 capturing program does not capture MPEG-2 compliance file. Hence there are other DVD authoring programs that will not work with the file and/or need to re-encode the video. I think you should check with Hauggpage regarding this and or re-config your WinTV2000 program.

jerryw wrote on 6/8/2004, 5:17 AM

Thanks for the info but Movie Factory burns all the Hauppage files directly to a DVD and they play perfectly on every DVD player they are tried on. Every week I record a couple of programs for my daughter and they work perfectly on my and my daughter's DVD player. WinTV will copy in about 6 different formats but if you set it to "DVD" - there are two settings, then it does make DVD compliant. I will check with Hauppauge.

mike_2004z wrote on 6/8/2004, 10:06 PM

Hi,

What are the two setting of DVD format (resolution & bit-rate) ?

Quite a few capturing devices/programs that can capture in DVD/MPEG-2 format but the out put file might not conform to 'strict' MPEG-2 standard.

Some authoring programs are pretty forgiven and would not re-encode the file (Ulead MovieFactory / DVDWS) but other might not. Also, in Movie Factory & DVDWS there is an option to force 'not re-encode' so that perhaps you got away from the re-encode video process.

When taking about DVD/Mpeg-2 compliance file, there are many other factors to consider:

1) Video Resolution
2) Video Bit-Rate
3) Audio sampling rate (48 Khz)
4) GOP size / GOP structure
5) I-Frame / P-Frame / Frame Rate

I'm not going too technical but there are programs on the web that analyze your MPEG-2 file and give you all the necessary info. Then you would know for sure that the file is 'strictly' conform to the standard or not.