Burning DVD size issue

jhill wrote on 1/20/2005, 10:04 AM
I have one of those monster 1.5 hour home movies of my grandkids. I created it in MS I saved it as an mp2 -- 5.5 gig. I used DVDA to create menus 3 main plus 2 scene with a total of 16 chapters.

When I tried to have MS call DVDA it created a file that was too large. I have cut a little off of the movie, 1.29 hours, redid it to a 4.10 gig size but DVDA still says it is 116% even at 8000 bit rate. I ran it through dvshrink for fun and it created the dvd at around 5500. The dvd plays but has a crc error on it.

What is confusing is I burned the first test 1.32 hours without errors or complaints.

Is is must to stay under 70 minutes?

I've been making some very lovely coasters.


Thanks
--john


Comments

gogiants wrote on 1/20/2005, 10:12 AM
That's quite a long movie! If it has to stay that long, you will be pushing the upper bounds of what will reasonably fit on one DVD.

You can control the bitrate (and thus the size) of the rendered movie in DVD Architect Studio, but you'll have to change how you flow through the process. In Movie Studio, instead of choosing "Make DVD" or rendering to MPEG, try creating an AVI file. Yes, this will take some time to render and yes it will take up a lot of disk space.

Now you can enter DVD Architect Studio, import the .avi movie, and then use "File -> Optimize DVD" to change the bitrate and experiment with how low you need to go to fit things. Then, I'd recommend doing a prepare DVD (not burn) since you will then have a valid image on disk that you can reuse without having to re-render to MPEG again if you have burning issues. Doing the prepare will take a while since it has to render to MPEG.

While this will take some computer time, it will avoid the funky problems you're seeing with DVD Shrink, and it will best preserve the quality of the rendered MPEG since you won't be re-rendering (which is what DVD Shrink did.)

There has been lots of discussion on this topic here on the forum. Do a search on "optimize DVD" (use the quotations so you find the right stuff), limit it to the Movie Studio Forum, and you'll find good detail.
gogiants wrote on 1/20/2005, 10:15 AM
One other thing I meant to mention. Chances are you've spent some time in DVD Arch Studio creating your DVD masterpiece. To avoid redoing this, save a copy of the .dar project file. Then rename the .mpeg movie file(s) that are part of the project. Now open the renamed copy of the .dar project file in DVD Architect Studio.

Since you renamed the .mpeg movie files Arch Studio will complain about the "missing" files. Replace the missing files with your .avi files. Assuming they are an exact copy in terms of length and chapter points, you'll be able to keep all the other work you did in Architect Studio.
IanG wrote on 1/20/2005, 10:20 AM
>What is confusing is I burned the first test 1.32 hours without errors or complaints.

The size of the mpeg file is governed by more than just the time - if you have lots of movement the bit rate will increase to make it smoother. I'd imagine video of the grandchildren would be quite dynamic :-). If you've got a lot of camera movement, that will also translate into large file sizes - the encoder doesn't know you didn't mean it! Shooting with a tripod or even a monopod could make a difference - as well as a finished product that's much easier on the eye.

Ian G.
jhill wrote on 1/20/2005, 10:23 AM
Fast response, thanks.

This may be what I did for my test. Avi to DVDA then let it optimize.

Thanks

--john
jhill wrote on 1/20/2005, 12:26 PM
I have been creating chapter points in DVDA. I read that I can set markers in MS. It makes more sense to do it in the movie file. Is that correct?

--john
jhill wrote on 1/20/2005, 12:27 PM
Good advice. I understand if the background is static the compression can reuse bits of it?

Thanks
--john
PhilBiker wrote on 1/20/2005, 3:12 PM
>The size of the mpeg file is governed by more than just the time - if you have lots of movement the bit rate will increase to make it smoother.

I do not think the encoder included in Movie Studio has a variable bit rate option, if it does, please tell me where to go to enable it.

I've had lots of luck doing 2+ hour OOP LaserDisc movie transfers in Movie Factory, the resulting DVDs look reasonably good even at a relatively low bitrate. You need to use the "Optimize DVD" option in DVD Architect Studio to change your bitrate.
ChristerTX wrote on 1/20/2005, 4:44 PM
The markers in MS is just for editing purposes. It will not have anything to do with the DVD chapter points.

IanG wrote on 1/22/2005, 5:45 AM
>I do not think the encoder included in Movie Studio has a variable bit rate option, if it does, please tell me where to go to enable it.

You're right! In my own defence I'll say that it used to be VBR, but it isn't now (at least v3 isn't). I wonder why it changed?

Ian G.
PaulS wrote on 1/22/2005, 8:18 AM
"The markers in MS is just for editing purposes. It will not have anything to do with the DVD chapter points"

Actually, in my opinion, this is one of the best reasons for upgrading from MS 3.0 to 4.0. With VMS 4.0 and DVDAS, you can use the markers in VMS to generate chapter points in DVDAS. These can be used for creating scene selection menus or just as chapter points that allow you to skip forward through your movie.

The simplest way of confirming this is using the Burn to DVD feature in VMS. When it finishes rendering choose the option to launch DVDAS. If you add a scene selection menu, you will find that the chapters are determined by the markers that you assigned in VMS and have the same name as the marker.
ChristerTX wrote on 1/22/2005, 3:58 PM
Extremely cool ! I had no idea!

Thanks !