Video File Format for DVD Burning???

[BMXWizard]

Hi, I have recently bought a DVD-writer, and some software called DELL Movie Studio Plus.
It's pretty good, but I don't know how I am meant to fit the promised 120 minutes of video onto a DVD!!
I am using DVD+R discs, manufactured by Datawrite, and am creating my own MPEG-2 encoded video files using the DELL software. However, when I create my DVD, I can fit a maximum of about 55 minutes' worth of video files onto it! This is less than half of what I'm meant to be able to fit on.
At first I assumed it must be a compression problem. But I have tried many different compressions, and I cannot get smaller video files without making them unwatchable by virtue of the bad picture quality.
By my calculations, to fit 120 minutes of video onto a 4.7GB DVD+R, the video files would have to be about 30-40MB/minute. As I said, I can make .mpg files at about 30MB/minute, but the quality is awful.
What compression should I use... and what kind of picture quality should I be expecting for 120 minutes play on a DVD... Is it possible I'm expecting too much???
Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: BMXWizard
What compression should I use... and what kind of picture quality should I be expecting for 120 minutes play on a DVD... Is it possible I'm expecting too much???
Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to AT!

Ahe short answer is: you need to use a better compression program, and yes, it is possible to get excellect quality video at 2Mbit/s (VBR), resulting in 4hrs of footage per DVD.

Look at dvdrhelp and doom9
for some FAQ's and useful links. (edit) Try
TMPGEnc for a free 30-day demo

 

[oldfart]

Are you doing real time MPEG2 capture/compression? If so, that explains the bad quality. You need to capture as a full quality AVI, then compress with a good MPEG2/DVD encoder program.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: BMXWizard
What compression should I use... and what kind of picture quality should I be expecting for 120 minutes play on a DVD... Is it possible I'm expecting too much???
Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to AT!

Ahe short answer is: you need to use a better compression program, and yes, it is possible to get excellect quality video at 2Mbit/s (VBR), resulting in 4hrs of footage per DVD.

Look at dvdrhelp and doom9
for some FAQ's and useful links. (edit) Try
TMPGEnc for a free 30-day demo

2Mbit?? What I've encoded below 6Mbit using Ulead Videostudio 6 hasn't looked too good at all, especially when there's a lot of motion. I encode at about 7Mbit/sec VBR to fit 1.5hrs on a single DVD. I want Blu-ray!!!

 

[tart666]

I have gotten excellent results with CCE at 2Mbit/s avg. Sometimes at 1Mbit/s avg.

AFAIK, the consensus is, TMPGEnc is the best cheap encoder for qualilty vs. size, while CCE is about 50% smaller for the same quality... but costs a few $k :|

 

[fishingeek]

You can get CCE Basic for $58. It does a great job.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: tart666
I have gotten excellent results with CCE at 2Mbit/s avg. Sometimes at 1Mbit/s avg.

AFAIK, the consensus is, TMPGEnc is the best cheap encoder for qualilty vs. size, while CCE is about 50% smaller for the same quality... but costs a few $k :|

I haven't seen the DVDs you've burned, but when I'm watching a commerical DVD and it dives/stays in the 3-4Mbit/s range it looks like total @ss to me (as compared to DVDs that stay in the 6-8Mbit/s range). Do you DVDs look "excellent" when compared to DVDs burned w/at 2-3x the bit rate or do they look "excellent" for DVDs that are so compressed? I don't think I could stand watching something compressed that much. Of course sometimes it's hard for me to watch DVDs (espcially if I've seen the uncompressed original source footage). Maybe I'm just overly critical?


Lethal

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: tart666
I have gotten excellent results with CCE at 2Mbit/s avg. Sometimes at 1Mbit/s avg.

AFAIK, the consensus is, TMPGEnc is the best cheap encoder for qualilty vs. size, while CCE is about 50% smaller for the same quality... but costs a few $k :|

I haven't seen the DVDs you've burned, but when I'm watching a commerical DVD and it dives/stays in the 3-4Mbit/s range it looks like total @ss to me (as compared to DVDs that stay in the 6-8Mbit/s range). Do you DVDs look "excellent" when compared to DVDs burned w/at 2-3x the bit rate or do they look "excellent" for DVDs that are so compressed? I don't think I could stand watching something compressed that much. Of course sometimes it's hard for me to watch DVDs (espcially if I've seen the uncompressed original source footage). Maybe I'm just overly critical?


Lethal

What I meant was that I cannot distinguish between the commercial DVD and the one that I re-compressed using CCE at half the bitrate or less. But then again, I have a 4 yr old 27" JVC TV...