dual layer dvd

[Johny]

Hello friends, with your help I managed to make a high quality dual layer dvd. I used the best quality for 150 minute setting then set the bit rate up to 7mps and was really impressed. I knew it was too good to be true, the Dvds freeze usually in the second half of the movie. Does this have something to do with placing of the markers for the split point? I tried two different brand DVDs. Another note, an earlier dvd I made in which I didn't mess around with the bitrate, I didn't have the problem.
Thanks

 

[Will Clegg]

I have only done this with DVD Studio Pro, but I always manually set the dual-layer break point to a moment between scenes. Preferably a moment just after a fade to black, if such a moment exists in my video. This way, the slight pause caused by the layer switch isn't as noticebale to the viewer. You have to set a chapter marker first, then select that chapter as the break point. Often it is best to set this around the halfway point, but depending on the size of your m2v file, you can often be flexible.

The main variable is going to be the player you use... Some players are faster than others, and you won't even notice the break point. I just recently made a DVD with a 9.0kbps bitrate and didn't notice the break point when playing back on my Sony (a few years old) and Xbox 360. Its a tough variable to control - for best results, most people recommend you keep your total bitrate to under 6.5kbps. So, if your audio is AAC at 192bps, encode your video using 2-pass VBR at 6.3kbps. Then viewers with the slowest players will have the best experience, but at the cost of some video quality (not much)