Trying for 2 hrs of footage of a SD DVD

S

streetlightprods

Member
I understand the time doesn't necessarily determine the ability here, but after I throw it through compressor with the highest bitrate, it comes out to a file much larger than can be accepted onto a SD DVD. I then lowered the bitrate and got it to fit, but the quality, understandably, has decreased quite a bit. A few questions.

1. Is there any way to keep the quality higher and still fit it on a SD DVD?

2. How, in God's name, are Hollywood/big budget films able to fit high quality images, far larger than mine, and for 2 hours onto a same size SD DVD? Do they use a more expensive program? What is it and what does it cost?

3. I also heard this from a previous forum and am curious to understand if it is true and, if it is, why is it so? "Agreed that pushing up to 9Mbps can cause playback issues. I never go above 8Mbps." (When referring to sliding the bitrate scale in compressor)
 
The more you compress it, the more the quality will be inpacted.

Compression is an art form, and it is possible to fit 120 minutes on a DVD with footage that still looks quite nice, but it takes lots of trial and error. The other solution, and one that many of your bigger-budget releases are on, is dual-layer DVD. This increases the storage to over 8GB.
 
Sure, but I'm only compressing it once.

I haven't tried a dual-layer yet and I may go and give that a try. When burning, are you suppose to flip the darn thing or is just a little fatter than it's skinnier brother?

I can understand how sliding music in at certain points or lengthening a moment in a scene can add tension or even adding a dolly movement in post is an art form, but when it comes to strictly a technical and systematic operation of button pushing in order to come out with certain results specific to certain footage, it's only a formula where, absolutely, trial and error become a hang out buddy.

Do you know what kind of issues can occur during playback when you compress something at 9mbps? Does it have to do with the DVD player not being able to accomodate the DVD?
 
streetlightprods said:
2. How, in God's name, are Hollywood/big budget films able to fit high quality images, far larger than mine, and for 2 hours onto a same size SD DVD? Do they use a more expensive program? What is it and what does it cost?
Click to expand...
There is someone who does compression for a living working with hardware encoders that can cost around $20k (at least that was the case a few years ago when I was looking at hardware based solutions). Pop a hollywood DVD into your player, turn on the option to watch the bit rate and you'll see it jump all over the place from 2 to 7 or 8 depending on what the scene needs. A professional compressionist doesn't hit a "compress DVD" button anymore than a professional vfx person hits a "chroma key" button.


-Andrew
 
streetlightprods said:
I haven't tried a dual-layer yet and I may go and give that a try. When burning, are you suppose to flip the darn thing or is just a little fatter than it's skinnier brother?
Click to expand...

No. It looks and works just like a normal single layered DVD. Make sure you computer and your FCP and burn DL though. I have done it with FCP5 so if you have that or a later version you can, but double check your hardware.
 
DVD Studio Pro is able to burn dual-layered dvds. You just have to set the point in which it switches layers. Just pop it in, select Dual-Layer DVD and select your switch point and you are good to go.
 
At 6.8 mbps with dolby2 audio, you can get 50 minutes on a DVD with good quality.

You need to have that to get 120 minutes on the same disc. No way you can maintain quality by having the bit rate.

On "talking head" footage, you won't see as much of a loss, but with normal movement DVD, it will suffer.

No way around it with off the shelf encoders.
 
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