Need Help With Burning a Lengthy Project on a DVD

[GoGoSamGo]

Hello fellow Mac Users. I've finally got my set up nicely running with my new MacBook Pro and I just purchased a Porsche Lacie Hard Drive which is very nice too . Now here is my issue. I promised a friend I would transfer their VHS wedding video to DVD. I converted it and captured it through Final Cut Pro. I exported it as a Quicktime, and used one of the Preset Templetes on DVD Studio Pro and made a menu selection and what not, I come to burn the project and I find out that the DVD can not fit all the material, even without the chapter selction. The project is approx 2 hours long and it's the first thing this long in length I've ever tried to burn. Now I know there has to be a way to compress this down but sadly to say in my editing years I've never done anything with Compressing. I have a software named Compressor, but I don't know if that's what I need, or really how to use it. I know there has to be a way to compress this lenthy file into smaller GBs. I'm using Tayo Yuden Premium DVDs which I believe hold around 4.7 Gb. If anyone can please help me that would be great. Thank you so much.

 

[Mydriasis]

Compressor is exactly what you need.

Just File > export with compressor, there is a preset in there for 120min of DVD video. Just drag that sucker on your video, select the where the file should be save and hit start. Should work like a charm for you!

It even runs in the background so you can do anything else you like while its running.

 

[GoGoSamGo]

Hey Thanks a lot for that Help, I'm glad now, was getting scared I'd have to make two dvds which is sad for a two hour long piece. I have one last question hopefully you can answer. Which settings do you use which are the best for space? Because I see all these different choices:

DVD: Best Quality 120 Mins 16:9
DVD: Best Quality 120 Mins 4:3
DVD: Fastest Encode 120 16:9
DVD: Fastest Encode 120 4:3

Thanks I apperciate all the help again

 

[GoGoSamGo]

One very very last thing, how long does it usually take? I'm just giving it a try and I picked DVD Best Quality 4:3 and it says it's going to take around 2 hours.

 

[P-Worm]

Converting to MPEG 2 always takes a really long time. For a two hour project, your estimation of 2 hours seems a bit low to me actually, but that may be because I usually do a high quality.

P-Worm

 

[AviationFan]

Which settings do you use which are the best for space? Because I see all these different choices:

DVD: Best Quality 120 Mins 16:9
DVD: Best Quality 120 Mins 4:3
DVD: Fastest Encode 120 16:9
DVD: Fastest Encode 120 4:3

Converting from video tape, I assume 4:3 is your aspect ratio. "Best Quality" and "Fastest Encode" are presets for Compressor that differ in that "Best Quality" uses two passes and variable bit rate, whereas "Fastest Encode" will produce an MPEG file of the same size but with constant bit rate and therefore typically not as high a quality. Squeezing 120 minutes to a single layer DVD is starting to push the envelope, so the "Best Quality" preset is probably what you want. Also, make sure you use AC3 to encode your audio, not PCM, otherwise the audio will not leave enough room for two hours of video.

Another thing, if your video is slightly longer than two hours, or if you need to leave ample space for motion menus or any other extras, you may want to tweak the bit rate in Compressor manually. That's actually very easy to do; start with the preset that's closest to what you want, then look for the video settings and adjust the "average bitrate". In your case, lower it a little bit (maybe 10%) so that you save some space for the extra time or material.

- Martin

The manual that comes with Compressor has a section (number 10) called "Creating MPEG-2 Output Files", maybe you'll find that helpful.

- Martin

 

[AviationFan]

Converting to MPEG 2 always takes a really long time. For a two hour project, your estimation of 2 hours seems a bit low to me actually, but that may be because I usually do a high quality.

P-Worm,

I agree - using the "Best Quality" preset, I would expect it to be an overnight job. Two hours, wow, that would be real-time!

- Martin

 

[GoGoSamGo]

P-Worm,

I agree - using the "Best Quality" preset, I would expect it to be an overnight job. Two hours, wow, that would be real-time!

- Martin

Well it's not like I have a reason to lie. When I was trying it out it said it would take 2 hours and 46 mins. it increased a bit, I had to go to work and didn't get home until now so I didn't want to just leave it running like that. I'm going to try it again now with best quality, maybe it will be longer, I hope not because I was really hoping it would take around 2-3 hours max

thanks for the help guys

 

[GoGoSamGo]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong . I used the Best Quality 4:3 120 mins setting and it took approx. 3 hours. When I put it on DVD Studio Pro, it said that it was 4.7 gb. I suppose that's better than just using quicktime which said the size was 5.1 gb, but that's all without chapter selctions or anything which I need to add. I made the audio into a AC3 and everything everyone suggested it is only supposted to compress this little or am I doing something wrong?

 

[P-Worm]

Heh, you're running into the problem I HATE about making DVD's. You spend 3-4 hours rendering only to find out that it is too much space, or it wasn't cropped right, or it's less than expected quality, etc.

With the length of the DVD that you are looking at, getting Best Quality is going to be fairly hard to do (which isn't as bad as you think. The source footage you said was VHS which isn't really "Best Quality" in its own right). If you step down the quality just a tad (even a small change should make a fairly large difference when you are spanning it over 2 hours) you might come out small enough and not even notice a hit to the quality.

Best of luck.

P-Worm