Some questions in regards to make a dvd

[laffe]

I have a couple of questions. Hope someone can give me some tips

1. I want to create a "demo" dvd. I want to take some of the best shots from several dvd's and use them as demos. I work in an audio/video sales store, so I need the picture to be the best possible quality, and I need the sound to be dts, 6.1, 5.1 or what ever the source has avaliable.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can do that?

2. I want more than one movie on one dvd. But most of the movies I have are to large to have 2 or more on. What tools do I use?
I have a large collection of vcd, svcd, divx, and other formats.
and want to transfer them to dvd's and be able to watch them in my dvd player.

I have used tmpenc, and reduced the bitrate, but was adviced to not go under 2500. Still they are to big to fit 2 on one dvd. Often also I have 2 vcd cd's, and they are also to big.

Those are my problems at the moment. So if anyone have any suggestion, please help me!

Laffe

[bitz4brainz]

Before you spend a lot of time on this, it's worth investigating whether you can buy such a thing. Demo DVDs such as you describe may already exist. They are not always available to ordinary people, but A/V stores should be able to obtain them. Check out this entry in the DVD FAQ:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.48

You may also want to contact the major studios. I wouldn't be surprised it they offer subscriptions to their trailers.

Frankly, I don't think 2500 bitrate is going to suffice for the quality you need and want. Even twice that would be marginal. I expect that commercial DVD demos use double layer for maximum quality.

[laffe]

Thanks mate! I wanted to do this with the movies we already have.

But thats ok!

And I did not want to use 2400 comp for this purpose. That was hor homeuse. LOL!

Laffe

[bitz4brainz]

Oh I see. Well, do you realize that your VCDs and SVCDs are already a lower bitrate than 2500 (and lower resolution, too). But if you are satisfied with their quality, then I guess your solution might be to either:

a. Transcode everything to VCD (MPEG-1, 352 x 288/240, roughly 600MB/hr) and reauthor the films onto DVD discs with suitable menus. Big question: Will your DVD player actually recognize VCD format when it's on a DVD disc? Good question, I don't know!

b. Replace your DVD player with a computer.

Okay, just kidding about (b). Here are some useful sites to research:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/

http://www.marcpeters.co.uk/tmpgenctools.html

http://www.doom9.org/

One other thing: A lot of cheap authoring packages will only or by default produce LPCM audio tracks which are uncompressed. If your player supports MPEG audio, you can pick up a little more space by encoding MPEG-1 Layer 2 tracks, assuming the authoring system supports it.

[bitz4brainz]

I should add: From what I've read, 2000 is probably the bottom limit for DVD (if you can accept that quality) and if you can use MPEG audio, that would give you about 4 hours. I've read that some DVD players may crap out at lower bitrates.

[laffe]

thanks! And thanks for a good laugh! LOL!

Ill give that a try! Ill just use a dvd rw disk, and see if it works!

Laffe

[bitz4brainz]

Still more: My authoring package supports two additional DVD options:
Half D-1 (352 x 480, 2400 Kbps, 4 hours)
CIF (352 x 240, 1500 kpbs, 6 hrs)

I don't know whether these are formats a settop player can handle and I image they are pretty crappy looking, but maybe not worse than VCD. The package is Ulead's MovieFactory 2, which is a stripped down version of their DVD Workshop.

[laffe]

trying half D-1 now. Will post details.

Laffe

[Dr Mordrid]

Half-D1 is a DVD legal format so it should be accepted by most authoring programs. Very nice for lowering the bitrate without much quality loss as long as the content isn't heavy on text & graphics.

As far as its qualty goes: pretty high given that a lot of your cable/satellite movie content is tranmitted using it or 2/3-D1 (480x480) to cut the bitrate.

Dr. Mordrid