DVD Storage Capacity « Videomaker Community Forums

Kemper
Member

From what I understand a single layer DVD can hold approximately 2 hours of video assuming you have one audio track. How much space do you have to leave available to incorporate menu's & chapter selections?

I have a project that has 1 hour 56 minutes of footage that was converted from a Hi-8 tape using the Datavideo DAC-200. I am currently running Premiere Elements 3.0 which has built in DVD Authoring. So I selected a menu template, added some background music to the main page and the scene selection page and imported a still taken from the footage to use as the background to the menus. I exported the project with no trouble (no messages saying that space was an issue) but the footage has severe quality loss.

Can the quality of the picture be affected by trying to fit too much? Is this in any way related to my PC? I ran a similar project right before that was smaller (1 hr 17 min) but had the same options on the menu and it came out seemingly as sharp as the original footage. My PC is a Dell Precision 390. It has 2 hard drives, 80 GB for C drive and 300 GB for D drive. Both have plenty of space available.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Cole

Posted 4 years ago #
kkmac
Member

If DVD Authoring in Elements is similar to authoring with Encore, then the transcoding settings are probably set for automatic. Basically, Elements calculates the highest possible bitrate that will allow the content to fit on the disc. Still image menus use almost no disc space (Kilobytes) while menus with video backgrounds will use more. While you could try to set your transode setting manually, you may end up with a file that is too big to fit on the disc. You may want to check the settings to ensure the quality setting is max'd. I'm not sure what impact this setting will have on file size but I always have it set to its highest (when possible). Also, see if you can do a "2-pass" transcode. That might also help.

Posted 4 years ago #
Kemper
Member

Thanks for the reply KKMac.

Premiere Elements does detect the content and adjust the bit rate accordingly by default but has the option to select it manually as well. I have noticed since writing the post that one the sleeve to the discs (verbatim) that it quotes up to 1 hour in High Quality, 2 hours in SP, 3 hours in LP, and 4 hours in EP. I am not sure if this factors in the source media to come up with the storage capacity. Meaning, will it take 3 hours of something recorded in LP and maintain its current quality, or will it lose quality based on the amount of time of the recording.

I was able to shave 15 minutes off of the original media I was speaking of and that upped the bit-rate, which improved the picture.

Thanks again for the help.

Cole

Posted 4 years ago #