Burning a 9.5 GB avi file to a dual layer disk

[paulgabel]

Greetings, I'm Paul Gabel.

I have a 45 min. documentary that's rendered out to 9.5 GB avi from Premiere 6.5. A client is interested in acquisitioning this piece so I'm interested in building them a professional level DVD where the file is burned onto a dual layer disk that the chapters are navigated via menu. I have successfully made single layer disks using Nero Vision Exp.3 and 4 but now wish to take this project to Adobe encore 2.0. My first question is how can I create this so that the avi file takes up most of a dual layer disks capacity? The avi is automatically compressed to under 3.5 GB in both Nero and Encore. Is there a way to proceed, where this file isn't over-compressed for a dual layer disk? Thank you for your time.

[BigCondor]

If your are making a DVD, the max bitrate is limited. I don't think a 45 min DVD would need a DL disc.
Please refer to this:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=121017

[paulgabel]

curse, I was hopefull.
thank you for the response, I'll take a look at that thread..

[CWR03]

curse, I was hopefull.
What BigCondor meant is that DVD-compliant MPEG-2 video doesn't need a DL disk for a 45-minute video. There is a maximum allowed bitrate (If I'm not mistaken it's 6000), and the only way to create a 45 minute MPEG-2 video that fills a DL disk is to exceed that bitrate by a huge factor. There's absolutely no reason to do that, as a standard DVD can hold 2 hours of video in standard DVD-compliant MPEG-2.

If you plan to archive the original 9.5 GB 45-minute video, just use WinRAR to segment it into smaller portions that will fit on your media.

[setarip_old]

@paulgabel

Is it your desire to INTENTIONALLY fill up a double-layered DVD, rather than a single-layered DVD?

[paulgabel]

yes, that is my intention - in hopes of getting the best possible resolution.

[setarip_old]

For a DVD-compliant 45 minute video, you'll be able to obtain the best resolution possible with a filesize that will EASILY fit on a single-layer DVD-5...

[CWR03]

yes, that is my intention - in hopes of getting the best possible resolution.
You still haven't answered whether you're looking to archive the original footage or to create standard DVD video. You might also consider using the terminology befitting its purposes - "resolution" is the video size in pixels, and the best DVD-compliant resolution is 720 x 480 for NTSC, 720 x 576 in PAL. The quality within those resolutions can vary depending on the bitrate, but again there is a maximum bitrate for DVD compliance.

[r0lZ]

In simple words, it is impossible to create sufficiently long files to occupy a DL with a 45' video. And if you manage to do it, your DVD will certainly look less professional. Wasting a DL for nothing is certainly not a good idea, especially as a DL DVD+R is largely less reliable than a single layer DVD+/-R, and cannot be played on many old standalone players.

[paulgabel]

Forgive me, but yes I was interested in creating a standard DVD for this video as opposed to archiving it on a DL DVD. I was thinking, pardon the naivety, that by selecting "DVD9" in both Nero or Encore 2.0 the coding would re-adjust making the file fit onto both sides of the disk. My thinking was that the overall picture quality would improve due to the larger space available on the disk. I didn't understand how bitrates made this impossible.

[Inventive Software]

DVD by it's very nature is encoded VBR (that is, Variable BitRate). The encoder will set the bitrate (which is typically between 9500 kbits/sec and 9800 kbits/sec depending on the audio bitrate used), but the encoder will only use the bits necessary to compress the image. The maximum bitrate possible to use is 10000 kbits/sec for both audio and video combined, which means the max bitrate for the video is around 9800 kbits/sec. MPEG-2 (the video codec for DVDs) is itself a fairly efficient lossy codec, which is why a 2+ hour movie can fit onto a DVD-9, on it's own, with ease, and why your target of a DVD-9 with a 45-minute is unrealistic. Setarip_old is right in that a DVD-5 will be better equipped to play in older standalones than a DVD-9.


Just some basic calculations to consider. A DVD-9 typically has around 8,500,000,000 bytes on it (8.5 GB is decimal in DVD as opposed to CDs where it's binary). This equates to about 7.9 GB (binary ;)). If the maximum bitrate at any given time on a DVD can be 10000 kbits/sec (10,000,000 bits/sec), this equates to about 1,250,000 bytes/sec or about 1.2 Megabytes/sec. 45 minutes is 2700 seconds. 1.2 Megabytes * 2700 is 3,240 Megabytes. Nowhere near enough to fill a DVD-9 to DVD conformance, but just right for a DVD-5. ;)

[r0lZ]

Brilliant technical explanation!

I would add that the bitrate is limited by the standard so that cheap and relatively slow drives can be used in all standalone players. Allowing very high bitrates would require expensive hardware. At least, this was the logic at the time of the writing of the DVD-Video specs.

[paulgabel]

I really appreciate the attention everyone gave my inquiry. The information provided gives me a good footing in understanding the burning process to a DVD disk. And of course - thankfully - I will keep burning my 45 minute project to a single sided disk and if necessary, use the dual sided for video compilations or longer works. Regards.

[rmtaibo]

Your avi file is not DVD-Video compliant.
So if you want to watch your AVI file in your DVD player, you need to convert it in a DVD-Video compliant. And a 45 min of DVD-Video file fits easy in a DVD-5 disc.

The other way is to store the untouched avi file as DVD-Data file... But it can fit if greater than 8.5 Gb. So if you want to store your 9.5Gb untouched, you need to split it in more than one DVD-5 or DVD-9 disc as DVD-Data with some avi video tool...

[CWR03]

Your avi file is not DVD-Video compliant.
For what reason are you pulling up these older threads and reposting the same information that has already been given?