DVD Lab Problem - Authoring Oversized DVD's

[Jynks]

Hi I have been working on a DVD with a load of things on it and rather than spend ages fiddeling around with encoder rates and the like I thought it would be a good idea to encode all at a standared rate and then use dvd-rebuilder + CCE to shrink it all down to fit on a DVDr.....

Thing is I have done a load of work on the menus and now I find that I can not seam to build the disk!!! Ever time I try to build it DVDlab stops at 8.38GB.... I need to build the disk to 11GB....

How can I get DVDlab to produce massive oversised projects.... or is there another DVD author application I can use to do this.. one I could some how import the existing DVDlab manu mabey??

I am using DVDlab 1.3

Are there any other progreams that can load dvdlab projects (would hate to redo all the menus... and if not are there any dvd authoring apps you might recommend witch can do auto switch menus, and can author to a OVERSIZED dvd for latter shrinking with dvd rebuilder and cce.

[Malcolm]

maybe 8.38GB is the max. supported size for (double-layered) discs in DVD-lab.
You can try to shrink/reencode parts of your input videos without changing the menues in DVD-lab. just take one of your video files, reencode it with on a smaller bitrate and name + place it exactly like the original that is referenced in your DVD-lab project. build the DVD-lab project and try to stay below 8.39GB. After that you can shrink/reencode the rest of the DVD to DVD-5.
By the way: Going from 11GB to 4.5GB while keeping a good visual quality is hard to achieve...
For DVD-shrink, you must have a complete DVD folder structure with all ifo files. rejig can also transcode video-only mpeg files. (that's what you need here)
But i suggest to do a complete reencode with quenc or CCE.

Greetings,
Malcolm

[Jynks]

The source for a lot of the material on the dvd are very bad. some are even crappy mov files, bits from TV, snags from vcds etc etc.

The quality isn't somthing I am worrying about... but I NEED a system that can build a oversized project to dvd...

[Malcolm]

The new Beta4 from DVD-lab Pro can build double-layered disc images (extra option in 'Build Project'). Maybe that helps...?
Otherwise you need a different authoring software.

But honestly i still don't see the need for having a tool that supports 11gig+ DVDs...

Greetings,
Malcolm

[blackest_knight]

simple enough reason for oversized dvds speed and quality.
I would prefer to compress once to the final dvd size and encoding seems to take a lot longer with high compression.
dvdshrink will give me my filesize quickly once i have the structure and film in place.

[Doom9]

I doubt you'll find any DVD authoring software that allows you to create output that would never fit on a DVD disc. After all what's the point in making a DVD if you can't fit it on any existing disc type?

[tf]

I have done a 9.2GB DVD project with DVD-Lab V1.3. It worked well and didn't complain. After having done the project, I used DVD-Rebuilder to lower the bitrate to fit a DVD-R. Since the original mpeg2 files had very high (9-10Mbit) bitrate, the actual reencode looked (and worked) well.

-tf

[daveidmx]

I encourage you to re-encode your assests before you build for the following reasons.

1. You'll be able to get better quality. _You_ have the ability to make intelligent decisions and optimizations when re-encoding. You can compress some segments more than others. You can filter things to soften them for more compression. You can take that one really bi***y segment and toss it a few more bits. Rebuilder can't. It's blind, so to speak.

2. You'll be able to get better quality. By re-encoding things before you build, you're removing one loss generation. Rule #1 for quality, don't make unnecessary copies.

3. You'll have more reliable output. DVDLab is authoring a (theoretically) compliant image. Ideally, DVD Rebuilder does as well, but i'm sure (no jinks) there's still a bug or two left. Granted, there's still quite a few bugs in DVDLab, too, but why risk compounding them when its not necessary.

4. The "it works" factor. Right now, your plan to do an oversized build doesn't work. You can spend time trying to make it work, or you can use that time doing it a way that works _right now_.

Don't get me wrong, DVD Rebuilder is a fabulous tool (thank you jdobbs!) and i've just finished using it for a project myself. But it has a purpose and in this case i feel that there's a better solution.