EricBall
17th May 2002, 14:07
For those that may be interested, it is possible (just) to put The Hire shorts from www.bmwfilms.com on a miniDVD. This is my first major miniDVD creation, and here is how I did it:
Transcode the QuickTime videos to MPEG-2 using TMPGEnc with the following parameters: 720x480, 16:9, 29.97fps, Interlace NTSC, 4:2:0, 9 bit DC, CQ 50, 3000 kbits/sec max, Normal motion search, with 192 kbit/sec 48kHz Stereo MPEG Layer II
For _Powder Keg_ I turned on noise reduction and used Center 900x453 to crop, and Center 953x480 to crop _Making of the Hire_. The rest I just used the default Full screen - keep aspect ratio. I also managed to encode the Shockwave Flash intros from the website, but without audio.
These then became the assets I loaded into SpruceUp, and used to create buttons and a menu, along with chapters. I then exported that out to a Title Set and used IfoEdit to change the aspect ratio of everything to 16:9. Then it was back into SpruceUp to export the Title Set to an Image, which I then burned using CDRWin (Tools/burn ISO image).
Now, I know that those of you in the US can call 1-800-334-4BMW and get the films (except for _The Follow_ apparently) on DVD. But I got some satisfaction doing it for myself. I also learned that the key to making miniDVDs is keeping the bitrate under control. I knew that the MPEG-2 files couldn't be much bigger than the QuickTime files or I wouldn't be able to fit them all. Some testing with the various TMPGEnc options showed that CQ would do this. (Maybe I could have played with the other options, but they didn't by default.)
Of course, there is room for improvement. I wasn't able to rip out the commentary track, which I would have liked. (SpruceUp wouldn't have been able to handle it anyway.) The QuickTime files have some additional assets which might have been usable. And although CQ 50 gave me the file size I wanted, there are probably options which would have given better results with the same size. Encoding the main movie separately from the title screen and end credits would be another way to improve video quality. But overall I am quite happy with the result.
Transcode the QuickTime videos to MPEG-2 using TMPGEnc with the following parameters: 720x480, 16:9, 29.97fps, Interlace NTSC, 4:2:0, 9 bit DC, CQ 50, 3000 kbits/sec max, Normal motion search, with 192 kbit/sec 48kHz Stereo MPEG Layer II
For _Powder Keg_ I turned on noise reduction and used Center 900x453 to crop, and Center 953x480 to crop _Making of the Hire_. The rest I just used the default Full screen - keep aspect ratio. I also managed to encode the Shockwave Flash intros from the website, but without audio.
These then became the assets I loaded into SpruceUp, and used to create buttons and a menu, along with chapters. I then exported that out to a Title Set and used IfoEdit to change the aspect ratio of everything to 16:9. Then it was back into SpruceUp to export the Title Set to an Image, which I then burned using CDRWin (Tools/burn ISO image).
Now, I know that those of you in the US can call 1-800-334-4BMW and get the films (except for _The Follow_ apparently) on DVD. But I got some satisfaction doing it for myself. I also learned that the key to making miniDVDs is keeping the bitrate under control. I knew that the MPEG-2 files couldn't be much bigger than the QuickTime files or I wouldn't be able to fit them all. Some testing with the various TMPGEnc options showed that CQ would do this. (Maybe I could have played with the other options, but they didn't by default.)
Of course, there is room for improvement. I wasn't able to rip out the commentary track, which I would have liked. (SpruceUp wouldn't have been able to handle it anyway.) The QuickTime files have some additional assets which might have been usable. And although CQ 50 gave me the file size I wanted, there are probably options which would have given better results with the same size. Encoding the main movie separately from the title screen and end credits would be another way to improve video quality. But overall I am quite happy with the result.