Minimum bitrate allowed for compliant DVD

[808state]

Just wondering what the number is for the minimum bitrate that a VBR DVD can run at and still be compliant. I have used a value of zero with craft when doing XSVCD(s) and was still able to play the discs fine in my Pioneer standalone. I would also like to know the minimum bitrate for SVCD as well.

TIA

[jshumate]

Zero should be valid for both SVCD and DVD. Both specs that I've seen
say something to the effect that the maximum bit rate can not exceed
a certain value, but neither says anything about a minimum value.

[Matthew]

I always use zero and have never had any problems. Remember that, assuming you have a decent authoring prog, it will warn you when you breach DVD specs.

In the case of SVCDs, some players bugger up at low bitrates, so bear that in mind if you plan to lend your backups to others (who also own te original DVD, of course ;)).

With SVCD I've always used 300 minimum with my pioneer and never noticed any problems.

[FamousPerson]

In CCE, if you use zero, and check "DVD compliant", it will ignore your zero and not go below min DVD spec. I don't remember what it is but it's higher than zero. 1500 maybe?

[fasttimes]

From the information that was provided to me by a professional DVD compressionest, the minimum is 2,000,000 bits/s for MPEG-2.

For MPEG-1 on DVD, the max is 1,856,000 bits/s, and the minimum is unknown for sure, but I think it's 500,000 bits/s.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by FamousPerson
In CCE, if you use zero, and check "DVD compliant", it will ignore your zero and not go below min DVD spec. I don't remember what it is but it's higher than zero. 1500 maybe?

Ahhh, I do click DVD compliant so I guess my minimums are actually non-zero then ;)

[jdobbs]

You know while you hear of a "minimum" bitrate for DVD -- I have yet to be able to find it in any documentation... The CCE manual says it uses a range of 0~9.8 Mbps for the settings to conform to DVD.

[FamousPerson]

In my own experience, I encoded a four hour piece of blackness once, with a MIN set to zero, and it ended up encoded at 1500, so maybe that's the DVD spec min.

[jdobbs]

I just did a 1 minute section of Blank Video (using the AVISYNTH BlankClip function) with the DVD Complient flag checked -- and the resulting video was 200Kbs, or .2Mbs -- that leads me to believe the CCE doesn't have a minimum bitrate for DVD video.

[FamousPerson]

Yes, jdobbs, looks like you are right. I just did it too and got 188.5 Kbps.

Also, DVDMaestro accepted it.