How many 30 min.video clips fit on a DVD before it looks bad?

Discussion in 'Video to DVD' started by NINVIN21, Sep 30, 2006.

  1. NINVIN21

    NINVIN21 Regular member

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    I have vso convert x to DVD and I have Winavi.
    after I burn the video's about 12 30. min videos onto a DVD..
    It looks terrible and I'm useing good media.
    I think the video files I have are tv-ripped
    could this be why they look so crappy?
    What can I do to fix this?
    I tried with less videos before but it still looks bad
    I had this problem for ever I don't no what to Do.
    Thank you
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2006
  2. SOCOMII

    SOCOMII Regular member

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    hows the quality before you burn them?
     
  3. mistycat

    mistycat Active member

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    You should be able to burn 8 - 30 min episodes to a regular DVD but, as SOCOMII asked, they have to be good quality before you start. I have burned 4 - 60 min episodes to a regular DVD with negligible quality loss but they were high quality HDTV. I am not that familar with VSO but is there a quality setting you're missing? My personal belief is that VSO will give better results and supports menues, too.
     
  4. collarme

    collarme Regular member

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    How do they look on the hard drive after conversion?
     
  5. NINVIN21

    NINVIN21 Regular member

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    It looks about the same after conversion,(pretty good)
    But when I expand my media player to full screen it gets pixelated and blurry,

    My PC is at 100% while converting Is that bad?

    Thank you
     
  6. mistycat

    mistycat Active member

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    100% is normal while encoding but if the encoded files look bad on your pc, they will look even worse on your tv. Are they the same before you encode them when you expand Media Player?
     
  7. georgeluv

    georgeluv Regular member

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    depends on your definition of "looking bad". if you make a kdvd with 352x480 res you should be able to fit almost 10 hours of video on a dvd without it looking crappy. check www.kvcd.net for details on how to do that.

    i smashed 4 hours of 720x480 regular mpeg 2 from a hd source and it only pixilated at scene changes and scenes with lots of action. when there wasnt a lot of action on the screen it still looked like hd. that was before i discovered kvcds and kdvds.

    as i write this i am putting the finishing touches on a 270 minute kvcd! 4.5 hours on one dvd-player compatable 700 MB cd-r. the res is 352x240 and the average bitrate is an atrocious 271 kbps but hey, i fit it all on there. its the first three friday the 13th's, each movie cam out to about 211 MB, thats half the size of a movie formatted for an ipod, so you can imagine the quality on a normal tv.
     
  8. JaguarGod

    JaguarGod Active member

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    Well I frequently put over 160 minutes on a DVD5. Depending on the source, there is a chance you can have very nice quality. Also, consider that you can cut credits either by the encoder or by setting a chapter point at credits and using VobBlanker.

    Before reading through my long explanation, I will give my recommendations:

    If the source is pretty good (I assume downloaded) XviD, then put 6 episodes per disc. This would be about 175MB for 30 minutes.

    If the source is excellent XviD, then go for 4 episodes per disc. This would be about 225MB for 30 minutes.

    If the source is bad, then go for 12 episodes per disc + noise reduction.

    Now, if you have twelve 30 min episodes, your choices are:

    12 per disc - 360 minutes
    6 per disc - 180 minutes
    4 per disc - 120 minutes
    3 per disc - 90 minutes
    2 per disc - 45 minutes

    Here are the bitrates that should be used for the options:

    12=> 1475kbps video + 192 kbps audio
    6 => 3145kbps video + 192 kbps audio
    6 => 2889kbps video + 448 kbps DD 5.1
    4 => 4555kbps video + 448 kbps DD 5.1
    3 => 6220kbps video + 448 kbps DD 5.1
    2 => 9150kbps video + 448 kbps DD 5.1

    At 60 minutes per disc I only recommend for D1 uncompressed source or D5 source. I doubt you have that much HDD space, and it appears that you are talking about DL content, so rule that out.

    At 90 minutes per disc, you are basically looking at pretty high quality DVD. Use this only for a source that looks better than a commercially bought DVD. This would apply for an HD source or Superbit DVD.

    At 120 minutes per disc, this is what to use for recompressing a DVD meaning your source is of typical DVD quality (about the quality of X-men 3, or a very good VHS or Beta). For downloaded content, the colors must be very crisp.

    At 180 minutes per disc, your source should be a high quality XviD or VHS. This means that it looks very good on your PC at full screen and there are no noticable flaws and of lower quality than a store bought DVD, meaning the colors are a bit "faded".

    If the source is a little better and it comes with a 5.1 audio, then you can consider encoding the audio to Dolby Digital 5.1 The picture quality drop is not so much (only 256kbps). The result will look about the same as the stereo audio, only you will be able to have it surround if you have a multi-speaker system.

    At 360 minutes per disc, the source has to be very bad. Low resolution, low bitrate, etc... When viewed at full screen there should be noticable pixelation throughout. When putting this much on a disc, use noise reduction. The picture will lose sharpness, but the backgrounds will look much better. Expect high encoding times.

    Basically, you do not want to make inefficient use of bitrate. No matter how many bits you assign to bad video, it will look bad. For good video, if you use low bitrate, the quality drop is more noticable.
     

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