I have been working the arduous task of converting a bunch of irreplaceable VCR tapes to DVD. Due to previous NERO encoding problems with capturing these tapes in AVI format which created huge files (90 mins took up 22 gb) I capture these now in MPEG format. This creates a loss in PQ. When I go to burn these I can only get about 80-90 mins of video per DVD-r. I use the highest quality setting and 2 pass vbr etc to get as much PQ as I can. Why is is that all these DVDs are advertised as "2hour" discs when they wont fit that on them without degrading the video? Or am I not getting something? Thanks
DVD-R's are advertised as being able to hold approximately 2 hours of DVD-Video quality but unlike CD's where the bitrate is always constant and the same, the quality of DVD-video relies on filesize / variable bitrate. If encoded at a lower bitrate, you might be able to fit you VHS backups on a DVDR. This might, unfortunately affect the quality of the picture. Keep in mind the compilation of your disc has to fit on ~4.35GB or ~8GB for a dual layer DVDR. Another solution, besides burning to DL DVD's, would be to slit the movie on multiple discs.
Thanks for the reply. I am not sure, how would you adjust the bitrate? I assume if I create, say, a compilation of 2 or 3 partial VCR tapes, and I go to burn it NERO tells me this will only fit on a DVD 9 (which I understand is a dl DVD), do you want to reduce the quality so it fits on a regular DVD. Essentially that is what we're up to here, no? I want to be able to burn dl so that when I backup a retail DVD I dont have to use recode to crunch it and hence lose PQ. Here is my conundrum: My desktop box has a pioneer DVR-105 dvd-r burner which burns pretty reliably at 4X but not dl. hp ZV lappy has a Matshita combo burner which nero infotool tells me will burn dl but only DVD+r dl. How compatible are dvd+r dl discs in standard component DVD players. These discs are being created to essentially be played on TV not to watch on the PC. Which makes me wonder what kind of blanks are retail movies burned on? Thanks for taking the time to reply. PS anyone reading this +++I have never yet created a coaster using fuji dvd-r media that I got at BJs and I think they were $20 for 50 on a spindle. I am almost out of them so not one bad one in over 40 consecutive burns....Sometimes I read here to avoid cheap media but these seem to be good quality.....
DVD+R DL is a booktype that is not always compatible with older standalone DVD players. The beauty of it though, is that +R can be booktyped to DVD-ROM, the standard DVD-Video disc format, thus "fooling" DVD players into recognizing the disc as a commercially pressed DVD. The thing is that not all burners are capable of booktyping. If you wish to do this, then I would find out if your particular burner can booktype and if it can, it's only a matter of selecting an option before your burn! As an added note, I must have burned about a 100 discs with Fujifilm DVD-R and I also thought they were excellent. I now exclusively use Verbatim DVD+R and DVD+R DL because I can booktype those into DVD-ROM.
