Proper settings for 2 hour DVDs?

[rtmoore4]

I have not been able to get any of the included recording quality settings in the SageTV product to give a decent quality image if I try to burn 2 hours of video onto a DVD. The "Better" setting comes VERY close, but is always a couple of hundred meg too big to fit on a DVD. The "Good" setting will fit 2 hours, but the video quality is significantly degraded. Therefore, I am currently forced to only put an hour of video per DVD. Of course then, I can use the "Best" quality. But, I do not notice much difference in video quality between "Better" and "Best". If only "Better" could be tweaked just a little to get 2 hours of video on a DVD, I would be very happy. Has anyone figured out the right combination of settings to achieve this? If you have, can you please 'cut and paste' the exact line out of your properties file?

It is also my understanding that audio takes up a large amount of space. Perhaps some tweaks to this area would save some space?

TIA!

[gplasky]

One way I found around it was to use the Best setting. My 2 hour movie could be anywhere from 5-6GB in size. I then used TMPGEnc DVD Author to edit it (cut out commericials) and burn the video to the hard drive just like it was a DVD. (Video_TS folder and it created .ifo & .vob files) After cutting out the commercials in TMPEnc DVD Author I could see if it would fit on the DVD without compressing. If it did I could burn it directly to DVD from TMPGEnc DVD Author. If not, then I took DVDShrink and let it compress it to fit on a DVD and then burned to disk . Worked great and excellent quality.


Gerry

[rtmoore4]

That's very interesting, and I appreciate your response. It requires a fair amount of work to "process" the show, however. The whole reason I purchased the Hauppauge card in the first place was to encode directly to MPEG-2, so that I would not have to do any processing. I don't want to edit out commercials, and I don't want to do any post-processing. I want something that is incredibly simple. I just want to be able to import the show into my DVD burner, click Burn, and go on with life. The setup I have right now: Hauppauge card, SageTV, and DVDMoviefactory let's me do just that. Right now, that process takes 5 minutes, tops. And that's if I take the time to properly label the DVD and everything. If only I could get that additional hour, things would be perfect.

[SHS]

Try reading this rtmoore4 if your run WinTV-PVR thoses setting are base on CBR and VBR is the way to go.
http://www.freytechnologies.com/HPquality.txt

[gplasky]

Well I look at it this way. When I cut out the commercials it takes 7 minutes to process to the hard drive and 12 minutes to burn. If it's bigger than the DVD it still takes about 7 minutes to the hard drive, 14 minutes for DVDShrink and 12 minutes to burn. The compression from DVDShrink actually gives me a better picture than If I were to adjust the decoder settings. Just a thought. It may be worth your time.

Gerry

[rtmoore4]

Thanks SHS, but I have already read that. There are a BUNCH of different bitrate settings and prefiltering options in there, and I have no idea which combination is the right one to accomplish what I am looking for. I was hoping for some expert advice from someone who has already faced this problem, and worked out the answer.

[rtmoore4]

Interesting thought, gplasky. I guess I could look at just using DVDShrink on the default "Better" setting captures. That would probably give me exactly what I need. Or course, it isn't quite as easy as what I have now, but it is probably still worth it if nobody has any suggestions for a better decoder setting for 2 hours on a DVD.

Thanks!

[jptaz]

I have no problem with the default 2GB an hour settings and using
TMPEnc DVD Author to turn to DVD format and then burn using the
built dvd too.

I have been pleased with the quality.

Just my thoughts,
John

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by rtmoore4
I have not been able to get any of the included recording quality settings in the SageTV product to give a decent quality image if I try to burn 2 hours of video onto a DVD. The "Better" setting comes VERY close, but is always a couple of hundred meg too big to fit on a DVD. The "Good" setting will fit 2 hours, but the video quality is significantly degraded. Therefore, I am currently forced to only put an hour of video per DVD.
TIA!

I added these two lines to my Properties file and now get fairly decent MPEG2 DVD files to allow 2 one hour shows (with commercials) on one DVD with a little room to spare:


mmc/python2_encoding/ MyDVD=videobitrate\=4500000|width\=720|height\=480|audiobitrate\=224|vbr\=1|peakvideobitrate\=6000000|outputstreamtype\=10

seeker/recording_qualities/2.5MB\ sec.=MyDVD,224,48000,6000000

Lauren

[rtmoore4]

Wow, that's really cool, Lauren. That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much. I'll give this a try.

[dvd_maniac]

I think you should give TMPGenc DVD Author a try. Taking out commercials for a two hour movie (especially if you don't need to be exactly on the proper cut frame) would take like 2-3 extra minutes. Less total time than searching through the commercials on DVD player while watching it. And usually movies with commercials can be cut down 25%. So 5GB movie = 3.75GB after cuts

[Ralphjb]

Originally posted by dvd_maniac
I think you should give TMPGenc DVD Author a try. Taking out commercials for a two hour movie (especially if you don't need to be exactly on the proper cut frame) would take like 2-3 extra minutes. Less total time than searching through the commercials on DVD player while watching it. And usually movies with commercials can be cut down 25%. So 5GB movie = 3.75GB after cuts

I second your enthusiasm for TMPGenc DVD Author (except for the extraordinary long name). I have used it to create over 50 DVD's. It is easy to use, and quick. Quality is excellent too.