16x9 720p WM9 HD-DVD.wmv

[dougall]

Can anyone tell me how to convert the following format into DVD NTSC?

VIDEO INFO:

RESOLUTION: 1280x720p/23.976 FILM
ENCODER: Windows Media Encoder 9 Pro
BITRATE: [4420K]
PASSES: [2 VBR]

AUDIO INFO:

TYPE: Windows Media 9 Pro Audio
SURROUND: Discrete 5.1 LFE
BITRATE: 384kbps @ 48KHz

[rsquirell]

Do you have an editor program? (MS MovieMaker2 came bundled with my box.) Has the video failed to load in any editors? What's the problem? Load the video in an editor...select DVD NTSC template and go. If you don't have an editor a 30-day free trial of TMPGenc Plus can be downloaded from this site.

[dougall]

Thanks.

I did not realise TMPGenc accepted WMV files (it's not listed as a supported extension) but if you select All Files (*.*) it loads fine.

Anyhow, I loaded the DVD NTSC template:

DVD for NTSC (North America and Japan) (MPEG-2 720x480 29.97fps CQ 65, Layer-2 48000Hz 384kbps)

and encoded but the resulting MPEG would only be ~ 2.5 Gigs (it was ~250 Megs at 10%).

I know I'm losing audio quality since TMPGenc doesn't support AC3-5.1 and I know I'm losing about 38% video resolution, but what settings can I change to maximize the quality and use the full DVD?

Thanks.

[rsquirell]

Egad...that's that new High Definition Windows Media format...I know nothing about it...when you squash a HD image to MPEG2 DVD using traditional methods you're going to lose that pristeen HD resolution...I guess the growth in file size is TMPGenc's lame attempt to keep that loss at a minimum. Perhaps someone else has an alternate method to encode your file to DVD.

[dougall]

It was not a growth in file size, it was a reduction in file size ... by almost half. My question is how to maximize the quality/disc space?

Thanks.

[rsquirell]

I don't know if this will work like you want...but ULead Video Studio7 has a "Smart Render" feature and promises not to compress DV video more than it has to to create the MPEG2 and burn the DVD. Why not try a 30 Day free trial version, make sure the "Smart Render" option is selected and see if the results are more to your liking? Not sure it'll accept WM9.