bitrate selection for DVD burning

[josferi]

Hi,

Lots of Newbie questions here.

I have various avi, wmv, flv files downloaded from Youtube and other places on the net. I would like burn these to DVDs so I don't have to keep them taking up space on my computer. Also it's easier to watch them on a TV instead of computer. I would also like to maintain the quality, or at least not lose quality when burning. I realize that the TV monitor has much less resolution than a computer monitor, does that automatically mean everything will be less clear? The file information sometimes includes the resolution, but I don't know if there is some program that would enable one to see what the bitrate of the source files are?

The programs I have currently installed are: SUPER, DVDflick, Ulead MovieStudio 4. Ulead Movie Studio can create nice menus but seems to only see MPG files, not avi or wmv. SUPER can convert between various file types but when I converted to DVD (vob) format Ulead MovieStudio still couldn't see the files. Until now the only way I could do it was in two steps, converting to mpg with SUPER, then burning the DVD with Ulead MovieStudio. Doing it that way is quite time consuming. I used a bitrate of 6.8 MBPS when using SUPER to convert avi to mpg, but there was a significant loss of clarity when viewing the converted mpg files.

I just got DVDflick and it can burn directly from avi or wmv to DVD in one step, it also seems to adjust the bitrate automatically based on the space available on the DVD.

Is 6.8 MBPS not high enough bitrate when converting avi with SUPER?

Could I just burn .vob files created in SUPER to DVD without using Ulead MovieStudio? If so, what program should I use?

Should I just use DVDflick and let the program choose the bitrate?

I've seen reference to VBR and CBR on these forums but I don't see any mention of those terms with the programs I'm using, does that just apply to some different software than I'm using?

thanks for the help!

[blutach]

6.8 Mbps is miles too much!!! This is more than most commercial DVDs have and given your source, quality would be more than likely no more than 2 Mbps. I'd use 2.5

Doesn't SUPER make IFO files too? You need them to play on a normal DVD player. If it doesn't, use the create IFOs function of IfoEdit.

Use VBR (Variable bitrate) and not CBR (constant).

Regards

[josferi]

Actually I made a slight mistake, Ulead DVD MovieFactory 4 does recognize .avi and .wmv files, but it converts them so slowly that I calculated it would take a week to burn the DVD at the rate it was going. I have been able to use the program to burn mpg video to DVD without any problems. If I drag the original 119MB .avi file to DVD Movie Factory it says it takes up 487MB on the DVD, and if one tries to burn a DVD from the .avi it converts the file at something like 1% per hour. So that didn't seem feasible.

Starting with an avi file of 119MB, converted to mpg with SUPER at a bitrate of 6.8MB, ended up with an mpg file of 185MB. If I drag the .mpg file created in SUPER to the Ulead program, it says it takes up only 195MB on the DVD. But the quality of a DVD burned from the mpg file is visibly worse than the original avi. As you stated, 6.8MBPS should be overkill, so I don't know why the DVD doesn't look good.

Whereas using DVDFlick, the same 119MB avi file was converted to a .vob file of 355MB. And it looks significantly clearer when viewed on the TV, so I guess I'll be using DVDFlick instead. But it can't create nearly as nice menus as the Ulead program.

I couldn't find any controls for VBR vs CBR anywhere.