[MacDV] Dual layer DVD purchase help

[Brett Conlon]

Hiya,

I was hoping to get some advice on purchasing a dual layer DVD.

As I mentioned in my previous post I have a lot of old home archive that I 
want to capture and burn to DVD. It's a mix of old VHS tapes, analogue 
Video-8 tapes and some digital Hi-8. Plus the new footage I'm capturing on 
our Panasonic GS400.

I currently have a Superdrive in my 17" PBook and I've burned 2 project 
from iDVD and 1 project from DVD Studio Pro2.

Before I go and capture hours and hours worth of footage and burn it to 
DVD, I want to make sure I'm heading in the right direction and getting 
the best results possible.

I just finished burning an iDVD project of my daughter's birth which had 
about 1hr 20mins on it. When I view the DVD in my home DVD player (not a 
very flash player) I can see artifacts and groups of square pixels 
especially when the footage is moving fast (eg. my sleeve brushing past 
the camera when giving bubs her first bath). I'm concerned that iDVD has 
not used as high a bitrate as needed for maintaining the high quality I'd 
like.

This is where the idea of purchasing a dual layer DVD burner comes in. I 
realise I can't use it with iDVD 4 but I'm happy to build projects in 
either DVDSP (or iDVD then open them up in DVDSP) and burn larger projects 
from there.

Am I thinking along the right lines here? With a dual layer disc will I be 
able to get the final result as close to the captured footage as possible 
- if not the same?

In your experience what is the maximum footage length you should burn to 
maintain highest quality for the following:

 - iDVD with a single layer disc (1 hour?)
 - DVDSPro with a single layer disc ( 1 or 1.5hrs?)
 - DVDSPro with a dual layer disc (2 or 3 hrs?)

Also, I'm sure you've had discussions recently about the new technology, 
BlueRay, that's coming. It's rumoured to be available to consumers within 
a year or so. With all the footage I have would I be better off waiting 
for the newer technology that can handle much larger volumes or will a 
dual layer DVD burner do the job adequately for me now. Crystal balls 
anyone?  ;-D

Any recommendations on a dual layer burner and media brands? I've been 
recommended the LaCie unit. Not sure about dual layer discs yet.

Your thoughts are most appreciated!

Regards,

Cojcolds

ps. sorry if this email is a little long....