[MacDV] Dual layer DVD purchase help

[Brett Conlon]

Many thanks Gerhard,

DVD total footage lengths depend on the contents and the subject.

For example, the Birth DVD i just burned contains several segments - Bubby 
receiving her checkover and measurements by the nurse just after birth 
(something mummy didn't get to see - Caesarian); Waiting for mummy to come 
out of recovery  and talking to her on the way up to her room; The 
family's first cuddles of baby; Bubby's first bath in the nursery; and 
baby's blessing ceremony. I also included a short slide show of digital 
stills. Each segment has their own length but added up to approx 1hr 20min 
of video.

Another example, the Christmas footage I just shot has the family gift 
opening (45mins or so) and then we do a "Year in review" where we've 
filled out a questionnaire and read it to the family. That's again about 
45mins or more.

I edit out all the useless stuff and keep the good stuff so it is as slim 
as I'd like it to be. Having the segments broken up on the DVD makes it 
easy for the viewer to choose which sections they want to view too. I also 
add chapters where appropriate so you can skip around easily.

So with a dual layer DVD I could fit approx 2hrs of high quality DVD, 
right?

Thanks for the tip about DVDSPro. I'm yet to read up on how to choose the 
right settings for final encoding.

Cheers,

Cojcolds



Gerhard Kuhn <gerhardk at mac.com>

For iDVD you should limit your project to under 60 minutes for best 
quality results.  DVD SP will increase this a bit since you can choose 
variable bit rate so the program can choose higher compression in some 
areas and higher bit rates in scenes containing a lot of motion.

Why do you make such long movies?   I would limit movies to a 
watch-able 15 minutes or so.

Gerhard