Using iDVD's encoder engine for making DVD Video disks longer than 90 minutes

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 6/18/03 at 8:54 AM, "Erica Sadun" <erica at mindspring.com> transmitted
the following electronic message:

>
>At 8:04 AM -0500 6/18/03, Laine Lee wrote:
>>In case you're interested, I've published some information about
>>using iDVD's encoder engine for making DVD Video disks longer than 90
>>minutes at http://lonestar.utsa.edu/llee/idvd.html.
>>
>>Thanks.
>
>I don't recommend reencoding M2V files.
>
>The key to longer video discs is a lower bitrate. I've been playing
>with iDVD to see if I can trick it into doing a lower rate, but it's
>not immediately obvious how to do so.
>
>If you're going to use FFmpegX (or whatever), offer it the original
>video files, not the stuff that iDVD produces.
>
>And, why not just use a normal encoder like TMPGEnc on the PC instead?
>

I'll agree with Erica on the first part of this. Reencoding m2v files is
going to result in more quality loss than reencoding the original DV
file.

I disagree with the supposition in the last question, though. mencoder
and mpeg2enc, the two encoders that ffmpeg uses, are both just as much
"normal encoders" as the mpeg-2 encoding engine in TMPGEnc. In fact,
I've generally had better results with mpeg2enc than my earlier attempts
with TMPGEnc, and now I don't have to give up desk space to a PC that I
don't want, anyway. The cost of the machine, whether $200 or not, isn't
as critical to me as the space the miserable thing (for which I have no
other use) consumes.

--Dennis Cohen