[MacDV] Dual layer DVD purchase help

[Gerhard Kuhn]

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


On Feb 2, 2005, at 8:22 PM, Brett Conlon wrote:

> 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....
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