Which MPEG to choose
 

I've never had this issue before so please bear with me. I working on a project that is approx. 2hrs. 7min. so when I exported it into Compressor I chose DVD Best 150min. I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but there isn't anything bigger so I would assume it was all I could do. I'm sure the file size will exceed 4.7g and I will have to go to Dual Layer so I guess what I'm getting at is, anybody have any advice.

Thank You,
Bob.

Bob,
The 150min setting is designed for fitting 150 minutes of footage onto a single layer DVD. Since your project is only 127 minutes long, it will easily fit on a single layer DVD with room to spare using that setting. You could actually tweak the bitrate a little bit higher to increase your quality. An average video bitrate of 4.4mbps with an audio bitrate of 192kbps (assuming you are using stereo) would fill a single layer DVD almost exactly, leaving just a few MB free for simple menus. Since this bitrate is still fairly low, I recommend using 2-pass VBR encoding.

So it turns out the whole project will be roughly 2.5 hours any suggestions? I know I will have to go to dual layer but, still my question would be what MPEG would I choose then? What about bit rate? The project is a how to video so there is really zero on the FX main and chapter menu have FX but other than that it is pretty cut and dry just long. Please help.

Thank You,
Bob Bowers.

Well, 2.5hrs is 150minutes so it depends on EXACTLY how many minutes you've got, if you want it to fit on a single layer. You can still put more than 150mins on there by slightly lowering the bitrate, but you're already at low quality with that setting.

I recommend not messing with dual layer because the burned dual layer discs have a lot of compatibility and reliability problems.