Burning large file to Bluray and need advice . . .

[Jerry Neal]

Hello,

I have about 2.5 hours of video I need to burn to Bluray. I already tried using Mpeg2, and the file was just over 30 gb (too big for BluRay limit of 25 gb). I'd like to render using AVC, as I know it takes up less space. I'm not great with bit rates, etc. So, I'm wondering if 2.5 hours of AVC will fit on a single Bluray disc before I start the time consuming process of rendering this footage.

Thanks,

Jerry

[Nate Haustein]

Doesn't matter if you use MPEG2 or AVC, the resulting file size all depends on the bitrate. Here's a handy calculator to get you started: DVD-HQ : Bitrate & GOP calculator

One more piece of advice – give yourself about 5% more wiggle room than what the calculator says.For example, if your calculated average bitrate is 19.7 Mbps, set up your encode for 18 or 19. I've had a few instances where I had to re-encode because space was just too tight.

While AVC is better at fitting more data on a disc while keeping the quality up, you could always try re-encoding MPEG2 at the correct settings and see how it looks to save some time.

EDIT: One more thing, the calculator will give you either a CBR setting, or a VBR setting which lets you input minimum, average and maximum bitrates. My advice is to not go over 36 Mbps or so for the maximum setting, even if the calculator says something like 46. Maxing out the capabilities of optical media isn't really a good thing when wanting to make sure your discs play on everyone's equipment.

[Jeff Pulera]

Great advice from Nate on bitrates. Regarding MPEG-2 vs. H.264 encoding, at a high bitrate (short videos), either should look very good. However, for something like the 2.5-hour video where you're using a much lower bitrate, H.264 has the definite advantage and should be the default choice. Unless you have a really old machine that takes forever to encode, I would just always use H.264 for Blu-ray automatically as it is the superior codec.

Thanks

[Fred Tims]

How about buying a dual layer disc?

[Jeff Harper]

With only a 2.5 hour video no need for poster to use a very expensive DL BR disc. He can easily drop bit rate enough to fit it on without any noticeable loss of quality.

[Jerry Neal]

All,

I rerendered my project to AVC for Bluray. Wow! I can't believe how long it took to render that file. It took almost a full 24 hours to render 2.5 hours of video at 18 mbps bitrate.

Now the problem I'm having is DVD Architect is wanting to recompress (rerender), which is probably going to take another 24 hours to get this done.

I set my project settingsin DVDA from MPEG2 to AVC, so I'm not sure why it's doing this. However, I did add two chapter markers in the main file to add to my Scene Selection menu. I forgot to put the markers in when I rendered in Vegas so I had to add them in DVDA. Is this the reason for the entire recompression, etc? Or am I missing something?

Honestly, I'm going to be happy when Bluray is dead and I can just give clients their HD video on a thumbdrive. The burning process and authoring/creating DVDs is a HUGE waste of time. Just my ".02"

Here are the messages I'm getting when I attempt to "burn DVD" :

The audio on track 1 of 'Disc One' will be compressed.
One or more text objects in 'Disc One' are outside the title safe area.
The video 'maya disc one bluray updated.avc' on track 2 'Video' in 'maya disc one bluray updated avc' will be compressed.
One or more text objects in 'Scene Selection' are outside the title safe area.
The audio on track 1 of 'maya disc one bluray updated avc' will be recompressed.
The audio on track 1 of 'Scene Selection' will be recompressed.

[Don Bloom]

The audio on track 1 of 'Disc One' will be compressed.
Generally audio is recompressed if it's not compliant - usually looking for AC3 which can be/ should be done in Vegas
One or more text objects in 'Disc One' are outside the title safe area.
Self Explanitory- easy fix-move it into Title safe area
The video 'maya disc one bluray updated.avc' on track 2 'Video' in 'maya disc one bluray updated avc' will be compressed.
This could be a couple of reasons. First it simply might be too big for the disc which would make DVDA want to recompress. Second it might be a non compliant file although based on what you described it probably isn't so I'd go with #1. You might want to consider using a bitrate calculator to figure the correct bitrate for rendering to AVC. This one has worked for me. DVD-HQ : Bitrate & GOP calculator
One or more text objects in 'Scene Selection' are outside the title safe area.
See above
The audio on track 1 of 'maya disc one bluray updated avc' will be recompressed.
See above
The audio on track 1 of 'Scene Selection' will be recompressed
See above

Yes it takes a while to render. Set it to run at night, get some sleep come back in the morning and hopefully it'll be done before you finish your first cup of coffee.

HTHs