Lets say I have a 4.5 gig mpg. I then create a movie with ulead, and a menu. and at the final stage it has 4 methods. Something like best good standard poor. if I pick best (1) it wants an 8 gig disc? Now how in the heck is it going to burn an 8 gig file from a 4 gig file? it can't magically produce data that is not there. i made the mpg from a avi with tmpgenc, as a mpeg-2, 1:1 25fps, 2 pass vbr, ntsc. is it because i started with a mpg2 and ulead is converting it to a mpeg1? If so is there that much difference. and if that is the case my dvd player up stairs plays mpeg2, will i get better video since i can get better compression on that dvd player. All i have to do is put a mpg file in a directory and that DVD player plays it?

If your original MPEG2 file is not a DVD compliant MPEG, then Movie Factory will use the project settings to determine the size of disk required. To do this it will use the duration of the movie to build the estimate. Best Setting is 8000Kbits per second (60 Min Video) 6000 Kbits per second (90 Minutes) etc. You can alter these settings by pressing ALT-J. Movie factory will not generate MPEG1 files unless you have selected the VCD option.

I don't know TMPGenc well enough myself, but perhaps others can advise if this tool can encode directly to a DVD Compliant MPEG file. If not it sounds as though you may have been better encoding your AVI within Movie Factory, where at least you could see the effect on disk space using Variable bit rates. I use Movie Factory often and set my project settings to good (6000Kbit vatiable) and get quite acceptable results.

I also noticed on your post that you originally encoded at 25fps NTSC. It shoul be 29.97fps for NTSC and 25fps for PAL.

For your DVD player to play a DVD Compatible Mpeg file it will need a VOB Structure (and be compabible with your media (DVD-R?). Effectively this is what Movie Maker (and other authoring packages) achieve. Incidentally even at 4.5GB your file is probably too big, as the VOB structure and other bits and bobs will require a bit of space (About 0.5Gb if I remember rightly) leaving about 4.2Gb on a standard DVD.

Good luck!

Yep, MovieFactory's taking your VBR source and re-encoding it to CBR with a much higher average bitrate.

__________________

| video editing guides | our videos |
| wedding guides | website hosting |

so to clarify, alt-j should bring up another menu? i cant get it to work. i tried on the finish screen and the burn properties page. but if i get it working i should be able to use vbr.

Yes definitely, I have just checked. Hold down the ALT key and press the J ket. Alternatively click the blue tick in the bottom left of the screen. From there click the 'Change MPeg Settings' button and select 'Customize...' From there take the 'Compression Tab' and hey presto you can change the project settings to Variable bit rate.

Hope that helps!

i am so sorry, I have workshop, not movie factory, actuly i have both. i like the feal of factory, but i was under the impression workshop was better. does it also encode cbr, any one know?

You are quite right workshop is much better. You can also change project settings with Workshop.

From the Global Settings Menu (The Spanner & Hammer Icon) select 'Disc Template Manager ...'

Click the Edit Button and Slect the Compression tab.

Hey presto ... Variable Bit rate etc

Hope that is useful.

Incidentally you can also use the Disc Template Manager to create your own defualt settings.

Incidentally it was my fault, your post clearly says Workshop, but I read 'Movie Factory'. Sorry about that

PS New Years resolution: Must take typing course!

Thynk I'yl joln you on tght one

__________________

| video editing guides | our videos |
| wedding guides | website hosting |

"Incidentally it was my fault, your post clearly says Workshop, but I read 'Movie Factory'. Sorry about that "

no need to apologize.

You guys are awesome, all of the info is great. And unlike any other board you actually are kind. thx for all you help!!!