DVD burn times

[Dante Waters]

How long does it take you to burn a complex menu and lets say a 45min wedding to dvd?

What are your current system specs?

[Patrick Jenkins]

14-15 minutes (I use a slow write speed to potentially minimize writing problems)

Perhaps you meant how long does it take to author/edit a wedding to DVD? That's a tough question to answer.

If you know what you're doing, I'd imagine you could do everything you need to do (not counting encoding/bg non-user involved processing) in roughly 3 * duration of the footage to be captured. If you know what you're doing enough to not make mistakes, etc...

[Dante Waters]

Originally Posted by Patrick Jenkins

14-15 minutes (I use a slow write speed to potentially minimize writing problems)

Perhaps you meant how long does it take to author/edit a wedding to DVD? That's a tough question to answer.

If you know what you're doing, I'd imagine you could do everything you need to do (not counting encoding/bg non-user involved processing) in roughly 3 * duration of the footage to be captured. If you know what you're doing enough to not make mistakes, etc...

Well actually I wanted to know how long a lets say 1hr off footage takes to encode and burn. ON my powerbook it can take up to 3hrs. I am considering getting a powermac 2.3ghz 4gig ram so I wanted to know if my dvd burning/encoding process will still be long.

[Craig Terott]

hmmm... you use your authoring software to encode? Eeek...

[Jeremy Davidson]

I'm hoping that's not per disc. If possible, create the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders on your hard drive and then burn. This will at least make it much faster to create multiple copies.

My discs take about 30 minutes at 4x, but that includes verifying the disc.

Three hours for 45 minutes is not so bad, though I know there are machines much faster than mine out there. Are you using a constant bitrate or a variable n-pass bitrate? For less than one hour, you may as well use CBR at the max rate since you still won't totally fill the disc.

[Craig Terott]

I wouldn't do that. Single pass constant bitrate encodes never look as good as 2-pass VBR (on a proper setting).

My guess is that if the original poster is using his authoring software to encode, then he's probably using default settings and may not understand the whole science of encoding and bitrates.

[Dante Waters]

Originally Posted by Craig Terott

I wouldn't do that. Single pass constant bitrate encodes never look as good as 2-pass VBR (on a proper setting).

My guess is that if the original poster is using his authoring software to encode, then he's probably using default settings and may not understand the whole science of encoding and bitrates.

So don't burn and encode the dvd with idvd or dvd studio pro?

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by Dante Waters

So don't burn and encode the dvd with idvd or dvd studio pro?

i use dvd studio pro 4 and you can encode 2-pass vbr with it.

dvd studio pro > preferences > encoding

you can change the mode to two pass vbr, and even mess with bitrates, field order, motion estimation, etc.

hope this helps.

[Gints Klimanis]

>My discs take about 30 minutes at 4x, but that includes verifying the disc.

I use Nero for burning at 8x, and I always verify. The whole process usually takes 15 minutes. How else would one know if the disk has a burn error ?
I don't know if burning at slower rates provides a more reliable burn. While
this was once the wisdom, is there any evidence that slower burn rates offer
more reliable writes ? I haven't had a disk fail verification in a long time.
My CD burns were once a different story, as I think that many drives offered
speeds they actually were unable to deliver. I had many CD burns that failed
at maximum burn rates.

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

I don't know if burning at slower rates provides a more reliable burn. While this was once the wisdom, is there any evidence that slower burn rates offer more reliable writes?

in my other life, i make videogames. we have many burn towers and are constantly making builds every day for many different reasons. long story short, we sometimes have to burn at slower rates to get more reliable builds.

sometimes, we even have to burn at 1x. ugh.

[Dante Waters]

Originally Posted by A.J. Briones

i use dvd studio pro 4 and you can encode 2-pass vbr with it.

dvd studio pro > preferences > encoding

you can change the mode to two pass vbr, and even mess with bitrates, field order, motion estimation, etc.

hope this helps.

Well thank you sir anything any of you have to say is helpful.
I'm sure when I get in the dvd studio pro field that I will understand so much more.

Question what is the whole VBR system mean?
Is it the same as when you encode mp3s?

[Patrick Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

>My discs take about 30 minutes at 4x, but that includes verifying the disc.

I use Nero for burning at 8x, and I always verify. The whole process usually takes 15 minutes. How else would one know if the disk has a burn error ?
I don't know if burning at slower rates provides a more reliable burn. While
this was once the wisdom, is there any evidence that slower burn rates offer
more reliable writes ? I haven't had a disk fail verification in a long time.
My CD burns were once a different story, as I think that many drives offered
speeds they actually were unable to deliver. I had many CD burns that failed
at maximum burn rates.

Hrm.. tired and I can't think of a good way to explain it well.. BUT - a slower burn (lower rotational speed) speed gives a 'cleaner' burn - more like a pressed disc - than a sloppier/faster burn. With a slower burn, the actual burned dye-indents more resemble the pits on a real pressed disc. When the disc is burned faster, the dye indents - while still precise enough for valid data - are a lot more sloppy. This is often why your CD/DVD drive will read the same section on a disc over and over again (makes that resetting noise).

See this for more info.. http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-52

[A.J. Briones]

Originally Posted by Dante Waters

Question what is the whole VBR system mean?
Is it the same as when you encode mp3s?

yes, it's pretty much the same, but with video instead of sound.

vbr is variable bitrate. basically, the amount of compression varies to allow for minimum degredation of the image (or audio in the case of mp3). the encoder analyses the video to determine the variance. in a 2 pass vbr, the encoder takes two passes for a cleaner image with the least visible degredation.

but since it is working on already compressed m2v source in the case of a final cut workflow, you will need to make sure your compressor settings are as high as your dvd's disc space will permit. also check to make sure your compressor settings are using a 2 pass vbr as well.

hope this helps.

[Christopher Lefchik]

Here's an interesting DVD recording test (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=258338) of Nero, ImgTool, and DVD Decrypter. According to it, DVD Decrypter burned a disk with the lowest error rate of the three.