I have a whole bunch of .mkvs they are about 274mb each, it's of some janese tv show thats recorded from TV it looks like ,so the quality isnt DVD quality. i will burn them to DVDs by useing convertXtodvd, but im not sure how many files should fit well on a DVD-5.
i dont want to loose any quality but not use too many discs. so how many per disc?
thanks
It will reduce the bitrate of your files to make sure it fits on a DVD5.
So you can fit 4 input files, and fill the DVD5.
Then you can add an other 4 input files, and it will still fit on a DVD5 but the quality will take a hit !
ConvertXtoDVD provides about 8300 kb/sec at MAX quality. (If you input file had quality enought to provide that of course)...
Check the logs to see what bitrate was set on your output files.
I think safely you can go eight 25 minute episodes and have good enough quality. I went as far as 13 or so and it was not so bad. Of course, I used TMPGEnc for encoding so I was able to tweak settings.
I assume convertX will either use Constant bitrate or 2-pass Variable bitrate. I suggest 2-pass if available and make sure the bitrate is over 2000kbps. I am estimating that quality will begin dropping at 3980kbps (video only) to where it looks noticably worse than the source, howver, I recommend 3750kbps video or 3942kbps total.
Here is a guide to use to figure out how many episodes to add to the DVD. However, manually determine your acceptible quality. Read the final 2 paragraphs for more info on that:
2-channel audio is 192kbps
calculate the target length of the DVD:
(4464MB/BR)*1000 = Time
BR = (vBR + aVR)*7.5
vBR = video bitrate aBR = audio bitrate
8300kbps = Very High quality = 71 minutes
6500kbps = High Quality = 90 Minutes
5000kbps = Medium Quality = 120 minutes
3942kbps = recommended bitrate = 150 minutes
3500kbps = Medium-Low Quality = 170 Minutes*
2000kbps = Low Quality = 297 Minutes
less than 2000kbps = Bad Quality Do not use this
*For non-animation content, do not go below 3000kbps video bacause quality really drops.
Only use Medium and higher quality for very good sources. If the source is bad, you cannot get anything better than Bad... If the source is terrible, you can go below 3500kbps. Also, if you are converting an animation, you can go about as low as 2000kbps and get acceptible results. However, use 2-pass encoding if possible. This can greatly increase quality!!
The data represents estimated/subjective quality. For more accuracy, I suggest you use the bitrates I provided and try encoding small segments of the show. Then compare it to the source and from there you can decide what is the lowest acceptible bitrate.
No matter what, you will lose some type of quality, even if you use 8300kbps. However, percieved quality loss will not occur until you get pretty low. Consider that the average Sony DVD movie uses 3500kbps video, which I consider Low quality for non-animated content.
Quote:I assume convertX will either use Constant bitrate or 2-pass Variable bitrate.
VSO ConvertXtoDVD uses FFMPG engine/encoder and only uses 1 pass. Constant or variable ? Not sure but I would think constant since it calculates the bitrate and ajusts it so it will fit on a DVD5 or DVD9, set by the user.
Maybe in the future, they will let you choose 1 pass or 2 pass, but for now, it does 1 pass.
Personally, quality is great, since I am not seeking extreme quality !
Some are, so they use software like TheFilmMachine with the CCE encoder. (2 pass or more if possible !)
Yes, constant with 1-pass will be good enough if the bitrate is about 4500 to 5000kbps or more. A 2-pass VBR encoding is better when there is much difference in motion in some parts of the movie and when bitrates start gettting too low.
I still think that with constant bitrate, 150 minutes on a DVD5 will be good enough quality.
