Differences between iDVD encoder settings

Question

Greetings,
OK, I looked in the forums, Pogue and Miller's iMovie'09 and iDVD book, and on the Web, and haven't found a satisfactory answer.
There are three options: Best Perf., Hi Quality, and Professional Quality.
On the iDVD help page (the same can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5417) it says, and I am paraphrasing and summarizing:
BP: Background processing available. Good for up to 1-hr videos, and quality will be excellent. preset bit rate. Use HQ or PQ for longer video.
HQ: This is the _best encoding option_ [my emphasis] for videos between 1 and 2 hours long. [OK so far.] (iDVD book and Apple disagree on bit rate; the former says VBR, while Apple seems to imply CBR.)
PQ: uses advanced technology, resulting in the _best quality of video possible_ [again, my emphasis]. Select for projects of up 2 hours duration. Time-consuming.
OK. so what's the deal here?
1) HQ and PQ can't both be best. Or is HQ best as a compromise of some sort, in which case it should specify it?
2) What are the differences for videos of less than 1 hour? Seems to me that you can't improve on the BP setting in this case. IOW, is there any point using HQ or PQ for videos of less than 1 hour?
3) For videos of 1 to 2 hours, does PQ always give better results than HQ?
So, is the following right:
A) For videos of less than 1 hour: use BP, as the others won't improve anything.
B) For videos between 1 and 2 hours: PQ will give better quality than HQ, but it will take a lot longer to burn the DVD, and BP won't fit.
Thanks!
AEF

Answer 1

Hi
So, is the following right:
A) For videos of less than 1 hour: use BP, as the others won't improve anything.
B) For videos between 1 and 2 hours: PQ will give better quality than HQ, but it will take a lot longer to burn the DVD, and BP won't fit.
About so.
iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
BUT -
THE TIME is not just the Movie Duration ! ! !
IT IS - Movie time PLUS Menu time !
And Menu can take 15 minutes (or even more from Movie time)
• Using an elaborated Menu with Sub-menus and Animation (playing buttons) and Audio - Can take a lot of TIME
I use an as simple one possibly - most often "Brushed Metal" from Old Themes - NO animation - NO Audio and this takes less than 1 minute. Resulting in about 59 minutes to my movie.
THEN
I think that I get best possibly result with Best Performances if movie is less than 45 minutes and for all that's more I use the Professional Qualit.
Yours Bengt W