DVD Studio Pro 4 Encoding Preferences

Hello,
I have 40GB of MOV files and they all have this specs:
- 640x480
- 4000kbps bitrate
Now, when I go to DVD Studio Pro -- Preferences -- Encoding -- SD DVD... I have the bit rate so, lets say for instance 4000kbps bit rate, I import a video file (AVI, MOV or others), DVD Studio Pro will convert that file to 4000kbps encoding on MPEG-2 (.m2v files), right? Now, what about if I change the bit rate to 2000kbps, now the file I just transfered to DVD Studio Pro becomes smaller, and the quality gets a bit lower, but it is ok, what I really need is to fit my home videos to at least 2-4 DVD, of not, that would be a shame if it didnt work as I wanted. So, 2000kbps, the quality is good, not bad... Now here is my question...
Can I change the bit rate to 1000kbps,, 1500, or even lower than that? How? Why cant DVD Studio Pro have this option of a bit rate lower than 2000kbps, how can I do it? Is there any trick, please advice, I am trying to do this encoding for a month and I really need to finish it for the next week and put it on my DVD Presentation.
Is there any plugins or that sort of things that can HAVE the option of lower than 2000kbps bit rate constant on DVSP4?
Thank you for reading this, any help would be really appreciated...
iMac 20" - Intel Core Duo 2GHz, 512MB RAM, 128MB ATi Radeon X1600, 1TB of HDs Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hello,
As always, thank you for helping me out. The thing is, I already used compressor. For instance, I encoded a 14MB MOV file in compressor to MPEG-2 (M2V) and Dolby (AC3) and the file was about 8MB (M2V Video File + AC3 Audio File = about 8MB), in a bit rate of 2mbps, and the wuality was terrible! I oculd see the pixels everywhere, it had a terrible quality. So, when I imported the MOV file (14MB) to DVSP4 without using compressor, the size it took on the DVD Project was 8.8MB and the quality was the same as my MOV file, perfect quality, great, I loved it. And look at this, my DVSP4 preferences was set for 2000kbps bit rate encoding, and with a great quality. That is why I wanted sooo much to find a way to encode my videos to DVSP4 in a lower bit rate, so I could put all of my 40GB of Home videos in about 2-4 DVDs... but now I will have to put it all in about 6-7...
Any advices? I dont want and I cant use Compressor because the quality DVD`is realllly poor. Ive searched everywhere for a encoder that can actually encode my videos to a MPEG-2 format (that means the format DVSP4 uses for DVD Video Encoding) but I simply cannot find one!! Ive tried to PCs and Macs... none of them has worked.
Please help, thank you...
G

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I figured I post here rather than the DVD Studio Pro forum; I've posted on Creative Cow as well but haven't gotten any responses yet.
Before I mention my problem, I'd like to mention that I've tried several types of compression methods and bitrates and unfortunately, my disk still freezes in my player, generally around the same area.
(I have two, minute long clips with Smoothcam there).
I'll try to be as specific about my work-flow as I can and I've posted the photos of my FCP and Compressor settings below.
30 Minutes. Super 16mm.
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(I've done this and the result is still the same)
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(I've done this and the result is still the same)
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(I've done this and the result is still the same)
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I'm not sure how to describe this any better, so please feel free to ask questions to clarify any details.
Here are a few technical details about the project:
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So this section is basically the same as all the rest in the video?
The running time is 96 minutes.
Definately A.Pack the audio, rough calculation is that the average bitrate can be about 6 (http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html & http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm) with audio a.Pack/Dolby at 192
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Won't work on existing project properly (trying to change encodes in preferences), you are better off encoding outside of DVD SP then bringing it the encoded assets in.
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I am using 13 QT (.mov) movie files that were made using the "Best" quality setting. Their size is 720 X 480. I am using the "Professional Quality" encoding in the Preference dialog and the Project settings dialog. The theme I am using is Revolution. (This is all in iDVD)
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Can someone help me to figure out what is wrong? I am looking to produce the crisp quality I see when I view the QT movie files (before I incorporated them into my iDVD project).
What I am thinking is that iDVD is not capable of producing the high crisp quality I am looking for and that DVD Studio Pro might be my answer. Or, could it be my QT movie files (thou they look great when I just play them on my computer in the QT player.
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You didn't mention that you were doing screen captures. That makes a difference. Camtasia is compressing your screen captures. All DVDs use MPEG-2 compression. So you are in fact double compressing your videos (which always results is lower quality).
To get better results see if you can get Camtasia to record uncompressed, or using the Animation codec at Best. This will result in a absolutely huge file, which is what you want. You bring that into iDVD for good results. Or bring it into Compressor and then DVD SP for better results. Or a third party MPEG-2 encoder like BitVice and then DVD SP for best results. Of course using anything other than iDVD will require a couple of weeks training.

Extremely slow DVD Studio Pro

Hi
I'm new in this forum. I recently upgraded my Final Cut Studio to version 2, and have installed all the latest updates. When using DVD Studio Pro from Final Cut Studio Pro, everything worked out fine, but after upgrading to FCS 2, my DVD Studio Pro (4.2) is extremely slow, when I want to move to another point in the movie by clicking in the timeline. I have to wait 20-30 seconds every time I choose a new location.
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Welcome to the Boards
Couple of things to try
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2.) Delete Preferences
3.) Delete MPEG/PAR files
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Greetings all,
I've searched the net for an answer to this and couldn't find one, although I'm sure this question has been asked hundreds of times before. I just finished sorting through this forum as well and couldn't find a similar question. It doesn't seem like this forum is too active, but I'll give it a shot anyway.
I use Final Cut Pro HD (4.5) and DVD Studio Pro 3 rather heavily. We have four systems and may have a new addition soon. I'd really love to be able to speed up render times in DSP at the very least.
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