Use full potential of DVD (space/encoding) ?????

Question

I have a 90 minute anamorphic DV video that's roughly 18gb in size. I imported it in to iDVD with out a problem. Threw together some menus and I was done. I had the preferences set to use "Professional Encoding" which I could only assume meant it was the best quality. Using that setting I got around a 3GB DVD. When I popped in the DVD burned with the "Professional" setting, the DVD was VERY pixelated (especially around edges and text but everywhere else as well) and the quality of the original video is nothing less than stellar so there is no reason I should be getting this quality. What I want to do is burn it to a dual layer DVD and use the DVDs full potential (or at least encode it at the max of 8 or 9 mbps which is the DVD standard. Is there anything I can do to have it try and use most of the space for a better encode? Can I encode it using another program to get a satisfying end product and import it into iDVD and NOT have it encode it??
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There is a maximum playback bit-rate that set top DVD players can support. 60 minutes on a single-layer disc with 'Best Performance' is VERY close to the limit. If you are using a double-layer disc, 120 minutes at 'Best Performance' would be very close to the bit-rate limit.
On a single-layer disc, 90 minutes at 'Professional Quality' (what a misleading name, by the way) will have lower playback quality than 60 minutes at 'Best Quality'.
I want to do is burn it to a dual layer DVD and use the DVDs full potential (or at least encode it at the max of 8 or 9 mbps which is the DVD standard.
It can't be done because of the playback bit-rate limit. 'Professional Quality' is good when you are trying to put more than 60 minutes on a single-layer disc or more than 120 minutes on a double-layer disc. 'Professional Quality' uses two passes. The first pass looks at your content to decide where the high detail/movement is and where parts of low detail/movement are. The second pass actually encodes your content using something close to the 'Best Performance' bit-rate where it found high detail/movement and a lower bit-rate where the low detail/movement was.
F Shippey