DVD authoring refers to the process of creating the menu and navigation system for a DVD. It also includes adding chapter points and other fun things like background music.

In the editing section I mentioned that I save my edited movies in the AVI format and then bring them into Ulead DVDMovieFactory to author the DVD’s.

I also mentioned that the any video length over an hour would have to compromise quality to fit onto a DVD. You can stretch this to close to two hours thanks to the AC3 encoder in DVDMovieFactory and the excellent MainConcept Encoder that DVDMovieFactory uses behind the scenes.

MPEG movies consists of two parts. The video and the sound. Most cheaper encoders only allow you to encode with something called Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM). This format can take up almost 1/4 of the space of a movie. If we could use less space for the soundtrack we then have more space available for the audio. That’s where AC-3 audio encoding comes in.

Dolby Digital is the trademarked marketing name for Dolby Laboratories’ “lossy” AC-3 format. You can think of AC-3 as a cousin of MP3. The same sound quality as LPCM but with a lot less space.

Ulead DVDMovieFactory has the option to encode audio as AC-3. Something no other program has in it’s price class. For the most part you should always choose AC-3.
BitRates And Video Size
In very simplistic terms the bitrate controls how much information is sent to the screen or display. A lower bitrate may produce visible artifacts. The picture will have more of a “mosaic” look to it. Usually fast action sequences require a higher bitrate.

The total bitrate for a DVD can be about 10Mbs (Megabits/second). There are reports that anything over 9MBS may cause problems with certain DVD players.

Choosing a bitrate is all about compromise. If you encode at higher bitrates you may exceed the space on the DVD. Too low and the quality will suffer.

A way to determine the maximum bitrate to encode at is to use a bitrate calculator like this one:
VideoHelp.com BitRate Calculator
or you can try my own bitrate calculator.

You simply enter the length of your movie and the calculator will tell you what to set your bitrate to.
How Low Can You Go ?
You can go as low as what looks good to you. Personally I don’t like to go below 5.6Mbs (5600 Kbs or about 1 3/4 hours).

There are some graphs at DigitalFaq.com that show rather nicely the correlation between quality and bitrate. Keep in mind you will be looking at the 720X480 chart.

In summary a range 5.6-8 Mbs is what you will be working in most of the time.
Burning Your Masterpiece
As mentioned before some authoring software titles will allow you to burn to a DVD. Some people like to burn with other programs like Nero. More about burning here.

It is worthwhile to discuss test burns. Nothing is worse than wasting a few hours encoding and finding out your DVD looks like crap on the TV.

I like to create small clips (1-5 minutes) of the movie and burn them at the calculated bitrate onto a DVD-RW. I then play on the TV to see if the quality is what I expect. If it’s not looking too good I may try to increase the bitrate or reduce the length of time from the movie to reach a certain bitrate.

If are using VirtualDub to process DV you will need the Panasonic DV Codec.

WARNING ! These instructions are intended for experienced computer users. Editing your registry can cripple your PC. If you are using XP I would do a System Restore Point.

Install Instructions:

* Download here
* Unzip the files and right click on PANADV.INF and select install.
* That’s it !

To use the codec in VirtualDub select Video/compression from the menu. Select the Panasonic DV Codec.

UnInstall Instructions:
Here’s where things get tricky. You have two choices here, and both involve editing the registry.

* Open the registry editor by clicking on the Start button and then click Run.
* Type in regedit.
* You can disable the codec by navigating down to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\vidc.dvsd=pdvcodec.dll and rename vidc.dvsd to xidc.dvsd
* If you need to enable the codec in the future just rename it back

Alternatively you can delete the files pdvcodec.dll and panadv.inf from your System or System32 directory. Then remove the following entries from the registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc] “pdvcodec.dll”=”Panasonic DV Codec” [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32] “vidc.dvsd”=”pdvcodec.dll” [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaResources\icm\vidc.dvsd] “Driver”=”pdvcodec.dll” “Description”=”Panasonic DV Codec”

The Panasonic codec only works with Type-2 DV files. For Type-1 DV files the directshow built-in MS DV codec gets used.

I was converting a VHS tape to a DVD that was close to two hours in length. Therefore I was not going to be able to encode at much higher than 5300 Kbs. At VideoHelp I once read that noise in the video can waste bitrate trying to recreate the noise, instead of improving the picture. The solution is to run the AVI through filters prior to encoding.

VirtualDub is a poplar free product that allows you to install filters and apply them to an AVI. However it required the Panasonic DV codec, which was not installed on my system.

I installed the codec along with some filters and ran my video through VirtualDub. The filters worked very well for cleaning up the video. I was pretty impressed.

Everything worked great until I went to author the DVD in Ulead DVD Movie Factory. All of the sudden some of the AVI’s would not work in MovieFactory. What was puzzling is that the clips I ran through VirtualDub looked fine but other AVI’s were having issues. I re-rendered a few of the bad AVI’s and discovered that if I rendered as Type 1 AVI they worked fine in MovieFactory.

After a few hours of investigation I learned that the Panasonic DV codec can cause problems with other applications. This codec is for the older Video For Windows (VFW) format. When you install the codec it adds a line to the registry that tells programs to use the codec for that file type of DVSD.

In the header of an AVI file there is something called a 4CC (4 character code) code. This let’s Windows know which codec is needed to play an AVI file. On my XP machine this registry entry is at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32\vidc.dvsd=pdvcodec.dll

When software encounters an AVI with a 4CC of dvsd it knows to use the Panasonic codec.

The Panasonic codec only works with Type-2 DV files. Also VirtualDub must use Type-2 DV since it is a VFW based program.

There are two types of DV format. Type-1and Type-2. Type-1 has the video and audio in one interleaved stream. Type-2 splits the video and audio into separate streams. Not all software will open both types. Type-1 DV AVI files are not compatible with VfW.

VFW(Video For Windows) is the old standard developed to allow Windows software to interface with a wide variety of Video hardware such as Capture cards, webcams and TV-cards. It’s been around since Windows 3.1 and although it is widely supported Microsoft is phasing it out in favor of WDM and DirectShow. DirectShow allows complete access to type-1 and type-2 files.

So anyways…
Ulead MovieFactory was getting confused on which codec to use for the AVI’s I ran through VirtualDub.
There are multiple codecs that can play 4cc(four character codes)=DVSD including
Microsoft DirectShow qdv.dll
Panasonic Codec VFW
For type 1 DV avi files, the directshow built-in MS DV codec gets used.

I had to go into the registry to disable the Panasonic Codec by renaming vidc.dvsd to xvidc.dvsd. Everyting worked great after this.

It’s a pain but I now leave the Panasonic Codec disabled most of the time unless I am going to be using VirtualDub. To enable the Panasonic Codec I go onto the registry and just rename xvidc.dvsd back to vidc.dvsd

DVGuru takes a quick poke at Sony Vegas 7. I personally use Vegas Studio. There are certain times when I wish I had a feature that was in regular Vegas.

All of the Vegas products are outstanding. You NEVER read about people having bugs or problems with the software.

In all my research for YouTube in the previous post I decided to create a tutorial for Windows movie maker with all my new found knowledge. I figured since this is a video site I should attempt to create a video tutorial. Here is my first one

Like most people I hate the sound of my recorded voice. Perhaps next time I can hire Don LaFontaine.

I used camtasia to capture the screen and then I edited in Vegas Studio. Creating keyframes to zoom in on the screen was a bit of a hassle.

I would really like to hear some feedback so leave a comment to let me know what you think.

YouTube.com is a widly popular video sharing site. I recently wanted to upload some videos and thought I would share some info I have found.
The maximum size of the video can be 100M. YouTube accepts MPEG, MOV and AVI and I think MP4.

Once you upload the video YouTube reencodes the video into a Macromedia Flash Streaming format(LFV) which is displayed at 425X350. However the actual size of the video is 240X180. This makes the quality suffer a bit.

It seems like you can upload 320X240 or 720X480 and the final quality is not affected either way. I also tried some experiments with MPEG versus MOV and again I could not really see any difference in the final product. I think the sound quality was a little better when I did the initial encoding in MPEG.

I was working on a few home video projects and though it would be cool to create a little montage for each DVD. Let’s face it. Sometimes home movies can be a little boring.

Anyhoo there is a program that cam with my HP PC called muvee autoProducer

It could not be simpler to create a video montage set to your favorite songs. You basically choose a video clip, choose a song and then choose a style. That’s it. In minutes you have a very slick looking montage.

The program comes with with different styles which modify the fades cuts and effects to certain moods. For example they have a “music video style” which is great to create montages with quicj cuts and MTV style effects. They also have more laid back style perfect for everything from wedding to sporting events.

In addition to vidoes you can import still pictures to create very cool picture slide shows. Again Muvee will create all kinds of great effects to really bring still images to life.

You can output your finished Muvee in just about any video format.

This program is a huge timesaver. To create something like this in a regular video editor would take hours.

Click here for a FREE trial of muvee autoProducer

I just wanted to pass on my experience with Ulead DVD Moviefactory 5. Although the software has a very “wizard” interface it’s a surprisingly powerful application. For one thing it can encode audio in AC3, which will save space so you can encode your video at a higher bitrate.

Version 5 now allows you to encode with two-pass VBR.

Another feature which I seem to have discovered lately is that it will import DVD’s and allow you to do multi-trims, create menus and author all without re-encoding the video files.

ABout the only bug I have discoverd is that it doesn’t quite save projects correctly. You need to save your menu as template if you ever want to use it again.