Solved Rendering a long video to burn to multiple DVDs

Derek,
I am working in Movie Studio Platinum 13 Suite and have DVD architect with it. I have 9 1/2 hours of 1080p video to burn to DVDs (this is one long demonstration / lecture). I understand rendering a loop region(s) is how to break it down but don't totally understand how to figure where the break points should be. I will be burning to 4.7Gb DVD-R disks. There isn't a menu but it has 50 markers (so people can skip forward) and about 20 titles and text screens. I figured the bit rate calculator might be of some help but where to chop the video to get on 4 or 5 DVDs is my question. Video quality is important so I don't want to compress it to death. 5 DVDs in the set is fine if needed. Thank You!

Hi AB

I recommend you set this project up, so that you can render DVD and Blu-ray versions if needed.
Then you can explain to potential customers, that if they have a big widescreen TV at home and a Blu-ray player, the image quality is infinitely superior compared to DVD. A lot of people may have an Xbox or Playstation at home - both of these have a Blu-ray capable player inside!

You can also render YouTube samples from the same project.

For the rest of this message, I will concentrate just on DVD output.

Project Properties
I am guessing that you have recorded your original video in 1920x1080-30p and have the Movie Studio Project Properties set to the same settings.
Whether you are making DVDs or Blu-rays, this is the best way to set up the project.



Working out how many discs to burn
You have 570 minutes video in total.
570 / 5 = 114 minutes
570 / 6 = 95 minutes

A standard single layer 4.7 GB DVD can hold 60 minutes of the Highest Quality MPEG-2 video.
A dual layer 8.5 GB DVD can hold 120 minutes of the Highest Quality MPEG-2 video.

Because you have such a large amount of video to get onto a single set of DVDs, I don't recommend you use the everyday 4.7 GB single layer discs.
If you want to make a high quality product, you need to buy some 8.5 GB dual layer DVDs.
Don't buy cheapo crap - make sure to get something like Verbatim or another quality brand.
When you buy a Hollywood movie on DVD, they are using the same 8.5 GB dual layer discs - never the smaller 4.7 GB discs.

It is up to you how many discs you decide to use.
If it was myself, I would probably go with x6 discs - then you will have some "wiggle" room and be able to output maximum image quality.

Dividing the Master Project into sub-projects
If you choose to burn x6 DVDs, I recommend you break the Master Project into x6 sub-projects - one for each DVD.

The easy way:
Open the Master Project and re-save a New Copy with a special name - something like "Master with break points".
In this new copy of the Master Project, you need to add New Markers and/or Regions that represent the x6 discs inside one project.
You are aiming to break 570 minutes total into sections that will be 95 minutes +/- 10 minutes.

Once you have created the x6 new regions, save x6 identical copies of your existing Master Project and name each one something like Disc-1, Disc-2, Disc-3, etc......
Then open Disc-1 and delete everything except for the Disc-1 region - re-save project.
Then open Disc-2 and delete everything except for the Disc-2 region - re-save project.
Repeat process until all x6 projects are separated.
Obviously you may like to add a small Title Intro at the beginning of each disc, so they know which disc it is and what topics are in each disc.

DVD Architect Menus
To do this project professionally, you need to use DVD Architect and create some basic menus for each disc.
Because you will be using DVD Architect as well, you will be using Movie Studio only for preparing and rendering the video and audio for each disc.

Rendering each Disc with Movie Studio
Once you know the total time for each Disc, then you have to work out your Custom Bit Rates for each disc.
Instead of me continuing to write a novel right now, I will wait for you to split up your project into x6 or x5 sub-projects.
Once you have divided the project up into sections, let me know the total time for each disc and then I will show you the precise Bit Rate settings to use for each disc.

Then I will help you further....

Regards
Derek

Derek,

Thanks for the info. Yes, I believe I shot the video as 1920x1080p. Breaking it down like that seems like a straight forward solution. I will work on breaking this down in the next day or so.

I already have a bunch of Verbatim 4.7 DVD-R disks so I do need to use those. I just finished a 2hr 8min project and fit it to 1 disk. It actually looks good for our purposes. I used the same camera but took the video a few years ago not really knowing what I was doing. Surely this more recently shot video will be more clear because of the way I shot it, ND filter and shooting from a higher angle. I will try the 5 disks and see what I get. If that doesn't look good enough, I will do the 6 disks. In the future I will buy the dual layer 8.5GB disks.


Thanks,
AB

I have to burn a video and didn't know how to do that... this thread kind of helped me. So thanks, OP and Derek! And what about the software I'm gonna use, also on this forum somebody recommended me this video burner and I'm gonna try it tomorrow. If anyone wants a review, just text me.