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DVD-9 or DVD-5?

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seciors

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I've got a 90 minute edit, and am not sure which to release. When creating a DVD-9 with the maximum bitstream settings allowed, I end up with a size of ~5.7GB. (including both ac3 5.1 and ac3 2.0 tracks)
In terms of quality, what would I lose by going with DVD-5, and most importantly, what does the fanedit community prefer? I'd like to reach the widest audience possible, but I see pros and cons. Some people might assume a DVD-5 is inferior quality and not give it a chance, while some people will see a DVD-9 to be too large or not practical.

My DVD will not have any special features. I'd prefer to just release one or the other, unless there's a compelling reason not to. (I do plan to release an mp4 version which weighs in at ~1GB).

Thanks for any advice/tips!
 
The only thing I can say is that for me burning a DVD9 is a real pain in the ass from a technical standpoint.

Like everyone else I appreciate the higher quality that comes from more storage room, but in the cases where fanedits are released in both versions I usually go for DVD5 and can't tell that much of a difference between the two.
 
Unless you have a lot of features, or are well over two hours, stick with DVD-5.
 
Or do both.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to go with DVD-5 and only release a DVD-9 if I can notice a quality difference. After reading through an old (contentious) thread started by Frink re: chapter stops, I will have a menu but it will be very simple and not take up much space at all.
 
Are you going to have chapter stops?
 
You can save some space, although probably not that much, if you just go with the 5.1 track. Why do you want to include a 2.0 track as well?
 
Frantic Canadian said:
You can save some space, although probably not that much, if you just go with the 5.1 track. Why do you want to include a 2.0 track as well?
Click to expand...

This is a valid point. Most modern systems can automatically down mix if needed. That's why you don't find 5.1 and 2.0 on current DVD's. But you're right... the space saved will be minor. I'd guess 150 - 300 MB.
 
Thanks for that tip, I will just go with the 5.1 track!
 
I'm working on a 130 minute film and I tested a DVD5 compression. The quality hit wasn't too bad, but I could notice differences in picture contrast and some sharpening artifacts and ghosting or haloing around high contrast edges. I decided to go with a bitrate about midway between DVD5 and DVD9.

For a 90 minute edit, I'd guess DVD5 will look fine. You could always render a test clip at different bitrates to check out the difference.
 
On a big screen on dvd5 you can notice artifacts and macro blocking mostly in darker area's, like you do with a low quality avi.
 
doesn't it matter more about the bitrate? For DVD-5, I am using 6Mbs as the average. Is that good enough? It's only a 90 minute movie so maybe DVD-9 really is overkill?

One thing I've noticed is that big red areas are blocky. I'm not sure if that's because I'm using DV as my editing codec or if it is a mpeg2 issue. Any ideas?
 
seciors said:
doesn't it matter more about the bitrate? For DVD-5, I am using 6Mbs as the average. Is that good enough? It's only a 90 minute movie so maybe DVD-9 really is overkill?
Click to expand...

It is about bitrate. 9.8 is the max bitrate for DVD's, though that can cause trouble for some players. It's usually best to keep it at 8.5 or less. 6 should be fine.
 
I personally can't burn DVD9, since the only ones available in this county are DVD+Rs, which my comp can't burn.

I did "Carly's Story" in DVDR and sent it to reave for approval, who is also re-encoding it as a DVD5 (much better than what I'd wind up with if using DVD Shrink; not sure about how a DVD5 of it would look as re-encoded by Womble). Both will be available.

"The Locus of Victory and Defeat" will have a crapload of extras, so I'm doing that in DVD9 as well and hoping whoever will do the eventual approval can also re-encode it to DVD5.
 
seciors said:
One thing I've noticed is that big red areas are blocky. I'm not sure if that's because I'm using DV as my editing codec or if it is a mpeg2 issue. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I know, replying to my own quote :), but I only see the blockiness when viewing on my computer. When I watched it on my 30" HDTV (not big but I was sitting close) there was no blockiness. I'm figuring the software DVD player is inferior to real DVD players.
 
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