As this is my first post on this forum, I must start by saying a big THANK YOU kwag for your great templates - and thanks also to all the regular conributors whose tips and suggestions have helped my tweak the VCD templates so I could get the VCD to play in my Pioneer DV444 !!)

Anyway I have now bought a Pioneer 104 DVD-RW, and want to use the KDVDfull template to create several 45 minutes mpegs which I will author with SpruceUp before burning to DVD-R.

I am assuming that I will have to increase the minimum bite rate of the KDVD template to at least 650, like I did when I was making VCDs because the DV444 doesn't seem to like the low bitrate.

What I want to know is what settings can I "tweak" to help offset the increase in file size cauded bying upping the min. biterate.

Can I reduce the Max. Biterate, or the quality setting, or the audio biterate without affecting the overall quality too much ? (I currently view on a standard 34" TV - hope to upgrade to large Screen Plasma when I win the lottery

Any help you can give will be much appreciated.

Thanx

Nick

PS:- Have done a trial run with one file setting the min biterate to 700 - everything looks and sounds great apart from a couple of instances when the video "froze" for a second or so and then carried on playing normally, (only when DVD was played not DV444, played fine on PC) - What could have caused this, do I need to increase the biterate some more or could it be something else, (the media ??)

Hi nick,
You shouldn't have to change any parameters on the KDVD templates, because they're already DVD compliant. Both, the full, and the half D1.
Even with the MIN bit rate set the way it is. If you do reduce the MAX bit rate, you'll lower the quality. Right now, the half D1 should give you 7 to 8 hours, and the full D1, 4 to 5 hours on a DVD-R.

-kwag

Hi Kwag,

Thanks for the quick reply.

So are you saying I shouldn't have any problem with a low minimum bite rate in the KDVD templates - I always had to increase the min. biterate when I used the KVCD-CQ-352x288-(PAL)-PLUS template to make a VCD because my Pioneer DV444 didn't like the low bite rate, and I got the choppy sound problem reported elsewhere on the forum, (I had to increase the min. bitrate to 650 when using the 352x288 template).

If the minimum biterate isn't an issue when using the KDVD template, have you any idea what could have caused the "frozen video" I mentioned in my last post - this only happens on the DV444, the DVD-RW plays perfectly on my PC.

thanks

nick