Fit content to available space

[chooks]

When burning a DVD, it has the option of "Fit content to available space". I also read that

the shorter your movie, the less compression required, and the higher the quality of the video on the DVD

How do I know when its getting too much compression, and noticable poorer quality? Is there a sweet spot of optimum length in minutes or bitrate before this happens?

thanks

[Steve Grisetti]

Our rule of thumb is that you fit about 70 minutes of video on a standard DVD at the highest DVD quality, chooks.

If it's a dual-layer disk, you can get about twice that.

[chooks]

thanks Steve, will try and save that figure in the brain box 70 minutes is a long movie to put together, so probably wont go over this anyway

[Steve Grisetti]

You're a wise man, chooks.

Many people have it in their minds that they need to fill the entire disk or it's not a good show.

In my experience, 45 minutes is about as long as any audience can sit still for even the best edited home movie!

[chooks]

Just curious,
but if its about 70 minutes on a std DVD for highest res, is this for 4:3 and would this also apply to widescreen, or would it be less 16:9?

[Steve Grisetti]

Actually, that's highest quality; not highest resolution. The resolution is the same regardless.

In fact, the resolution for 4:3 and 16:9 is, believe it or not, the same also. (The pixels are just shaped differently.) So, yes, 70 minutes of 16:9 is also a good rule of thumb.

[chooks]

thanks, thats clearer now