Video Bit Rate too high

I've checked the FAQs and wasn't able to find an answer to my specific situation.

I have a series of videos encoded to MPEG2 using MegaPEG Pro SD. I'm using the exact settings I've been using for months without a hiccup. Now I'm getting the Bit Rate Too High error on build.

I know the bit rates are okay, because I've built about 20 DVDs using these same settings. I considered that perhaps my collection of files are too big, and here's where you may be able to help.

When adding up the file sizes of the 6 videos, it comes to 4.1 GB -- easily small enough to fit on a DVD. However, DVDSP thinks they add up to 4.6. I suspect that's the rub. I'm using a single menu page with no motion, layers or other complexity, so it shouldn't give me any grief.

I don't want to re-encode to get the files a bit smaller because quality will suffer. I'm only using a 5.5MB average now.

Any thoughts on how I can convince DVDSP that the real total is 4.1?

bob rice
frameworx media

Bob,

Are you including the audio and menus in this total. I have seen many times that the DVD SP totals indicator is inaccurate because that sometimes there is more than 4.37 GB because of the audio/menu items.

You might try unloading a .m2v file or two until DVD SP thinks things are OK again, to get an idea of just how much over 4.37 GB, your collection of MPEG-2 files are?

I have received this error msg more since the most recent software update, than in the prev 2 years.

What I am finding now, is that if I "build" before the encoding is finished, I will get the error.

So I wait until the "encoding" has finished, then I 'build".

I would prefer to drag assets to the workspace, arrange the navigation, create the menu jump to's, click build and walk away for a couple of hours... but, NO, I have to sit the and baby sit.

Here's a follow up to what I found.

I did include the audio files in my calculation of file sizes, so size was not an issue. And my single menu is a simple still, so again, size is not an issue.

I know all bit rates were encoded at my standard settings (and DVDSP shows it in the inspector on each of the files as 4.9 MB/sec), so I know the encoded rate is okay.

Then I tried eliminating components. I stripped all of the audio from the timeline. Same problem... video bit rate too high.

I eliminated video files (with still no audio) one at a time, and attempted to build. Even with only 30 min of video on the timeline, I continued to get the error... until I deleted the last file.

It turns out that one clip apparently has some kind of corruption in it. File size is 953MB and avg bit rate is 4.9 MB. Yet DVDSP chokes on it. I re-encoded with MegaPEG Pro using my standard settings again. Same file size (which is cool) but I still get the error message when attempting to build. For some reason, MegaPEG seems to get confused with this one video file (self contained Quicktime) and leaves it corrupted in some way. All other encodes before and after that one are fine.

I'm re-encoding one more time, this time using Compressor to see if that fixes it. I won't get the de-interlacing that I want but at least that clip should work. I'll let y'all know if that doesn't fix it, so someone can escort me to the loony farm (with Britney).

bob rice
frameworx media