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Just bought DVD-Creator from the App store; big disappointment. Took an uncompressed 11 minute QuickTime 720HD 6.2GB file down to a 721MB VIDEO_TS when it burned the DVD. In other words, it chucked 88% of the info and looks lousy. Unacceptable.

I'm running Snow Leopard, so Anamorphisizer is out. myDVDEdit 1.5(55) doesn't perform as advertised in changing from iDVD's 4:3 only-output into 16:9.

So how can I get high quality 720HD onto a DVD from Final Express 4.0.1 using OS 10.6.8? (Lion has a known incompatibility with my 2010 MBP with its NVIDIA GeFORCE GT 300M)

with advanced appreciation…

(also, tags don't exist for DVD-Creator, Anamorphisizer, NVIDIA, & myDVDEDit; would someone please consider adding them. I'll probably be dead long before I get to 300 posts)!

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2 Answers

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No, there is simply no way to encode HD resolution video onto a DVD. This is a common misconception. The DVD video format does not support HD resolution. DVD players cannot reproduce 720HD video.

If you want HD on a disk, that is what Blu-ray disks and Blu-ray console players are for.

There was once a format called HD-DVD, but it is no longer supported by anybody and standard DVD players will not play back an HD-DVD at the intended resolution.

720HD is 1280 x 720 pixels per frame.

The highest resolution that the DVD format can support is 720 x 480 pixels per frame, which is at best only 37.5% of the resolution of 720HD.

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Should have read Wheat Williams post first; I just learned something that's absolutely a rate limiting factor in my quest for decent quality. I'll use HandBrake to go to 720X480, then use DVD-Creator to burn the DVD. 37.5% is better than 28%. StackExchange has earned a bookmark in my browser. Many thx! (I also learned via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video that a 16:9 on a DVD requires letterboxing. So I'll set HankBrake to output @ 720x400 to preserve aspect ratio). – user9501 Aug 17 '11 at 14:33
Don't be confused about that % figure. It doesn't tell you much. The only important thing is "what does the final product look like"? By using a product like HandBrake you don't have fine control over everything, so your results won't be as good as a commercial movie DVD. But you can do better. – Wheat Williams Aug 17 '11 at 14:42
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RE: ".. Just bought DVD-Creator from the App store; big disappointment. Took an uncompressed 11 minute QuickTime 720HD 6.2GB file down to a 721MB VIDEO_TS when it burned the DVD. In other words, it chucked 88% of the info and looks lousy. Unacceptable."

You can't get HD quality output to a DVD, but DVD can do much better quality output for an 11 minute clip than what you experienced.

I would suggest that you try re-encoding again with DVD-Creator, and this time pay attention to the output quality settings, since it sounds like you set up the output quality limit to maximum of 1 CD (at 721 MB output).

If you change your settings to allow output of DVD 4.2 GB (single sided DVD), you will find a massive improvement in your burned DVD video quality.

If you are still having issues with the output quality, try using the free HandBrake video encoder instead.

Hope this helps.

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thx to mrBitch for some ideas to try. I've got HandBrake & will use it to get <4.2GB. But am unsure if the mdk or m4v file format from HandBrake is best. I'll try the ubiquitous m4v then see if the DVD-Creator app can do a simple change into the VIDEO_TS & burn a DVD that looks good. – user9501 Aug 17 '11 at 14:12

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