Video bitrate too high
I have lost count of the number of times this particular error message has been reported by authors using DVD Studio Pro, and how confusing it is to resolve.
By and large, the error reporting in Apple applications is fairly informative for most people, but like any other software there are some reports which just don’t make much sense, or inform you of what to do to fix the problem. Naturaly, when you see that your video bitrate is too high, you attempt to lower it and get stumped when no matter how low you go it still causes an error.
The maximum combined bitrate on a standard definition DVD, including all video, audio graphics and additional content, cannot exceed 10.08MBPS. The maximum rate for video alone is 9.8MBPS. There is no minimum bitrate above zero, as this is for you, the author, to decide given your footage and how it looks when it is encoded. However, the reduction of the video bitrate will also reduce your visual quality, and to an extent, raising the bitrate will help improve the visual quality (although there is a law of diminishing returns that you will get to). The lower the bitrate, the smaller the resulting file size and thus the more footage you can fit onto your disc. Raising the bitrate increases the file size and consequently you can fit less minutes onto your disc.
The trick is to balance the bitrate with the disc space available to get the best quality – in other words, to hit the ‘sweet spot’. Since video is far more forgiving to compress, or rather your eyes are far more forgiving than your ears, it’s better to compromise on the video quality a little than it is the audio quality.
However, this is where the error message is misleading. Instead of decreasing your video bitrate, try re-encoding your audio. Yes, that’s right… re-encode your audio and convert it to AC3 (Dolby Digital) format. This is a much more efficient compression than you might realise, with the resulting files taking up a tenth of the space of the original, yet with almost no loss in audio quality. The bitrate for a stero based file can be as low as 192KBPS (yes, that’s kilobits), and you’ll still get a really good audio experience from that.
The best part is that the difference between AIFF and AC3 is that the bitrate of AIFF is around 1.5MBPS and AC3 can be vastly lower. In one step you’ll reduce the overall bitrate for the disc and give yourself more room for the video. You’ll also find your recorded discs are generally more compatible with a wider range of set top players, too.
There is no single bitrate setting that fits every situation, and each time you create digital footage to include on a DVD you need to look at it with a view to encoding it in the best way. The visual aspect of a disc is often the one that takes precedence for most people, yet it is the audio that will make or break your disc as an experience for the viewer.
When you make an AC3 file in Apple’s ‘Compressor’ you will find there is one setting that you have to change from default, and that is the dialog normalization value. It defaults to -27 but really ought to be set at -31. There are several really good reasons for this, not least of which is that you will almost certainly have spent time balancing the audio levels in your editor before encoding the video. If you don’t want any of that level setting to change for your audio, use -31.
So, the next time you see the dreaded ‘video bitrate too high’ error message, don’t change the video setting until you have looked at the audio more closely!
4 Responses “Video bitrate too high”
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This software is crazy! its taken me 2 days to help get my friends 4min short film encoded to mpeg2 and into dvd studio pro, then we made some menus, and assigned the loop back to main menu ect.. then we tried to burn and it gave us this stupid message ‘Video Bit Rate Too High’ the software cant even accept H264 MOV’s and with its un friendly operation, its rubbish. its taken me 3hrs to almost master Adobe Encore CS4 and this can transcode in the back ground and is compatible with almost ALL file types including MOV’s AVOID DVD STUDIO PRO at all Cost DONT WAIST YOUR MONEY FOLKS ITS UTTER TRASH! CS4 or CS5 or DIE!!!!!
Hi – thanks for that… sounds to me as if you are not yet seeing the benefits of using DVDSP!
The software is not quite as bad as you make out – it can’t be because so many people are using it without the issues you are raising. The video bitrate error is annoying, but solvable when you understand what it is telling you. Did you read the post above this and try the advice it gives? It is often down to the audio stream, not the video stream.
As for h.264 – it can certainly work with it, but you have to recognise that if you use MPEG4 it will get re-encoded to MPEG2 anyway, and you may well see a loss in quality for your footage. If this is not important to you then by all means go ahead and use h.264… otherwise head back to your editor, output a full resolution uncompressed file and encode it using Compressor or any other decent encoder.
Encore certainly has it’s good points and is very easy to use. I don’t class it as a professional authoring tool, however, despite the fact it can do a really good job. It just doesn’t give authors the access to settings that things like DVDSP does. In many respects it ‘dumbs down’ the authoring process and this is fine for folks in a hurry. However, you could get a very similar result from iDVD rather than buy Encore.
Finally, let’s keep the fanboy stuff under control, shall we? CS4 and 5 are good tools, but they are a long way from perfect, and certainly no good to stake your life against
I’d say the same about DVDSP too – it’s far from perfect, is in dire need of a version upgrade and could do a whole bunch of things in a better way, but it is certainly more capable that you seem to think!
Helo. I`m Brazilian, and i may write something wrong. No metter.
I`ve had some problems with the error “Video Bitrate is Too High” and i found a solution for many of them.
It`s really very simple. The problem was when I made a video and in the menu I did that little demonstration video, that every menu in DVD Studio Pro contains. So the problem was not my video, was the menu. I just stop making that fast visualisation in the menu and excluded each one of them, leaving only the caracters for search.
Of course if you have a video that is bigger than 4.7Gb, you`re going to have problems to. But, try to don`t make that little demonstration video on the menu and i swear that you wont have more problems.
I spended 3 days to find the solution and spend so many time rendering all the videos again in compressor on fastest 90 min, 120 min, but if you have a video with more than 2 hours, use fastest 150min best resolution.
If you still have any problem, e-mail me on rafavolpe@gmail.com. You`re welcome! By!
Português agora:
Olá. Eu também tive problemas com o erro “Video Bitrate Is Too High” e eu achei uma solução para o meu problema.
Na verdade, é muito simples. O problema era quando eu fazia um vídeo demonstrativo no menu, eu fiz aqueles pequenos vídeos de demonstração para saber o que é, que continha o conteúdo resumido. Então o problema não era no meu vídeo original, era o menu. Eu parei de fazer aqueles vídeos de visualização no menu e excluí cada um deles, deixando somente os menus com os nomes.
É claro que se você tem um vídeo que é maior que 4.5Gb, vou vai ter problemas também. Mas, tente não fazer aquela pequena demonstração de vídeo no menu e eu garanto que você não vai ter problemas.
Eu demorei 3 dias para descobrir a solução e gastei muito tempo rendendo todos os vídeos novamente no Compessor em fastest 90 min, 120 min, mas se você tem um vídeo com mais de duas horas, use o fastest 150 min best resolution.
Se voce ainda tiver algum problema, mande um e-mail no rafavolpe@gmail.com. Aí está. Tchau!
After being 3 days re-compressing one video to fix the “Video bitrate too high”message, I found your post and I fixed audio bitrate and works!!! Thanks so much I almost become crazy