That's because PD9 totally fails when it comes time to analyzing what the size of a project will be. It always says the project will be much bigger than it is, and arbitrarily reduces the size/quality of that project in order to make if fit to DVD size, according to its inaccurate prediction.

Time after time I have PD say that a video will be 4.2 gigs, a reasonable size, but the resulting file is half that - and of course that means the quality was unnecessarily reduced.

It's a complicated topic, and I keep reading threads trying to make sense of how exactly is the best way to trick PD9 into producing the highest quality video which it so stubbornly refuses to do on its own.

EDIT: Carl and others have the solutions on this thread - My post here was about being frustrated that the Smart Fit function doesn't really do what it seems like it should. Apparently the solution is to not to use for burning to a DVD folder,--which seems like a failure of the software to me, but at least there are solutions.

RB

1. You cannot burn 720 or 1080 HD video to a normal DVD. A normal DVD does not have the ability to play that higher a resolution. Google will give you the resolution a normal DVD will handle.

2. If you burn an AVCHD DVD it will only play on some not all Blu-ray players or a computer with the proper codecs or player installed. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

If that were the case, any dvd purchased at a retailer and played back on a dvd player would not look very good. I think because the size of the file on that dvd is usually 8.5 GB's you get the good quality and with power director shrinking down the size of the orginal, no matter what the res size quality is for playback, you lose quality. I also find when converting or creating, the avi option seems to give the best results. And I would have to guess its because of the size of the file. The other options when creating the same file or movie, always come back when created at a smaller size then the avi and do not look as good.

I also understand my computer can play back things in much better quality then a dvd player or tv, but even when I create an avi in a size of 1.5 GB's, play it as is on the computer it looks great. When burning it, playing back on the computer, the quality is definitely not as good. This is why I take the file created and without burning take it on my laptop and plug directly into a monitor or play it plugged into a projector capable of playing high res stuff. In the past when I needed a dvd for playback, I would take the file created by power director and put it into TMGE or similar program and after converting it again to a higher res and then burning it, would get a close to original file for playback. And this was a very old program which gave good results.

Other then this issue, power director has performed great. Windows 7 64 bit, 16 mbs of memory, solid state raid hard drives, latest version of power director 16

You can produce the best quality DVD in PowerDirector 9.

First off a DVD is SD quality not HD, the resolution on a standard DVD is 720x480 (NTSC) or 720X576 (PAL) at about 8 Mbps.

BUT, you do have to limit the time of your video to fit on a DVD. A single layer (4.7 GB) DVD will hold about 1 hour of MPEG2 HQ video (the highest quality DVD you can produce).
A double layer DVD (8.5 GB) can hold about 2 hours of MPEG2 HQ video.

Do not use Smart fit, EVER.
Choose MPEG2 HQ.

If the estimate for the DVD is too big, just choose 8.5 GB DVD, and burn a folder. Disk authoring software will write the disk. Once the folder is created, you can then see the actual size disk needed.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

So bottom line, when creating projects with the program and you are using High Def pics and video, and Produce an avi that is 1.5 GB's, when burning, I will get a degradation in the quality of the video because it creates it to be a 720. My guess would be eventually, disc's will become a thing of the past and things created will be streamed or use other sources to view them, eliminating the reason to burn.

Probably should start another post on this but in the past and now, I create avi's and then have them on a hard drive which I connect to a media player which plays everything in high def on my TV plugging in with the HDMI cable. Weird thing now is since I have updated the program, My media player will not play the avi file although it plays every other one on the drive. Not sure why. Windows 7 64 bit, 16 mbs of memory, solid state raid hard drives, latest version of power director 16

The coming format is BluRay.
PowerDirector does a very good job of creating BluRay Disks.

The resolution of a BluRay disk is 1920x1080P, I am not sure of the bit rate, but it is somewhere around 17 Mbps.

DVDs are not dead yet, not that many people have bought BluRay players. You still see a lot of DVDs for sale in the stores.

When you compare the price you pay for a DVD Vs a BluRay Movie, you can see that it may be a while before the BluRay disk is the norm.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

I have updated the program, My media player will not play the avi file although it plays every other one on the drive. Not sure why.

It is probably because you do not have the correct Codec to play the AVI File anymore.

Install FFDSHOW or K-Lite Codec Pack. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Amadauss,

A lot of people look at a commercial DVD, produced with $250,000 worth of encoding equipment, run multiple times thru that equipment to maximize the quality, sometimes even re-edited to "smooth the bit rate" during action scenes, with multiple operators, directors and editors trimming and adjusting even small details. And then complain with the results from a under $100 (best bargin in the trade by the way) software, when the DVD does not match the commercial product. (not really picking on you personnally, just a lot of people have high expectations)

I have been at this about 40 years (as an amateur only) starting with 8mm film, scotch tape and a hand turned viewer, sliced my fingers many times). The software today is amazing. Just got a BlueRay burner, which is the next frontier. RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB GDDR6
(2 NVME 2TB, 1 SSD 2TB, 3SATA 18TB )
PD18 ULTIMATE 64bit
WINDOWS 10 PRO 64 BIT
GIGABYTE X570 AORUS PRO WIFI MB
RYZEN 7 3700X 8-CORE , 64 GB DDR4
ORSAIR HX1050 watts PSU

Thanks for all the help and response. Agree with the expectations on a 100 dollar program and the end result when you have big time stuff being done to files to make them look great. This 100 dollar program actually has a lot of bang for the buck and like it very much. I am sure if I just went out and got the blu ray player and converted that way, would be very happy with results and that might be the course of action. Might go get a PS3 which plays Blu ray and can also then have the game system : . Thanks again for the help and guidance. Windows 7 64 bit, 16 mbs of memory, solid state raid hard drives, latest version of power director 16