Do I have to render each time?

Shotgun

Newbie Joined: Jan 17, 2009 21:36 Messages: 7 Offline

Solved by

Jan 19, 2009 09:35

I am a newbie to PD7, and have successfully created my first DVD. However, fitting it onto a standard DVD was quite a pain. The movie started off 1 hr, 21 min., but that resulted in a 5.? gb movie after rendering. So, I cut out some of the movie, but found I had to render it again (which takes well over an hour on my very slow PC), just to see if I cut enough out. I finally got it to fit after 4 attempts (that is about 5 hours of rendering alone). I have been all through the user's manual and found nothing about checking the actual rendered file size BEFORE going through the rendering process. Is there such information available somewhere?

Thanks!

Stephanie

Newbie Location: Montreal,Canada Joined: Oct 08, 2008 14:19 Messages: 26 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 09:53

Hi Shotgun
I believe that if you go in the disc settings ( by clicking on the icon at the bottom in the Create Disc tab) you can check ''smart fit'' ant that will adjust you video so that it fits on the type of DVD that you are using. However I think that if you video is really too big the quality will be decreased to fit on the DVD. I don't know if its the best or only way, but it usually works for me.

Regards.
Stephanie

Shotgun

Newbie Joined: Jan 17, 2009 21:36 Messages: 7 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 10:02

Thanks Stephanie! I didn't know that option was available, and will most definitely use it. Other video editing programs will tell you, prior to rendering, what the output file size will be (so, rather than a reduction in quality, you can cut out a portion of the video to accommodate a file size). PD7 is a great tool thus far, SURELY there is an option in there somewhere that tells you what your post-rendered file size will be (I hope, anyway!!).

Thanks!

Stephanie

Newbie Location: Montreal,Canada Joined: Oct 08, 2008 14:19 Messages: 26 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 10:07

Hi Shotgun.
If you put you video directly on a disc in Power Director it tells you the size relative to the space in the DVD at the bottom left on that little blue meter. But when creating a file I find myself having that same problem. I cant seem to find where it tells you that information. I don't know if we are just not looking at the right place or if this is simply not an option in Power Director.

If someone could enlighten us on the subject it would be appreciated.

Stephanie

Keyan

Newbie Joined: Jan 16, 2009 09:09 Messages: 38 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 16:16

When you are rendering a file, after you choose the file type, there is a "remaining" on the left side under the pie chart. This is not space remaining on the drive, it's the actual estimated size of the file remaining to be rendered. Since you haven't started yet, it shows the entire file size.

IMO, it's very confusing and not the best part of the interface. All it really needs to say is "file size".

Another solution (that costs some $$, about 50 bux or so) is to get a dual-layer DVD burner, that will give you about 8.5gb of space for your files and requires much less "tuning" or compression to get your video files on to a DVD.

Stephanie

Newbie Location: Montreal,Canada Joined: Oct 08, 2008 14:19 Messages: 26 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 16:24

Ah! I see it now!

That makes total sens! Thank you so much Keyan! That will help me a lot in the future.

Thanks again!
Stephanie

Shotgun

Newbie Joined: Jan 17, 2009 21:36 Messages: 7 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 18:44

Thanks so much, but that still isn't showing the actual file size that is to be rendered. For example, after choosing 'DV-AVI', the 'remaining' is 14.2 GB. However, after rendering, the file size rendered (that will be copied to DVD) is only 4.5 GB. So, I have to actually render the movie to see the 'real' file size. That is incredibly time-consuming and a very cumbersome method to find out if the file is actually going to fit on a standard DVD.

Am I the only person experiencing this?

Thanks!

Shotgun

Newbie Joined: Jan 17, 2009 21:36 Messages: 7 Offline

Jan 19, 2009 18:53

I think I just answered my own question. Initially, after editing my first movie, the "Create Disc" tab was unavailable. However, after I rendered the movie, the "Create Disc" tab suddenly was available. So, I assumed that it had to be rendered before creating a disc. I just created a new movie and was able to bypass the Produce tab and go straight to Create Disc. Maybe that had something to do with having the trial version for my first attempt and now that I have the full version it is behaving better?

Anyway, thanks to those that replied. I'm learning so much already!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 19. 2009 19:21