Video Quality and Disc Size

Note that the Direct-to-Disc Wizards do not include the editing features that are available from the standard interface. You can edit a project created with a wizard before burning it to a disc as described in:

•“Editing the style of a video project” on page 21.

•“Editing movie files” on page 21.

Sonic MyDVD includes four DVD video quality (bit-rate) settings, and a Fit-to-DVD option that can be applied to a video project or to individual movie files. The DVD quality settings are:

•HQ (High Quality) — Best audio and video quality, but requires the most disc space per second of video. Good choice for video files that contain high-speed action (for example, motor sports).

•SP (Standard Play) — Good audio and video quality with most video sources.

•LP (Long Play) — Fits approximately twice as much video onto a DVD as HQ. Not recommended when the original video is low-quality or noisy.

•EP (Extended Play) — Fits the most video onto a DVD, but video quality is low. Not recommended unless the original video is very good quality.

•Fit-to-DVD — As you add more content to the project, MyDVD reduces the project quality automatically to fit the selected disc size. Fit-to-DVD is the default setting for new projects.

NOTE: VCDs have a fixed bit-rate which delivers one quality level. You can fit approximately one hour of video on a VCD (the recording time is reduced if you use animated menu buttons or backgrounds).

NOTE: You can record the same file on a disc at each different speed to compare the results.

24Creating Data, Audio, and Video Discs on your PC