Beware of Setting Your Bit Rate Too High
You will find that with some DVD projects, the content easily fits on the disc, and you
may be tempted to use the highest video bit rate available. While higher bit rates produce
better quality, you must take into account other factors before deciding to use the
maximum allowable value.
The maximum video bit rate allowed on SD-based DVDs is 9.8 Mbps, but rarely is that
practical to use because DVD players support combined video, audio, and subtitle bit
rates of up to 10.08 Mbps. For HD-based DVDs, the maximum video bit rate is 29.4 Mbps
for HD assets and 15.0 Mbps for any SD assets used in an HD project, with an overall
maximum bit rate of 30.24 Mbps.
In practice, you should be conservative when determining how high of a bit rate to allow
for. Trying to squeeze out the highest possible bit rate for your project can lead to player
compatibility and disc space issues.A general recommendation is to not exceed 9.2 Mbps
for the combined video and audio bit rates when authoring SD projects or 29 Mbps when
authoring HD projects.
Important:
If you are building your project and DVD Studio Pro detects that the bit rate
of the multiplexed stream is too high, the build stops and an error message appears.