Encoding video materials for dvd, Elementary and multiplexed mpeg files, Choosing between mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 – Apple DVD Studio Pro 4 User Manual
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Encoding Video Materials for DVD
The DVD specification requires video movies to be in a DVD-compliant MPEG format.
There are a number of methods for converting video from its current format to MPEG.
DVD Studio Pro includes an integrated MPEG encoder, which can quickly encode your
QuickTime movies into DVD-compliant MPEG-2 files. See
for more information.
For analog sources, you need a hardware video capture card to digitize your video.
Depending on the card’s output format, you may then need a transcoder to convert it
to MPEG.
Elementary and Multiplexed MPEG Files
There are two common types of MPEG file structures: elementary and multiplexed.
Elementary files contain only one stream of data, either the video or the audio. Multiplexed
MPEG files, also known as system, transport, or program files, have the video and audio
combined into a single file.
MPEG files that are imported directly into DVD Studio Pro must be elementary MPEG files.
You can use an MPEG utility to convert multiplexed MPEG files into elementary streams.
The integrated MPEG encoder converts QuickTime files into elementary MPEG streams.
When creating an HD project, you can import HDV and H.264 streams, both of which are
multiplexed QuickTime streams.
Choosing Between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
The DVD specification allows for the use of either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 encoded video. In
general, MPEG-1 provides for smaller file sizes but reduced picture quality (by scaling a
half-screen image to full screen), while MPEG-2 provides for better quality with larger file
sizes.
• MPEG-1 is generally used for titles for which file size is critical and that will be played
back on a computer (not a set-top DVD player).
• MPEG-2 is usually used for DVD titles on DVD media. The integrated MPEG encoder
encodes video into MPEG-2.
DVD Studio Pro works with both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video assets in your SD project
tracks, as long as they are DVD-compliant. MPEG-1 video used as menu backgrounds is
rendered to full D1 MPEG-2 when the project is built.
Important:
HD projects cannot use MPEG-1 video.
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Chapter 4
Preparing Video Assets