Worst woes for a first time DVD producer (part 1): encoding

How much can you fit on a DVD?
DVD video quality is measured in terms of kbit/s. Since there is a finite number of bits you can store on a DVD, if the video is longer, you cannot store as many bits per second. In plain English, when creating DVD, keep in mind that for a DVD-5 will fit up to 90 minutes of DVD quality video. If you have more than 90 minutes of footage, consider doing a double DVD-5, one DVD-9 or editing down to 90 minutes. Otherwise you will be sacrificing the video quality.
To determine the optimal bit rate for the video, try the bit rate calculator at www.videohelp.com/calc.htm.


Bit Rates: is higher the better?
Let's say your video is only 15 minutes long, and you are thinking about encoding it at the maximum bit rate. Should you do it? The answer is NO. The maximum bit rate is not necessarily better. We suggest encoding at no higher than 8 megabits per second. Certain DVD players might not be able to handle videos that are encoded with too high of a bit rate. So higher is certainly not better.


Can encoding improve quality?
You want to make a collage of video clips on DVD from VHS tapes that were created from years ago, now you are onto encoding. Would the encoding improve the quality of the video? NO. Encoding is simply the process to convert the video to digital format. It does not improve the quality. So the fading and flickers that exist on the tapes will still be there on the DVD. The same goes for other formats.