Project Settings
This dialog box lets you specify the basic settings for your project.
Note: The options available may vary depending on the project type.
Format
n Menu aspect ratio: Select one of the following options:
n 4:3: Menus are the same shape as a standard TV screen.
n 16:9: Menus are the same shape as a widescreen TV screen.
n Standard: Select the TV broadcast standard for the country or territory in which the disc will be played:
n NTSC: The TV standard used in North America, Japan, and most of South America.
n PAL: The predominant TV standard used in Europe, Africa, and most of Asia.
Archive photos
Archives the project’s source image files in a folder on the disc.
Note: Image files can use a lot of disc space, especially if you used high-resolution, uncompressed source files.
Normalize audio levels
Reduces volume differences between the loudest and quietest parts of the audio signal.
Movie Buttons
These options determine the playback behavior of your finalized disc.
n Play movie only: When you select a movie for playback, only that movie plays. When playback is complete, you are returned to the menu.
n Play movie and all remaining movies in project: When you select a movie for playback, that movie plays, followed by all subsequent movies. When the last movie on the menu is played, you are returned to the menu.
Constrain button aspect ratio
Locks the button aspect ratio, so that you cannot adjust the proportions when changing button sizes.
Pre-render menus in preview
Renders the menus when you go into preview mode. Pre-rendering takes a long time, but it provides smoother and more realistic playback.
Note: If you disable pre-rendering for high-definition projects, you will not see motion thumbnails or other motion when previewing the project. Prerendering is not required for preview of motion in standard definition projects.
Acoustic alert after burning
Alerts you when a disc is finished burning.
Set as default for new productions
Makes your changed settings the default for all new projects.
Default encoding settings
n Preset: Select one of the video quality options:
n Fit to disc: Adjusts video and audio settings automatically to ensure that all your of movies fit on the disc. Other video and audio settings are unavailable when Fit to disc is selected.
n Same As Original: Avoids unnecessary transcoding.
n Extra Long Play: Lets you fit the most video on the disc, but with the lowest video quality. Not suitable for editing.
n Long Play: Lets you fit more video onto a disc than the Standard Play option, but video quality is low. To get good results with this setting, you need a very clean DV or analog source. Not suitable for editing.
n Standard Play: Fits twice as much video onto a disc as the High Quality option. Not recommended when the video source is low-quality or noisy. Not recommended for editing.
n High Quality: Gives the best results with all video sources. You can usually edit the video with little or no effect on the image quality.
n Custom: Uses the highest quality setting that will accommodate all of the content.
n Video: Set the following video options:
n Video format: Select the format to be used for encoding. The options available vary depending on the project type.
n Video resolution: Select one of the video resolution options. There is very little difference between 720 x 480/576 and 704 x 480/576. The 352 x 480/576 option is a good choice when the video bitrate is lower than about 4 Mbps. 352 x 240/288 should be used only when the video bitrate is very low.
n Bitrate: Drag the slider to change the video bitrate, which controls how much disc space is used for each second of video. Higher bitrates produce better quality video but require more disc space for a given video duration.
n Interlaced: Select this format if your final destination is an interlaced display—for example, if you are playing back a DVD on a conventional TV.
n Progressive: Select this format for all other uses, including playback on a newer progressive TV.
n Two-pass encoding: Creates higher-quality video by previewing the file during the first pass so smarter, more efficient encoding decisions can be made during the second pass. This takes longer than standard encoding and is not available with all disc formats or presets.
n Audio: Select one of the audio format options:
n Dolby Digital AC3 2.0: Provides good sound quality while using little disc space.
n MPEG-1: Provides good sound quality and uses little disc space.
n LPCM: Provides the best sound quality, but, because it is uncompressed, requires the most disc space.
n Bitrate: If you chose Dolby Digital or MPEG audio, choose a bitrate from the drop-down list. This controls how much disc space is used for each second of audio, with higher bitrates producing better sound. The recommended bitrate is 192 Kb/s. If you chose LPCM audio, Bitrate is set to 1536 Kb/s.