DVD Video Bit Budget Calculator


When planning your DVD project, you need to know the optimum bitrate for your MPEG-2 video encoding. This depends on a number of factors. Most important are the type of DVD media being used, the duration of the video, and the audio format: Dolby Digital (also called AC3), or PCM (uncompressed).

The calculator below makes it easy to get the best combination of visual quality and reliability.

Media type: DVD-R DVD-5 DVD-9
Main audio track: PCM Dolby Digital 192kbps
Secondary audio track: none PCM Dolby Digital 192kbps
Total duration of all video (including menus): hours, minutes
Extra data content: million bytes



Note: bitrates in mbps = millions of bits per second, or "megabits"