Just wondering, I read somewhere that normal DVD disks can only hold upto 136 mins of high quality motion picture. Is this true? If so, how do Hindi films fit in one disk? Do they compromise on quality?

I have tried Dil Chahta Hai DVD (Spark) on several DVD players, but almost the entire movie is extremely pixelated. On the other hand any English DVDs have great picture quality...

Most bollywood DVDs are shit quality and not worth buying. Indian DVD producers skimp on costs therefore quality is lost. Pixelisation is normal.

Dil Chahta Hai is pixilated, more so noticeable on hi-res screens. In a better world all Indian films with an above average running time (over ~140mins) should be presented on 2 DVDs – but limited resources and an industry which breeds greed over quality this will never happen. Some films are over three hours and squeezed onto one DVD – so bit rate has to be lowered to fit video onto one disc – results being the pixilated video. To make it worse very poor sources are used in the first place making the end result even worse.

Ali

Bollywood movies in 2 discs,it's not gonna happen. Like Ali stated it's all about greed. I have come across several DVD's where 150+ minutes movie was cut to 130 minutes to make it fit onto one disc. Just like what these bastards did to movies in VHS by recording them at LP mode so why would anything change now.

lakeshore

The question is a moral one that has existed for ages. Is it okay to steal from a thief, ala Robin Hood considered a great folk hero.

Robinhood is a fable. For me personally stealing from a thief also makes one a thief. To quote another user two wrongs don't make a right.

lakeshore

I agree with you on that. But somehow I don't look down upon those who steal from thieves as much as I would if they stole from others.

You think gains in technology will reflect in DVD's produced for indo-pak consumers but it couldn't be further from the truth.
Personally for me I usually view a DVD for quality and content or read reviews before wasting my money on something really crappy. I must say reviews at Zulm have been of a great help.
My suggestion to others is check out postings at Zulm before wasting your money.

lakeshore



Edited By lakeshore on Dec. 22 2001 at 18:41

I don't understand it. Bollywood movies can easily be on one disc with an excellent quality. Look at the The Two Towers, the first edition on which the whole movie was on one disc and yet the movie looks stunning!







Source

I hate the Indian DVD companies and everyone involved more and more!
There should be some authority to have a watch on them. There should be a legal minimum quality!

I was just about to mention stuff like The Two Towers. The problem is, the Indian companies' equipment for compressing material is a lot worse than Hollywood. Look at Lagaan even, CT fit the whole film on 1 disc for R1, with a pretty low average bitrate (I think it was around 4). Yet the PQ for Lagaan is better than almost all Indian DVDs. So it's essentially a difference in equipment and obviously our great Indian manufacturers are too cheap to spend on new equipment.

I personally feel, it was criminal of CT to keep, LAGAAN FOR R1 on one disc..same for DIAPHNA DEVDAS! terribly low bit rate taking away details esp in dark shots

Robinhood is a folk hero not for stealing from others but distributing the stolen stuff to poor people. Stealing for your own benefit even from a thief does make you a thief.

I agree with that; they should have split into two discs. But compare the results to what we would have seen from Indian manufacturers and you'll see the difference in equipment. I did think after the R2 release for Lagaan though, that the extra bit rate didn't add a significant punch to the picture. Although it did help, it made me regret the R1 decision a little less.

Very well said.

Rahisha first of all define what is a DVD... are you talking only of Video or both Video or audio ?

According to MPEG2 standards a High-quality picture is supposed to be at bit-rates of 6.0 Mbps and above (e.g. Harry Potter dvds are at this bit-rate and the BTTF dvds are at 9 Mbps). A dual layered DVD generally has a space of 9.4 GB. Lets do the Math...
Movie time = 180 mins = 180 * 60 secs
DD 5.1 = 448 Kilobits/sec = 448*1024bits/sec
Total bits = 448*1024*180*60 (for audio)
This roughly comes to around 600 MB (approx.)

That leaves us 9.4 * 1024 - 600 Mb for encoding the video
which is approximately 8.8 GB

Total seconds that can be encoded = (8.8 * 1,073,741,824 * 8 bits) / (6 * 1,048,576 bits) which is approximately equal to 12015 sec = 200mins and 30 secs.

Which is definately greater than the 180 mins that we sought to encode.

This implies that a Hindi film of running time 3 hrs can easily be encoded at MPEG2 specified high bit-rate with proper Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

How how adjust the adjust the bits for I-pictures and P- or B-pictures determine how good your final product will be.
If you allocate less bits for I-pictures then your pictures tend to be soft. If you allocate less bits for motion, then you get the so called motion-blur artifacts. As a result what generally happens is that color is quantized heavily.
So if you want more color in your images then you should go for higher and even higher bit-rates. ! (e.g would be Ben Hur and 10 commandments.. flippers or 2-discs needed to encode the movie).

Hope this explains