Calculating the needed space for a particular movie

[WriteSimply]

I've worked my bones to deliver this to you guys.

Attached is a Rapidshare link to an Excel file (I could've easily worked with Lotus 123 but I wanted to experiment) to calculate the amount of space needed for a movie (it could be your own) using one main sound format and the average video bitrate required.

The Rapidshare link. I couldn't attached this XLS file on this forum because it's not allowed.

Spreadsheet 1 shows a breakdown of the space taken for TrueHD and ABR of a particular title, and then the many combinations thereafter. You can replace cells B4-12 (except B5 & B9 which is empty) with your own running times. You can also replace cells D3-I3 with numbers for LPCM, DTS, DTSHD or DD, or higher or lower ABRs.

The reason for using TrueHD is that Dolby has a PDF out with numbers, while DTS' numbers shows as high as 20Mbps! So I think TrueHD is less varied but hopefully is of quality.

Spreadsheet 2 shows a total combination calculation based on sound format only with no breakdown for video or audio. Use cell B2 to change the running time and the rest will be automatically calculated. You can also change cells in B5-16 (except B9 & B12 which is empty) if you want to calculate the DTS HDMA numbers, and cells in line 1 starting from C1 if you want higher Video bitrates.

As you can see in Spreadsheet 1, the ABR needs to be at 10Mbps for The Lord of The Rings: The Return Of The King Extended Edition with TrueHD audio to fit on a 30GB HD-DVD disc. That's with no other extras too. I'm not overly confident that VC-1 can do that with such a highly detailed and chaotic movie.

EDIT: A minor glitch. Cell A8 should read "LPCM 7.1, 24-bit/48kHz" and not "LPCM 5.1, 24-bit/48kHz". This is what you get when you cut and paste. It doesn't affect the calculations though. Please fix accordingly.


fuad