Have you tried these settings before?
Posted from:
MonsterHTPC thread Subject Setting up BTV
Recording Qualities:
This post has great info on this subject and I find I like these settings. Things have changed in 3.5 and I made the adjustments to the settings below. Still doing some testing and really its all preference on what you prefer. Make sure to click on the pull down menu that says "Show more options". The included Best (DVD Ready) is very similar to the 3.25 one below, just a tad lower video bitrate and DVD Stream instead of program stream. I don't notice much difference between the two, so give it a try before you go doing all the below typing. You can also just up the video bitrate on the Best (DVD Ready) setting, to 7250, max is 20000 just FYI.
You can add these qualities by going to:
Web admin -> configure -> Adv Settings -> Qualities -> Create New Quality
Name: 3.25GB/Hour DVD Standard Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 7250
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4
Click the "Create New Quality" again and enter:
Name: 2.5GB/Hour DVD Long Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 5750
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4
Click the "Create New Quality" again and enter:
Name: 1.8GB/Hour DVD Extra Long Play
Type: MPEG-2
Audio Frequency: 48000
Audio Bitrate: 224000
Frames per second: 29.970
Dimensions (pixels): Custom 720 x 480
Video Bitrate: 4125
Variable Bitrate Encoding Enable: Not Checked
MPEG2 Stream Type: Program Stream
Bidirectional (Interpolative) Frames Per Group: 2
Predictive Frames Per Group: 4