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Blu-Ray: encode video in MainConcept Reference and author disc in Encore
Hello!
I relised that h.264 Blu-Ray encoder that comes with Adobe is not giving very good quality. Even with large bitrates (2-pass VBR 30-35 Mbps, High profile @ 4.1 Level) I cannot get a good result, especially when it comes to videos shot on film, with natural film grain. So I decided to try MainConcept Reference 2 encoder because I’ve read of it’s good performance (at least better than Adobe MainConcept).
I did some test encodes to Blu-Ray h.264 (tried encoding pressets and custom settings) and the problem is that Adobe Encore CS5 don’t want to accept those encodes as they are. When I import those .264 files from Reference, Encore wants to transcode them again and I cannot choose Transcode setting to ‘Don’t transcode’ for those clips.
Is there a special settings known for Reference to create Blu-Ray h.264 video files for Encore, so that Encore shouldn’t transcode them again?
Thanks!
Kriss -
8 Replies
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hi kriss,
reference encoded H264-files will be accepted within encore. there is only one exeption – menus.menus allways will be transcoded to MPEG2HD. that´s a bit weared, I know – but that´s the way adobe has programmed encore.
so you can import H264 for all kind of films exepted your menus. to get the best quality for menus you should import a PSd-file and a quicktime-movie for your moving background.
cheers
danny
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Thanks for reply!
But why Encore wants to re-encode my h.264 file from Reference? I mean the main movie file, not some menu backgroud video files (I want to create a Blu-Ray disc without any menus – just a movie that launches right after disc is inserted into BD player).
Encore project is set to Blu-Ray h.264.
As far as I understand, it means those h.264 files that comes from Reference are not natively accepted/supported by Encore.
Any ides why so?Kriss
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hi kriss,
I tested encore CS5 with reference 1080i50 H264-elementary streams this morning and the have been working fine. I´m sure it will work with NTSC-framerates as well.I´m quite sure that your project-settings wont match your h264-files (framerate/picture-size). in that case encore will allways transcode your files.
cheers
danny
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What kind of settings in Reference you use?
I tried Blu-Ray H.264 High Resolution with some changes of default settings:
Program stream (.mpg) setting changed to Elementary streams (.264, no audio – I have a seperate audio file which is BD compatable in Encore)
Bitrate set from 1-pass VBR 20000-24000 to 2-pass VBR 30000-35000
Higher bitrate and 2-pass mode is chosen due to intensive film grain in original video file. Movie is shot on 35mm and it has some natural film grain, especially in darker shots and I want this grain to be reproduced as good as possible.Input file is self-contained QuickTime with DNxHD 185 X 25p video stream in it. Output framerate in Reference is set to 50i.
Also the Encore project is set to Blu-Ray h.264 50i. -
hi kriss,
I´ve figured out your problem!the main (remaining) problem is the VBV. they had problems with it within their settings with reference 2.1 as well, if you use settings besides the presets.
I´ll sent a bug-report to stefan, I´m in close contact to/with mainconcept.
workflow would be:
1. set your bitrates
2. go to advanced settings and klick into the checkbox to force bitrate buffer lenth to 1 sec. you´ll see, the bytes within bitrate-buffer will change
3. encodethen you can use the file with encore.
just tested with an H264 1080i50-file.
cu
danny
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Great!
Gonna try this out tomorrow!Huge thanks! 😉
Kriss
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So far everything works fine – Encore accepts new encodes as they are.
One question: what is the difference between h.264 AVC Professional and h.264 AVC Broadcast?
Those two settings in Reference are a bit confusing for me. -
the difference is quite easy to explain:
AVC professional have no AVC-intra-support, while broadcast have.
AVC-intra is a professional broadcast-format developed by panasonic.
cheers
danny
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