120min SD DVD encoding

[David Roth weiss]

What’s your source? DV right?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

[Shiloh Heyman]

yes DV.

[David Roth weiss]

Its not Compressor thats the problem, its your text and graphics getting hammered by DV compresion.

You must go back to your timeline, open Sequence Settings, and change the compressor to either 8-bit or 10-bit uncompressed, then rerender. Then export either a QT reference file or self contained QT and sue that in Compressor to make your best 120-min DVD. That will create an uncompressed QT that will keep all of your graphics uncompressed on the way into Compressor, amking a vastly better DVD.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

[Shiloh Heyman]

Hi David,

Thank for replying.

I neglected to mention that I eddited and rendered from a ProRes HQ timeline and exported using compressor. there are Massive amounts of artifacts even when no text or graphics are present.

Do you feel that an uncompressed timeline would yield better results?

Is it a bad idea to export using compressor?

I have gotten decent results using the 90min best qual preset but it would be nice to be able to fit the film on a DVD-5. I have never authored a DVD-9 and I am unsure about the playback compatability of a 9 from DVDSP or if its even possible.

I was also wondering if software encoding is capable of producing studio quality. Maybe, but I’m realy hopping not to have to, I sould look for a hardware encoding service?

Thank You for taking the time to answer my questions.

Shiloh

[David Roth weiss]

[shiloh] “I neglected to mention that I eddited and rendered from a ProRes HQ timeline and exported using compressor.”

Well, then you essentially did the same thing I was encouraging you to do. You could try exporting a QT and then encoding with Compressor, but the results most likely would be similar. I guess its the 2-hour length thats hurting you. Try a hardware encoder, but its probably not gonna be that much better.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

[Shiloh Heyman]

Thanks again David

Have a great weekend.

Shiloh

[Scott Sutter]

Ive gotten better results with bitvice mpeg encoder. Great easy to use program. Export a QT reference out of FCP and bring it right into bitvice. Fairly cheap program for the results it gives. Its made by a company called innobits

[Walter Biscardi]

[scotts1919] “Ive gotten better results with bitvice mpeg encoder.”

Bitvice is an excellent program. Slow, but the results are excellent.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Chris Borjis]

[shiloh] “I was also wondering if software encoding is capable of producing studio quality. Maybe, but I’m realy hopping not to have to, I sould look for a hardware encoding service?”

Not at all.

Compressor is very good at compressing mpeg2.
The problem is, the presets are not optimized as they should be to attain that level of quality. You have to tweak it for best results.

make a copy of whatever preset you are using in compressor.
Then make sure the motion estimation filter is set for highest quality (that can have a huge impact from massive macroblocking to no macroblocking)

next, look at your GOP settings. make it the smallest number I think 7 is as low as it will allow. This will also improve image quality but it will increase the final encoded file a bit.

These 2 little tweaks should make an improvement over all.

DV source footage is the worst kind to be encoding though, you can only get so much out of it.

[Shiloh Heyman]

I just wanted to say thanks for all the replies.

I got much better results from using the 7 GOP setting but I was wondering if this setting could adversly affect the playback compatibility for set top players?
I need to burn a disc for a replication house to make a glass master for commercial distribution.

Thanks again for discussing a subject that I’m sure has been beaten to death.

Shiloh