7D footage export settings?

[Vince Becquiot]

Hi Diana,

If it’s an hour or under, then the best choice is usually Mpeg2 DVD 7.5 Mb/s CBR.

8 Mb/s is what most people judge as to a be the maximum safest bit rate for consumer DVD burning.

For anything over an hour, you will benefit from 2 Pass VBR, where the first pass will analyse scenes and motion to provide the appropriate compression using a variable bit rate.

For that, it’s best to calculate the appropriate settings using a bit rate calculator.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Martin Pickett]

I have 7D also and have had very good results using 720p, H.264 instead of mpeg2 for dvd.
On your timeline hit command-M.
choose format – H.264
choose preset – HDTV 720p and 29.97 (if your camera settings were 29.97)
– HDTV 1080p if you’re going to Blu-ray
choose output name and location
scroll down the video tab slider:
the dimensions should say 1280×720
leave other settings until bitrate:
choose vbr2 pass, bitrate between 7 and 8
check maximum render quality if you have any renders on your timeline and check use previews if you rendered your entire timeline.

I found that these settings look so much better on dvd than mpg2-dvd. Plus the exported sequence on your hard drive is all together (video and audio), so you can play it, export it to Youtube or whatever.

Try it on a short sequence and see if you like it.

-Marty

[Vince Becquiot]

Hi Marty,

Diana needs to export for an actual DVD, not for Youtube. She HAS to use the Mpeg2 DVD setting.

While you might find a couple of DVD players that support H.264, it’s nowhere near standard and the specs even vary by player.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Diana Gandila]

Thank you, guys! I hope this will go well. And Vince, thanks for the bit rate calculator, it’s very useful! 🙂

[Martin Pickett]

I understand she wants to make dvd. Two thoughts:

1. Doesn’t Encore encode for dvd no matter what format you bring in to it?

2. I do a lot of wedding dvds and haven’t had one come back yet because it wouldn’t play. I just like the picture quality of those settings listed better than mpg2 for dvd. To my eye there is a difference.

[Vince Becquiot]

Hi Marty,

Yes, Encore will always transcode to Mpeg2 when making a DVD, in which case you are losing quality by exporting to H.264 first.

When exporting for Mpeg2 DVD, it’s best to check “Use Maximum Quality” to improve scaling.
If you are seeing better quality going to H.264, it’s likely that you had a wrong export setting going to mpeg2.

Cheers,

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Diana Gandila]

The Mpeg2 option might be better, but for the moment I’m editing with the CS5 trial version so I can’t really export mpeg2. I only found out this morning about the missing presets and all, so Martin’s suggestion of H264 is going to do the job.
But I’ll keep that in mine for the next time, Vince.

Thank you guys!

[Vince Becquiot]

Hi Diana,

I don’t think Encore can be used in the trial version, unless it changed recently. My advice for export would be uncompressed. It will be a much faster export with no quality loss.

Cheers,

Vince

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area