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Adobe Encore spontaneously switching from 16:9 to 4:3 during Build
I am using Adobe Encore CS6 on a PC.
So I’ve burned 14 DVDs (14 different projects) in a row through Encore, and didn’t have this problem. Then suddenly, with the 15th DVD this problem popped up.
I import .mp4 footage as a timeline. When I do so, the Aspect Ratio in the Properties panel shows 16:9 selected. The menu is also 16:9. I look on the Monitor panel, and the footage appears to be at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio throughout the entirety of the footage. I hit “check project” and everything seems to be okay.
I hit build, and Encore starts building the DVD.
At some point during the building, it spontaneously changes the .mp4 footage to 4:3. 4:3 is selected on the Properties panel rather than 16:9, and I did not make the change myself.
When I play the DVD in my DVD player, it works just fine otherwise. But the picture is now 4:3. It is not squashed, where everyone looks super skinny and stretched. But rather, the image is not squashed at all, and there appears to be two 4:3 “letter boxes” on either side of the screen, covering either side of the image.
Does anyone know what’s going on here and how I can correct this?
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give!
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32 Replies
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Basically, don’t put .mp4 files into Encore. The video files on a DVD are always MPEG-2, so whatever other formats you might put into Encore, they WILL get transcoded to MPEG-2 anyway. I prefer to create the proper files for Encore from Premiere, then I have no issues in Encore like you are seeing.
From Premiere, Export your video using the MPEG-2 DVD format, using an appropriate widescreen preset from available options. The resulting files will be “Encore-ready” and should not have weird issues.
It will take the same amount of time to convert your files in Encore or using Premiere/Media Encoder, and I don’t trust Encore to do the best job so I always create the MPEG-2 DVD files first.
Also, I don’t know the source of the .mp4, but if you exported it from Premiere, that’s an error since H.264 is very compressed, and that very-compressed file will be re-compressed again for the DVD, so better to just export Premiere timeline straight to MPEG-2 DVD in the first place if you can.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thank you very much for your response!
I was rendering .mp4s from After Effects. I tend to prefer that application to Premiere so I often default to it.
The strange thing is that in none of the previous 14 DVDs where I also had .mp4s rendered out of After Effects had this issue.
The files I’m burning to DVD are utilitarian in nature, so quality isn’t that much of an issue, some minor compression artifacts are somewhat okay if I can get smaller file sizes.
But I’ll give your Premiere method a try later this evening. Thanks again!
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I doubt you can even export MPEG-2 DVD directly from After Effects. In any case, not recommended to use .mp4 as the “intermediate” file – think of .mp4 for delivery only and not part of the production pipeline.
Don’t know if you’re on PC or Mac. Export from After Effects to a decent intermediate codec, like ProRes on Mac, or DNxHD or Cineform on PC. Those are basically “visually lossless”, then make the MPEG-2 DVD from that file.
Any of these intermediate codecs ought to export faster than .mp4 anyway since they are less-compressed.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
I am on a PC.
I’ve never rendered a DNxHD or Cineform from After Effects before. I’ll give that a try too.
Still not sure why it would have worked the previous 14 times though, and suddenly stop on the 15th DVD. Unless that’s just the buggy nature of Encore.
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So I opened up After Effects, and I don’t have any options to export as DNxHD or Cineform.
There is a DPX\Cineon Sequence option. But I don’t know if that’s the same thing.
There’s also an MPEG2-DVD option.
I’ll try the Premiere route for now.
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Actually I’m going to try rendering an MPEG2-DVD out of After Effects first, and see if that works. If not, then I’ll try Premiere.
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I don’t have AE installed on the machine I’m typing on, but I think if you choose QUICKTIME as the format, then when you look under codecs you may find the GoPro Cineform option.
No DNxHD option? You should be able to export as .mxf format.
What Adobe versions are you running? If everything is CS6, then you won’t have Cineform or DNxHD pre-installed, although the latter can be downloaded and installed from the Avid site.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Everything I’m running is CS6. I’ll try to look for those options again later this evening. Again, thanks for your responses here!
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With CS6, you’d have to install the codecs yourself.
Avid QuickTime codec for Windows here – https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE
Install with Adobe apps closed! Avid DNxHD should then be available under QuickTime next time you use Adobe.
With CS6, I used to get Cineform by installing the free GoPro Studio software. They have some new app now and I don’t know if that installs the codec or not anymore.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
So rendering the MPEG-2 video from After Effects gave me an XMPSES File, an Adobe Prelude XMP file, and a Wave Sound file. I’m not really sure what to do with all of that, so I think I’ll give the Premiere option a go instead.
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