Adobe Encore spontaneously switching from 16:9 to 4:3 during Build

[Jeff Pulera]

So I don’t get why you are using AE for this. On the rare times when I find myself forces to use AE, I find it complicated to just do a simple export…too many settings to mess with and possibly get wrong. And if you are basically just converting a file with little to no editing or effects, why not Premiere?

As for the 5.5 hours, either the computer is old/slow or After Effects is slower at exporting than Premiere, but without any PC specs I dunno.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jaeson Jrakman]

Mainly just personal preference. I find the workflow in AE much better than premiere. lol I find Premiere to be overly complicated in export in the same way. ☺ It probably boils down to the fact that I work much more often in AE than Premiere.

So, now I have a choice to either render out an MPEG2-DVD or a QuickTime DNxHD out of AE. When I choose the Avid DNxND Coden, there’s a quality setting. I’m going to choose 100%

I’ve changed the aspect ratio from 854 to 720.

Here’s my computer stats:

3.20 gigahertz Intel Core i5-4460
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
6144 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. H81M-H
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
UEFI: American Megatrends Inc. F2 08/10/2015

16286 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot ‘ChannelA-DIMM0’ has 8192 MB (serial number 9D3C8884)
Slot ‘ChannelA-DIMM1’ is Empty
Slot ‘ChannelB-DIMM0’ has 8192 MB (serial number 870A1119)
Slot ‘ChannelB-DIMM1’ is Empty

[Jeff Pulera]

Core i5 explains part of the slow export. Is this a laptop? What drive are you using for video clips? With any NLE, should always use a fast, dedicated media drive and not the system drive. If using C: drive that will be a performance bottleneck.

Changing 854 to 720 is changing the frame size – the Pixel Aspect Ratio is different and refers to shape of the actual pixels, meaning square or rectangular. You must set this correctly also, should be 1.2 for NTSC DV Widescreen.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jaeson Jrakman]

So I have my QuickTime, adjusted to a 720×480 aspect ratio. I import it into Encore as a timeline. Encore automatically detects the footage with a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than a 16:9 aspect ratio.

I’ll try exporting out of After Effects as an MPEG2-DVD and see if I can get a different result.

[Jaeson Jrakman]

The MPEG2-DVD is rendering much faster. I’m getting a 2 hour render time.

[Jaeson Jrakman]

Okay, so after doing some additional reading, I think I might know what the problem is here, and it boils down to aspect ratio.

The original footage I had was 854 x 480. Like you said, this is a weird aspect ratio. I downloaded the footage from YouTube, so I think what happened here was the guy who uploaded the footage, reduced the size of the widescreen file by giving it this weird aspect ratio.

When I import this footage into Encore, it initially reads the 854 x 480 as 16:9, but then when I hit the build button it says, oh wait a minute, this is really 4:3, because 720×480 is close to that size, and is 4:3.

So I think I need to render footage at a 16:9 dimension that Encore will read as 16:9 during the build. The lowest 16:9 aspect ratio I know of, that Encore might easily recognize, is 720p. But I could also try 1024×576 or 1152×648 too. I might even be able to go down to 896 x 504. Here’s a list of true 16:9 resolutions:

https://pacoup.com/2011/06/12/list-of-true-169-resolutions/

[Jeff Pulera]

Jaeson,

…..I’ve been authoring DVDs for 18 years….I am providing the exact details on how to succeed, but you keep wanting to do your own thing….good luck then…..

PS – 720×480 is NOT an “aspect ratio”. Terminology matters.

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

I was cranky earlier, apologies.

DO THIS:

1) Open Premiere
2) Create a NEW SEQUENCE, using DV NTSC WIDESCREEN preset
3) Go to Sequence Settings,and change FIELDS to NO FIELDS (PROGRESSIVE)
4) Import your .mp4 clip and drag into timeline. If Premiere wants to adjust to match clip, say NO!
5) Does your clip properly fill the screen? If not, we’ll need to fix that
5) Go to File > Export > Media
6) Select MPEG-2 DVD as the FORMAT
7) For PRESET, choose NTSC DV WIDE PROGRESSIVE
8) Set bit rate accordingly
9) EXPORT

For video under 60 minutes, just use CBR 8.0 encoding

For longer vids, use 560/minutes = bit rate, but don’t exceed 8. At some point, 2-Pass VBR makes sense. Or use a bit rate calculator – https://dvd-hq.info/bitrate_calculator.php

Thanks

Jeff

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jaeson Jrakman]

No sweat about getting cranky. We’re all human. Happens to all of us.

Anyway, just saw this, and the “aspect ratio” thing I was talking about earlier worked out, even though I used the wrong terminology. I’m happy to be corrected though.

For some reason, Encore just did not like that goofy 854 dimension. This time, it didn’t automatically render at 4:3, and kept the 16:9.

I’m glad that you posted the instructions for Premiere though. I do need to practice more in Premiere than I do, so I will be referring back to this thread in the future, and use that. Thanks for posting it.

I didn’t notice much of a difference in build time with the Avid DNxHD codec in a Quicktime though.

I’m a bit of a slow study I’m afraid, but overall this has been a very helpful and information packed thread. Some of the information you laid out is a bit over my head at the moment, but I’ll absorb it over time as I come back to this thread to reference it any time I burn a DVD. Lots of good stuff here.

One question though for future reference, is your preference for the Avid DNxHD codec in a Quicktime, or for the MPEG2-DVD with the separate .wav and .m2v files? And why?

[Jaeson Jrakman]

Nope, this is a desktop computer, not a laptop, and probably a few years old now.

Currently I’m using a One Book for my dedicated footage drive, Drive L.

I’m a bit fuzzy on the square vs. rectangular pixels matter I’m afraid.