Best footage quality?

[Victorypoint]

Just right-click on the video asset in Encore and select a transcode setting or go to transcode from the File menu. Try a 7Mb VBR1, VBR2, or 8Mb CBR setting and see if that improves the video.

-AJ

[Benjamin Tubb]

I’m just gonna elaborate a bit on the above post…

When you put footage on a DVD, it usually needs to be an MPEG2. If your file is not already in this format, Encore can convert, or ‘transcode’ it for you. I’m not sure if you’re outputting from Premiere in MPEG2, or if you’re letting Encore do it, but either way, your problem is in the transcode settings. Personally, I like to export my footage from Premiere as MPEG2, but I can’t really help you with that as I use PP2, and I can’t remember if it’s the same on 1.5.
Anyways, let’s say you bring a file into Encore. It will be sitting in the project window as an asset. You can right click it, and set the transcode settings, either by choosing a preset, or setting your own options. A few things to keep in mind:

CBR (Constant Bit Rate) Generally yeilds better quality, but bigger files, as opposed to VBR (Variable Bit Rate). Also, the higher the bit-rate, the better. It’s also best to choose a higher buffer. Out of the presets, the 8MB CBR 1 pass will probably be your best bet. When choosing VBR, you get an option for either one, or two passes. Remember that transcoding to MPEG files is a compression process, and each pass further compresses the video. So the more passes you have, the smaller but uglier your file will be.

One last thing: Encore 1.0 doesn’t seem to like Quicktime files, as it forces you to transcode them right when you import. Other files let you wait until later.

Hope that helps…

Ben Tubb

“Of course, I could be wrong. In fact, I’m probably wrong.”