best rendering settings

[Heidi Perkins]

I’m not sure what program you’re using. I have had good success with Compressor, MPEG Streamclip, and Adobe Encoder. They all have a preset for DVD or Bluray. You might or might not have to play around with some of the settings to get it to look the very best. I’ve had it go either way.

Heidi

[Simon Modery]

Do you just want to burn a AVI or MOV file on a DVD or do you want to make a Video-DVD (one that plays in a DVD player)?

Head of Postproduction
Motherlode

http://www.simonmodery.com

[Kris Merkel]

I am going to assume that you are making a DVD video disk and no matter what program you are using you will want to start with the DVD presets to get you started. From there the settings will be determined on your content.

For a 35 min piece you can use a CBR setting.(Please be aware that most mpeg 2 decoders will not be able to handle data rates over8.5 mb well and will not play back smoothly.) That way you will maximize all of the encoded bits. If your project is in HD you will also need to scale the video to SD ( the preset should take care of that) but also use frame controls and resizing filters and possibly anti aliasing. All of these will add to encoding time but increase quality.

You could also just send your sequence to Encore from PrPro

“Think of everything in terms of building capacity.”

Kris Merkel
twitter: @kris_merkel
Product Manager, Flanders Scientific Inc.
http://www.shopfsi.com
Co-Founder, Atlanta Cutters Post Production User Group
http://www.atlantacutters.com

2.2Ghz MBP core i7
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[Jeff Pulera]

To be more specific, assuming original edit is in Premiere, Export using Adobe Media Encoder and choose “MPEG-2 DVD” as the Format. Be sure it says “DVD” and not just MPEG-2 alone.

Then below that, choose a Preset that best matches your footage, for instance “NTSC Widescreen High Quality”, or Progressive, whatever.

Under Video tab, you can adjust the Bitrate, for instance 7 or 8 using CBR. Don’t touch anything else. This will create TWO files, .m2v video and .wav audio.

In Encore, use File > Import As > Timeline

Select BOTH clips together and they automatically come in together and any chapter marks made in Premiere will also import.

If you later wish to encode any program longer than 60 minutes, then you need to lower the bitrate, using a Bitrate Calculator online, or rough it using 560/minutes=bitrate.

Example: 560/120=4.66 and round result down a touch for safety and call it 4.5 and that leaves room for menu overhead and such.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Chris Artis]

Thanks for all the help!