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Best Workflow For 1080p30 to BluRay?
I filmed and edited a wedding for a friend this summer in 1080p30. I have burned blu-ray’s through compressor before by just using the default “Quicktime for Bluray” preset in compressor and then adding a job action at the end. For this project though, I would like to create a nice menu for them, so (as near as I can tell) I’m going to have to go through encore for this. I know that Blu-ray can’t technically can’t support 30p. As I understand it, if you export interlaced it puts the video into a “wrapper,” so that you don’t actually lose the progressive look. So, this has still left me a little confused. Basically, what I’m wondering is:
1. What are the best settings to use when exporting out of compressor? Obviously, I want to maintain as much quality as possible, so I don’t want to compress more than what I have to, and didn’t know if encore will have to recompress an h.264 file
2. What settings will I want to use on my encore project? I’m guessing 1080 29.97i, but not completely sure since it depends on how i will need to export out of compressor.
Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer me. This is my first time authoring a bluray in any method other than compressor, so forgive me if these are newb questions!
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6 Replies
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[Brandon Smith] “didn’t know if encore will have to recompress an h.264 file”
You might actually be working in 2997, as FCP plays fast-and-lose with frame rate anyway.
There is an option in Compressor to create an H264 element stream specifically for BluRay useage, and if you configure Encore to use that without transcoding, then that is how things will be. Its a nice workflow.
jPo
“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.
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Why Compressor? I’d suggest exporting a self-contained QT out of FCP in your working sequence settings then let Adobe Media Encoder handle the compression. It’s worlds faster than Compressor, and Encore will be happy with the files.
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This is really my first foray into authoring blu-rays, so I actually didn’t even think about using AME, but that’s a good point.
My normal workflow for a project like this would be to export compressor and use DVDSP to burn a DVD, but obviously I can’t do that this time. I’ve always used compressor since I was under the impression it was the best option for maintaining quality, albeit slower than exporting a self-contained QT file. Would using AME affect the video quality either way?
@Joseph Owens, thanks for the help. I actually imported a quicktime bluray file I created for another project into encore as a test. In the media library pane, it said “don’t transcode” next to the .ac3 audio file. Next to the .264 video file though, it said “untranscoded.” I pulled up the transcode settings for the file and it did say “don’t transcode” in the settings. Also, when I right clicked the file the “transcode now” button was grayed out. So I’m guessing that it knows not to transcode the file but was a little confused by the different verbiage next to the audio and video files.
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AME will give an output every bit as professional in less time. I always use it for H.264 encodes – substantially faster than Compressor and every bit as good looking. I’d say it’s one of the most underrated parts of of the Creative Suite.
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[Brandon Smith] “So I’m guessing that it knows not to transcode the file but was a little confused by the different verbiage next to the audio and video files.”
There was some controversy a number of years back about Encore v3 (as I recall, but everyone feel free to correct me on this) where surround ac3 were being re-encoded as stereo even if the “don’t transcode” option was selected. Can’t say that I have ever run into this, and certainly if anything similar is still going on, it is occurring at hyperdimensional time travel speeds. The latest Encore stitches stuff together fairly efficiently.
Media Encoder may be a good way to go forward, now that Apple has pretty much given up on Compressor, even dumbing it down for FCX-compatibility. Quite a few options will go away if you purchase the new stand-alone version4.
jPo
“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.
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Adobe Creative Cloud has a good discount going on for only $30 a month.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group
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