DVD issue, off topic

[David Roth weiss]

Todd,

I know Premiere, Encore, and Axio about as well as I know Swahili, but these types of things are pretty much ubiquitous and application agnostic, so I think I may be able to help you out anyway. I read your post on the Encore Forum, but will respond here where I belong.

First, you wrote: “In Premiere, to make a DVD I output a Matrox AVI, video settings MPEG2 I-Frame with a data rate of 25Mb/sec (I have tried many different output settings/types, and this type of output seems to yield the best looking DVDs here), 29.97fps, D1/DV NTSC (0.9) Pixel Aspect Radio, Lower fields first.”

I’m not sure exactly why you’re outputting an MPEG2 and then transcoding in Encore, that seems like it could easily introduce a few zillion issues into an otherwise simple equation.

When baking a cake or making a DVD, its always best to use fresh ingredients, so with that in mind, there must be a way to simply output a file from your Premiere/Axio timeline that is identical in every way to the original. Right? That’s where you need to start. So, if you’re editing DV, output a file that is DV. Then, you can allow Encore to transcode that. Try and see if the results are acceptable.

But, the more preferable way, is most likely to use the Adobe Encoder to create separate MPEG2 video and AC3 audio files, which you would then use in Encore, but with the transcode function disabled, as the files will already be encoded properly. Encore would mux the files, but not transcode in that case, which most likely would yield a higher quality DVD.

I hope this helps… If you have any questions, feel free to call me… My number is easily found on my website at drwfilms.com.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Todd Terry]

[David Roth Weiss] “there must be a way to simply output a file from your Premiere/Axio timeline that is identical in every way to the original.”

I completely agree, David… and we’ve tried it that way. We previously output uncompressed 10-bit Matrox avi files (which is the way video is captured, dealt with during editing, and the way master files for BetaCam dubbing is made). However, after decided that DVDs just didn’t look “good enough” that way, I tried outputting every conceivable type of file for DVD use, and for some reason the MPEG2 I-Frame files just looked better than any other (noticably better), so that’s the way we’ve been doing it. I’m not sure if that is the best choice, but seems to look the best.

I will play around with Encoder, will give you a shout if I have roadblocks (likely)….

Thanks….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com