DVD Replication/Duplication Questions

[Ricky Barrow]

DVD Replication uses a process of glass mastering and is typically as you say for mass replication. DVD Duplication burns DVD’s and is cheaper. Glass mastering used to be and probably still is more accurate, meaning these DVD’s are more likely (more guaranteed) to play more reliably in all players.

I believe it depends on the company as to what they will take – in earlier days it started off as DLT tape was required but many companies now accept burned DVD’s to replicate from and most will accept DVD’s for duplicating.

To truly pass the inspection stage used at companies it is recommended to burn a folder from Encore and use something like Nero to burn the actual DVD. Encore only burns a Video_TS folder to the DVD and while there is no information in the Audio_TS folder, companies typically want to see that. Also, while I do not understand the difference, a burning software like Nero puts information on the DVD that is more acceptable to companies.

The file you have will go into Encore just fine and we have found with Encore 5.1, that letting Encore use Adobe Media Encoder to transcode the file to DVD spec. is faster and more reliable than doing so just within Encore.

Hope this answered your questions or at least gives you some insight for further research or for others more knowledgeable to add more information.

Ricky

[Tyler Foulkes]

Awesome thank you, I just want to clarify a couple things, are you suggesting that I burn a folder from Encore and then use that folder to burn a DVD in Nero or should I just burn the folder onto a disk and send that as my master or do you think I can just get away with burning a DVD-R from Encore if the replication service takes DVD-Rs as masters? Also I am editing my movie in Final Cut Express do you think exporting my movie in Apple TV format would work well with Encore or should I just use Adobe Encoder and convert my HD files to MPEG-DVD format and then put it into Encore?

Thanks,
Tyler

[Ricky Barrow]

You can try burning a DVD from Encore – if your particular company does not object or flag any issues, then you are good to go. We just recently had a company reject our disk and after a lengthy conversation, discovered they were happier if i used a burning software like Nero. So you can start with Encore nurned DVD until you have a DVD rejected, then when/if you ever have one rejected, you will know the solution is a burning software.

When using burning software like Nero, you want to use the option in Encore under the Build Tab “DVD Folder” and you can burn that to a folder on the desktop. Encore will place a Video_TS folder (just like it would in making a DVD) in the folder on your desktop. The burning software, specifically for us, Nero, has a “DVD Video” option that opens with an existing Audio_TS folder and Video_TS folder. You simply open the Encore created Video_TS folder and copy/drag all contents to the Video_TS folder that exists inside the burning software (probably for MAC that might be Toast?) -BUT the burning software isn’t burning a folder to the DVD as in data disc – it will be burning a Video DVD.

I cannot help much with FCP into Encore – we use Avid and export a QT reference, allowing Encore to see the highest quality video with no transcoding/exporting/compressing – through the QT reference, we tell Encore to transcode the file to DVD spec (mpg2) using Adobe media Encoder – hopefully someone will read this and can help with FCP to Encore. However, I would use this one simple rule – garbage in/garbage out …. saying this: the higher quality file you can start with, the better the DVD transcoded file will be. I believe Pro Res 422 is really good.

Ricky

[Tyler Foulkes]

Thanks, I have exported my film to Mpeg-DVD from 1280 x 720 prores and there are black pillars on the either side of the video, does this go away when burnt to a DVD or should I export in a different format/dimensions? Also either way I burn my DVD whether it be Toast or the combination of Toast and Encore I will end up with a DVD-R that is playable in a DVD player the only difference will be there is going to be an Audio_TS folder for the replicators to see if I use Toast correct?

Thanks,
Tyler

[Ricky Barrow]

Not sure about your first question – hopefully daniel ludwig will jump in here.

Yes to your second question.

Ricky

[Eric Pautsch]

Replication is physically pressing a discs while duplication is burning discs. The difference is the amount of reflectivity in the pits and lands.

The discs you will be making are 720×480 16×9 anamorphic. They will need to be encoded with the 16×9 flag set as well.

When you deliver to a replicator, you will need to supply DDP image files. See the manual on how to export these out of Encore.

The AUDIO_TS is basically useless. Its was intended for the DVD-AUDIO format which fizzled out years ago.

[Ricky Barrow]

The AUDIO_TS folder is basically useless, was fizzled out, BUT one replicator we use demands it be there – I do not claim it needs to be there and we have had many successful replications and duplications with no complaints about that folder missing, however, a new client for us is using “their” replicator and that is what was required from us to move forward … I just threw out that information in case he uses a replicator that has similar issues – most companies have advanced beyond that.

Ricky

[Paul Nordin]

The thin bars on either side of your video are a result of a pixel aspect dimension mismatch between the square pixels in your ProRes source file and the 1.21 aspect ratio needed for MPeg2 NTSC widescreen DVDs. They will NOT go away in the process of burning/duplicating/whatever. They are baked into the video signal.

I’m sure there are more elegant and easy ways to get rid of them, but the solution I would use is this:

• Import your ProRes file into an After Effects project.

• Create a new composition using the NTSC Widescreen preset. Make sure your new comp has a frame rate that matches your ProRes file.
• Drop your ProRes file into this new composition.
• In the Layers menu select the option to make layer dimensions match composition. I think its in Layer/Modify but I’m not looking at AE right now. This will stretch your HD footage with square pixels to fit in a format that has NTSC rectangular pixels.
• Save the project and close AE.
• Open either Encore or AME, use the menu to import an asset. Navigate to your saved AE project and select it. A browser will come up listing the compositions in the AE project. Select the NTSC Widescreen comp you just created.
• The rest is what you would expect: select your render options as needed and render/transcode.

Sounds more complicated than it really is. But this will get rid of the letterboxing.

Cheers,
Paul

_______________________
El Mundo Bueno Studios
Film * Audio
http://www.EMBstudios.com
Emeryville, CA
_______________________

[Eric Pautsch]

Yeah….I always include it to and if I ran a replication firm it would be policy as well. However, its not needed. There were a couple of players back 12-15 years ago which had issues bu that was it.

[Tyler Foulkes]

Thanks for the procedure Paul, but Is stretching the video the only option in terms of encoding HD video into SD video or is there any other way I can get HD video into the SD format without pillars or stretched video. Is this a problem for Hollywood I mean it seems that most people who are making a full length film are filming in HD regardless but a lot are still printing to DVDs it shocks me that there is no sort of conversion that you can go through to just downsize you HD video so it can fit on the DVD in the right format.

Thanks,
Tyler