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Encore and 1080p Files
Hi there and greetings from Europe!
For close to 15 years now I have been using Sony’s Vegas and DVD Architect to edit and author what I call our little video diaries: footage we shot while on vacation in America or Africa. Over the years I could not help but recognize that especially the DVD Architect has a lot of limitations. However, with a little tool programmed by a fellow user I was able to keep on working with the 1080p files my camera records and at the same time author menus, just like I was using “regular” BluRay templates.
Nevertheless, two years ago I started working with After Effects and now for the first time I also looked at Adobe Encore. Compared to Sony’s DVD A it seems to offer a lot more options, so I am really tempted to give it a shotand at least download a trial version. However, before I start investing time in exploring (and learning) a new software, I would really like to know if there is ANY way to work with Encore and keep my 1080p files. I know they are not part of the “offical” BluRay standards supported by Encore but maybe one can generate his / her own template? Mind you, I do not need to actually burn BluRays, all I need are iso files
Thanks for your help
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7 Replies
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1080p60 or 1080p30?
In a Blu-Ray project, En will re-transcode any asset that isn’t spec. So 1080p60 will get transcoded, 1080p30 will not.
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Thanks Jeff,
neither nor, it’s 1080p50 and I guess that would be transcoded down to 1080p25, meaning I’d loose half the quality of my footage. Is there really no way to “override” this transcoding?
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You have 2 choices that won’t degrade your footage very much.
1. Export your 1080p50 footage from Sony or Ae as 720p50, which is a BD-legal frame size/frame rate combination.
2. Export your 1080p50 footage from Sony or Ae as 1080i25, which is also a BD-legal frame size/frame rate combination.Choice #1 downscales the footage to 720p, which some HDTVs will do anyway if their native resolution is 720p. Downscaling is not nearly as harmful to video as upscaling, so you should be pleased with the results.
Choice #2 should work well because the exported frame rate is exactly half of the source frame rate and is easily converted to interlaced by most decent editing and SFX programs. The reason for that is that the editing program has 2 full frames of 50 fps video information from which to build 1 new full frame of 25 fps video. No interpolation required. So even if your 50p video contains cross-frame motion that might seem choppy at 25p, it should look pretty good at 50i.
Make sure to let Sony or Ae transcode the footage to BD-legal H.264 as part of your exporting process. Encore CS6 does a terrible job of transcoding. If you import BD-legal assets into En, it will not transcode them and your footage will be authored untouched by En to Blu-ray Disc.
Cheers,
Jeff -
thanks again, Jeff, I will at least give it a try
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Jeff, I just read your advice again
2. Export your 1080p50 footage from Sony or Ae as 1080i25, which is also a BD-legal frame size/frame rate combination.
Choice #2 should work well because the exported frame rate is exactly half of the source frame rate and is easily converted to interlaced by most decent editing and SFX programs. The reason for that is that the editing program has 2 full frames of 50 fps video information from which to build 1 new full frame of 25 fps video. No interpolation required. So even if your 50p video contains cross-frame motion that might seem choppy at 25p, it should look pretty good at 50i.
so first you suggest to downscale to 1080i25 and then you talk about 1080i50 – do I miss something?
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Hi Klaus,
You didn’t miss anything — I made a mistake. Sorry.
1080i25 is not the correct terminology; I should have said 1080i50. The standard terminology for 1920×1080 video running at 25 interlaced frames per second is 1080i50, which counts the fields per second and not the frames per second.. I’ve always thought that was confusing, and I proved it again in my last post!
So that’s what I think you should try: export to H.264 with a 1920×1080 frame size and a frame rate of 25 interlaced frames per second.
Cheers,
Jeff -
thanks once again, Jeff, that explains it
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