Encore Is driving me mad!!

[Daniel Ludwig]

Robert,
let´s start with the easy things:

1.) 720×300 is wrong for DVD, NTSC has 720×480 by spec
2.) MP4 is totally wrong – DVD has MPEG2 video by spec

in both cases Encore is going to transcode your video in the right direction.

to use MP4 is even worse, as you are use a highly compressed format to create another highly compressed format. you will have loose of quality by this as well.

so you should re-think your workflow and learn the DVD-specs.

1. export your video using a high quality (mostly uncompressed) codec. create a MOV- or AVI-file using apple pro res (on mac) or maybe AVID DNX (mac+pc). avid codecs are available for free on the avid-website.

2. use AME (adobe media encoder) MPEG2-DVD-presets to create the MPEG2-SD-elementary videostream and a dedicated AC-3 dolby digital audio-stream.

3. start a NEW DVD-project in encore. at one of the first sceens you could set the project-settings. there you´ll could set transcoding-settings as well. make sure they are set to NTSC video and dolby AC-3 audio.

4. author the project

NOTE: as soon as you´re input-files will NOT fit the DVD-specs Encore ALLWAYS will transcode the video and audio, as they NEEDS to fit the specs, otherwise you wont be able to create a DVD.

cheers

danny

[Michael Scalise]

Hello…looking for some guidance and parameters when exporting for Blu ray with Adobe Media Encoder….

With DVD exports I normally used CBR of 7 for a final project of one hour…usually gets me up to 1 hour 20 min if needed

Want to find similar setting for Blu ray exports…Blu ray MPEG 2 or H.264 Blu ray?? which one to use?? what is a good CBR bit rate for high quality…for one hour program.

Other suggestions??

Thanks!

Michael Scalise
Black Tie Productions

[Daniel Ludwig]

Michael,
CBR is OK, if you have less content that should fit on the DVD/BD, if you have more content, that should go on the disc, and your bitrate would go below a dedicated bitrate/quality, then VBR usually will be used.

if you would like to author a BD I would advice to use H264, as it has much better quality at approx. half the bitrate of MPEG2. especially if you have a lot of detail in picture and fast motions H264 will win.

the codec H264 is newer than MPEG2 and has a lot advantages.

usually hollywood-BDs have a bitrate at arround 22-25Mbit VBR. you should use some headroom in VBR because it tends to have high peaks that might go over the max. allowed bitrates. 28Mbit to 30Mbit as max bitrate is far enough. 40Mbit for video is allowed max. by BD-spec. 48Mbit incl. audio-and interactive-graphic- (IG)-streams for 2D-BDs.

danny