HD Footage to SD DVD

[Peter Groom]

Hi
I always put my media files through Sorenson squeeze to make DVD compliant (and field order aware) m2v files, then put them into Encore.

Post Production Dubbing Mixer

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Ryan,

You don’t want to let Encore transcode the footage, quality will not be as good as using Premiere. You must have Premiere – can’t get Encore without it. Drop the H.264 into a Sequence – make sure sequence settings match footage – then export as format MPEG-2 DVD and choose preset of NTSC 23.976p Wide.

In Export Settings panel, at upper left you will see Source Scaling – if preview window shows black bars left and right, then set to Scale to Fill before exporting.

This will create individual audio and video clips, .wav and .m2v

Make sure Encore project is set up for 24p (never done that myself)

In Encore, grab them both using Import as > Timeline

As for menus, I will usually just find an existing widescreen menu template in Encore, then use Edit in Photoshop option to change out the background to one of my choosing.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

[Ryan Walker]

Jeff,
Thanks for the solid easy to follow info. Out of curiosity what is the benefit of using Premiere over Adobe Encoder? Seems like it would be easier to pop them in Encoder and roll. There must be a reason so many people recommend Premiere.

Finding Scale to Fill in Encoder is like an Easter egg hunt. I’m blow away at how hard it was to find. Much easier to see in Premiere.

[Jeff Pulera]

I never use Media Encoder as a stand-alone, as pretty much everything I work on is already in Premiere for editing so just in the habit of doing encoding from there, not familiar with where the Scale to Fill might be in AME.

The general consensus from forum users is that you will get a better quality encode from Premiere/Media Encoder than just dropping random files into Encore and letting it transcode for you. Something about a different engine under the hood, not sure if that’s true.

For me, the benefit of putting DVD-legal .m2v assets into Encore is this: once I am done with menus, I can literally create an .iso file on my drive in like 2 minutes!!!! No waiting for a long transcode at that point, it’s already been done so it will not slow down my DVD authoring process at all. The .iso can be previewed in VLC Media Player. And then burn with third-party software, or skip the .iso (image) and Build to DVD right from Encore, but either way you bypass that long encoding process (most of my event video DVDs are 90-120 minutes). Encoding from Premiere gives me a breather before tackling the DVD process, and I get immediate results then. I like that workflow. Rather than wait a long time for a test DVD, then find out there is a menu mistake an hour later.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Ryan Walker]

Yep, I never transcode in Encore. Fully aware of the pitfalls there. Appreciate the detailed advice, great stuff Jeff.

[Ryan Walker]

Huh, I followed this and still ended up with a letterbox. Am I missing something?

[Jeff Pulera]

Where are you seeing letterbox, DVD player to HD display? How is that connected, analog RCA? Sometimes the DVD player will have a menu setting where you have to tell it whether to output 4:3 or 16:9.

Best results will be had by using a DVD player (or Blu-ray player) with HDMI output – those have upscaling hardware and will provide a much better picture on HD display than older player with analog outputs, in which case the display just blows up (pixelates) the image and it can look quite nasty. Not to mention aspect ratio issues with older players.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Ryan Walker]

Blu-ray player with HDMI cable. I am working with an older widescreen TV. Maybe it’s the settings on the TV. I will try a few other sources.

[Gabriel Lamy]

Hi, I got a similar problem…

I want to put a HD video on a DVD with Encore CS6. I red all of your messages, and tried with 7-8 dvds, but all of my dvds finished with a 480p pixelated. I tried .iso image, nothing!

I realised that Encore CS6 on DVD is on default at 480p… and it seems I can’t change that! The only changes I see are for the Bluray section…

Important point: On DVD-mode, Encore will transcoded your files: NTSC… or Automatic! There’s not an option for not transcoding. However… bluray does have this option!

How can I get a beautiful 1080p with a DVD ?

Thanks.

[Peter Groom]

I think your issue is that you aren’t giving encore DVD compliant files so it has to compress.
If you put your files through something like I use sorenson squeeze and add m2v DVD compliant files and an ac3 audio file it will give you the option to not re encode ( unless they’re too big for the DVD author)
Nb. You’ll never get beautiful 1080p files on a sd DVD. 1080 p is hi def so must be for blu Ray.
Peter

Post Production Dubbing Mixer