How to avoid full re-render after small changes in some files

[Joe Bowden]

Encore does not delete transcoded files after building a DVD.

Which version of Encore are you using?

[Brodd Nesset]

I use v1.5

What happens is: my project is assembled out of ca. 40 DV-files. Upon transcoding, a folder for each file is created, and in each there is one MPEG2-file, amongst a few other files. A main folder with the name of the project is wrapped around it all. Even when I do minute changes to the menus only, and save the project under the same name, the contents in the main folder is deleted immediately when I select ‘Create Disc’. I can see this in Windows Explorer, and it happens every time. 4.2 Gb of perfect and already rendered files is not ‘good enough’ for Encore?!?!?

The same happens if I change say one of the forty DV-files; adjusts its length for instance.

[Dave Friend]

Brodd,

One small change in your work flow might help. I suggest that you not import AVI files into encore. Instead, encode your DV avi files to mpeg2 files and import these mpeg files into Encore. You can tell Encore not to transcode these files further. You will find DVD builds go a lot faster. Then the type of changes you describe will become trivial instead of an ordeal.

You have to manually do some bit budgeting before you encode to mpeg so you know that all the video will fit on the DVD. There are numerous online resources that will help you with that task.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[Joe Bowden]

Here, I think, may be a clue:

“Even when I do minute changes to the menus only, and save the project under the same name, the contents in the main folder is deleted immediately when I select ‘Create Disc’. ”

Which folder are you referring to? The original project folder, or the new project folder created when you did a SaveAs?

[Joe Bowden]

Transcode in Premiere or transcode in Encore…you have to wait somewhere.

No, working with AVIs in Encore is perfectly valid and efficient…Encore does not need to re-transcode. Something else is going wrong for Brodd.

[Dave Friend]

[Joe Bowden] “Transcode in Premiere or transcode in Encore…you have to wait somewhere.”
True but if you import an mpeg file into Encore the Transcode Status will be set to Don’t Transcode. Logically, Don’t Transcode does not apply to avi imports.

[Joe Bowden] “Encore does not need to re-transcode.”
And yet it is.

Brodd, does the project window show a Transcode Status of Transcoded prior to starting the build?

[Joe Bowden] “Something else is going wrong for Brodd.”

Perhaps it is the selection of Automatic for the transcode option? does it seem possible that, for some unknown reason, Encore is deciding that in order to fit the disc it has to transcode again?

Brood, are you using Automatic for the transcode setting?

Dave

[Joe Bowden]

Dave, there is some other problem occurring.

If you transcode an AVI and save the project, you should never have to transcode it in that project again- this is regardless of whether Automatic or a transcoding preset is used.

I’d like to find out the nature of the problem Brodd is seeing, not work around it.

[Dave Friend]

[Joe Bowden] “you should never have to transcode it in that project again”

Agreed. That has been my experience. However, I haven’t used Encore to create a DVD with 40 or so timelines either.

[Joe Bowden] “this is regardless of whether Automatic or a transcoding preset is used.”

Maybe, maybe not. With the large number of assets that he is using I don’t find it impossible that the Automatic function is deciding that things need to be juggled to make the fit. I’m not saying that is the problem. Just an avenue to explore.

[Joe Bowden] “not work around it.”
You imply the creating mpeg instead of AVI files for use with encore is a work around. If that is your thinking, I beg to differ. Personally, I find it much more efficient to export mpeg from Premiere. Then I don’t have to wait first for the AVI export and then again for the mpeg encode. Secondly, I don’t have what can be rather large avi files taking up drive space. Thirdly, I can use the encoder of my choice instead of the Main Concept encoder employed by Encore. But hey, that

[Brodd Nesset]

Thanks for replies guys. I’m in the middle of a re-render right now – groan… This could make a difference or not:
– I do NOT use ‘Save as’ for my edited project, only a simple ‘save’
– The DV files are on an external disk, while the transcodes are built on the internal disk – side by side with the Project file.

BTW I opt to use DV-files out of Premiere since the total length pushes the limit for what I can fit onto a disc, and Encore is so convenient in shoehorning it in automatically. Still it should not owerwrite its own files (transdodes) when they are perfectly OK already.

[Dave Friend]

[Brodd Nesset] “The DV files are on an external disk, while the transcodes are built on the internal disk – side by side with the Project file.”

Maybe it is the external drive? Have you used this drive on other projects without re-render issues? I don’t see why it would matter but you never know.

What does the Transcode Status column in the Project window indicate before you begin the disc build? Does Encore ‘see’ the files as Transcoded?

Dave