MPEG-2 output

[Brendan Coots]

You should pretty much always output an uncompressed version of your video from After Effects and use a dedicated compression app for the compression stage. AE sucks at rendering to compressed formats – the files are usually larger (by 200-300%) and uglier when done in AE vs. a compression program. Another reason is that, suppose for whatever reason you find yourself having to render out the video to an additional codec, say h.264 for the client to preview on the web or for your demo reel, etc? You now have to go back and re-render out of After Effects, which depending on your project could take hours, rather than a few minutes or less with a compression app.

As for what compression application to use, You might try pulling it into your DVD authoring app and do the MPEG2 conversion there, or search the web for a program that supports your needs. The format you requested is very specific so expect limited support from apps (As you found) and/or to pay for the privilege.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Greg Thomas]

Thanks, I just found one of Dave LaRonde’s old posts suggesting AE to QT Pro to m2v file. But I’m going to do a little more research.

BTW, this is on XP.

[Darby Edelen]

Alright, this is going to be a little long-winded…

These settings appear to be what you want, but there is a problem. You cannot open the resulting file in Quicktime Player… I was, however, able to view it in VLC. This may be a limitation of QT’s MPEG-2 implementation. You might need some more specifics in terms of the Profile you need to use: High profile allows up to 20Mb/s, 4:2:2 Main profile allows up to 50Mb/s and 4:2:2 High profile allows up to 200Mb/s).

Also, I agree that if you have an external encoder it would be beneficial to render out of AE lossless. Even though Adobe’s implementation of the Main Concept MPEG-2 encoder is pretty nice (although it doesn’t allow as many VBR passes as some others), you’d be able to run multiple encodes without having to re-render from AE if you render lossless first, and that’s a good thing =)

Well, anyway, the following settings should allow you to render with an 85Mb/s max bitrate:

1) Add your comp to the render queue and click on the output module to edit it.

2) You’ll need to use the MPEG2 encoder, not the MPEG2-DVD or MPEG2 Blu-ray encoder.

3) Go into Format Options…

4) Here’s where it gets a little interesting:

a) Under Basic Video Settings you must chose 4:2:2 as the Profile and High as the Level for your desired bitrates. As far as I can tell the TV Standard doesn’t affect HD, pixel aspect ratio should be square for HD though.

b) Under Bitrate Settings choose your desired settings.

c) Set the “N Frames” value to 15 and the “Closed GOP every” value to your desired value. Uncheck “Automatic GOP placement” if you want every GOP to be 15 frames (leaving it checked could result in shorter GOPs in some instances).

d) Advanced Settings… I have no idea what most of these do =)

Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA