Mpeg2

[Craig Seeman]

Export in Animation or 10 bit Uncompressed and put that in your compression app of choice. Episode, Squeeze, Carbon Coder, etc.

You might consider reading the PLEASE READ at the top of the forum.

At this point all we know is that you have an unknown version of AE on an unknown OS with no known compression apps on your system and have no idea why you haven’t chosen or had success with unknown compression app.

Had you provided that information you might have had an answer rather than another round of questions.

[Ryan Stone]

Apologies, I was in a rush :s

I’ve got AE CS4 on Windows Vista, currently using Sorenson Squeeze. The Mpeg2 option on AE doesn’t go larger than 720 x 576. Ive exported a lossless file, and put it in Sorenson, again standard Mpeg2 doesnt go larger than 720 and I’m not burning it to Bluray. Just don’t seem to be able to find a straight high quality Mpeg2 setting.

[Daniel Low]

MPEG-2 does not support that resolution. The closest you will get is 1280×720
Why does the client want it in MPEG-2?

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Two years from now, spam will be solved. – Bill Gates, World Economic Forum 2004

[Daniel Low]

Like I said, the resolution you want is not supported by the MPEG-2 spec. Why does your client want MPEG-2?

__________________________________________________________________
Two years from now, spam will be solved. – Bill Gates, World Economic Forum 2004

[Ryan Stone]

All his computing platforms are Linux based, I guess that’s something to do with it? All the formats he asked for were slightly bizarre, Mpeg2 was the only one I could find in AE/Premiere/Sorenson! It’s done now though, his display stretched the video a little but hasn’t created any noticeable distortion.

Thanks for your comments guys,

Ry

[Craig Seeman]

In Episode Pro I took a source and encoded it to 1280×1024 MPEG2 Program Stream. The various players played it as 1280×720. In Quicktime Pro Window/Show Movie Properties Video Track, I deselected Preserve Aspect Ratio and typed in 1280×1024. The result was an MPEG2 Program Stream which played as 1280×1024.

“Non standard,” certainly. Can it be done? Yes.

[Daniel Low]

I assume you have the Quicktime MPEG-2 component installed? Do you think it would play if you didn’t?
What does the Apple DVD player do with it?
Did VLC play it as 1280×720?
Strictly speaking, Episode shouldn’t have allowed you to create a non-standard output, it’s great that it does, but it should warn you or something.

__________________________________________________________________
Two years from now, spam will be solved. – Bill Gates, World Economic Forum 2004

[Craig Seeman]

[Daniel Low] “Strictly speaking, Episode shouldn’t have allowed you to create a non-standard output, it’s great that it does, but it should warn you or something. “

Episode is dangerous that way. It’s actually one of the roots of its (unique) power. So many people need “non standard” things that Episode basically does what its told. It leaves it to you, the operator, to meet the specs you’ve been handed.

[Daniel Low] “Did VLC play it as 1280×720? “
That’s what VLC did.

[Daniel Low] “What does the Apple DVD player do with it? “
Haven’t tried. I’ve never used it for Program Streams.

[Daniel Low] “I assume you have the Quicktime MPEG-2 component installed? Do you think it would play if you didn’t? “
Yes and not sure. Problem is I have too much stuff I need on my systems which can be dangerous when testing compatibility.

In Ryan’s case he was handed an odd spec to meet and as odd as it is, it can be met.
True the client can be completely wrong, not understanding the spec or . . . they could have a proprietary device. I’ve seen A LOT of that. Odd devices with their own software and then the user hands off encoding to somebody else who doesn’t have the device or proprietary software.

Sure, I’d question the client first and if they insist then you hand them what they asked for and bill them.
Heck the client may not know the difference between MPEG1 and MPEG2 for example (or MPEG4 part 2 vs part 10 either).

I ran into a recent issue with a noteworthy software company that was using what I consider an “odd” spec with ffmpeg creating Flash like files. I created a file in spec and showed them the difference. They claimed that AVC and H.264 aren’t at all related (they were looking at a metadata description).