[Bowen Llewellyn]

Bought CS4 in December – trying to get Encore to transcode DVCPRO HD to 16:9 SD correctly has been a nightmare. In fact I haven’t found any way to do it. Sonic does it easily with the same files. A shame because Dynamic Link etc has promise – however not yet delivery. By many accounts CS4 should still be in Beta (practically speaking). However my experience with Premier Pro CS4 is great – worth it over AVID just for the super fast trim handles IMHO.

[Bowen Llewellyn]

Hi Jeff – thanks for taking the time and providing some options. My edit machine is in the middle of a (5 hour!) transcode out of CS4 Media Encoder at present. The resulting movie I will test in Encore for 16:9 worthiness. If that doesn’t work then I’ll sure give your suggested method a go.

Surely though Encore should be able to transcode to full SD16:9 from DVCPROHD without such mucking around??

Thanks again for your help. Seems like I’m the only film maker in the world experiencing this problem!

Regards, Bowen

[Bowen Llewellyn]

Okay – Knowing that someone else is making it work is encouraging Jeff. I Reviewed my PAR setting in En and tried again the SD (PAL) Widescreen (1.4587). The side bars go, but there remains narrow black bars top & bottom. Also this setting stretches the picture slightly (which is why I haven’t used it).

In Premiere I simply work in the native HD Anamorphic 1.33 format and then let the Media Encoder transcode to DVD. It does this to 16:9 widescreen perfectly. Via Encore is a problem though.

Maybe someone could step through the correct workflow settings (Jeff?) I import 720P(native) from P2 card to PPro. Work in the PAR from file which is HD Anamorphic 1.333. Send the edit to En. with the problems as described. Am using CS4 with latest updates.

Thanks to all for any input – Bowen

[Bowen Llewellyn]

Thanks for the comment Jeff – but have certainly checked the 16:9 PAR box at every possible location.
Bowen