[Daniel Ludwig]

hey dan,
there are a few issues over here!

1. what cam did you use for shooting? was it an HDV-cam, or any cam that uses anamorphic HD (1440×1080)?

2. if you used HDV your native resolution is 1440×1080 – it will be displayed using quicktime-decoder with 1920x1080px. HDV is an MPEG2HD-codec with long GOP.

3. 1080i is declared by spec as upper first, so you need to handle these interlaced lines all the time during your postproduction. if you would like to go progressive, you need to use a “deinterlace”-filter, but you´ll loose half resolution. simply said: don´t do this!

4. if you would like to create a DVD it´s the best way to go to scale down before you encode your video for DVD.

5. DVD-spec allows MPEG2 elementary streams, SD 720×480 for NTSC and 720×576 for PAL. so to use H264 gives you another generation with all it´s loose of quality. you need to create a user-preset within adobe media encoder that use upper field first for MPEG SD NTSC.

6. don´t use dynamic linking from premiere to go to encore.

so the most easy way would be:

a) export selfcontained mov out of FCP (same settings as source-material for yor sequenz)
b) downscale to NTSC SD (using FCP or Premiere or maybe AE)
c) import downscaled MOV into adobe media encoder
d) create M2V + AC3 using adobe media encoder with upper first
e) author your DVD with encore and the previously encoded assets

by the way: you might have a look at your SD-picture-quality of your HD-image. somtimes you need to reduce the picture-quality by using H- or V-blur (filter), as HD-picture is far to sharp for SD DVD and will result into flickering text or graphics.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Hey Bill,
sorry, but I wont agree with what you say according the frame-buffer! there are standalone-player that wont do this.

if you are jumping from one title into another the player will go black by spec. it´s also described within “BD-demystified”-bible. some player (mostly the newer once), will keep the last picture (within the buffer) and will show the first frame of the new title as the player have reached it, but this in no common progress.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

peter,
what you are looking for is segmented based reencoding! this could only be done with high-end-encoding-software like rovi totalcode or CCE HD for a lot dollars.

otherwise you need to encode the entire timeline all the time.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Hi,
you need the entire CS Suite-Installer, there is no standalone-Encore-installer.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Johannes,
sorry for the misunderstanding – I´m mainly a MAC-user, and the best way to work on mac is to use apple PRO RES, as it´s a high quality codec at a very low bitrate (similar to avid dnx). when I wrote the post – I´ve forgotten you could use other codecs instead of uncompressed AVI, for example avid DNX or quicktime-export to photo-jpeg.

the problem that you had could have more than one reason, so I started with the most common one.

other possibilities: bad media, wrong GOP-structure and also to preview a 25fps-disc on a computer is no good, as the player mostly deinterlacing the picture and finally – computermontiors could not playback 25fps correctly, as they are pepared to show 60Hz or 70hz.

and could be possible that I have been misinterpreting premiere-sequenz-settings – as I´m mainly a FCP-user. could be possible that DV-PAL just a declaration for the aspec-ratio – and similar to AfterEffects you are setting the output-codec and the field-dominance within the output-module to export the film. within FCP you have a dedicated sequenz with field-dominance and the dedicated codec that you use.

cross my fingers that everything will be fine on the replicated disc.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

hey lotte,
if you have 155min video and you use AC3-audio, you could easily use an average of 6.5MBit and use a VBR up to 8Mbit (peak rate), so you wont overfill your DVD-9.

if you would like to stay at DVD-5 you need to have an average rate at approx 3.5MBit – that´s no good! I would advice to use DVD-9.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

johannes,
there is an workflow-issue, no more, no less!

you´ve wrote:
this was imported into premiere, interpreted to 25p DV PAL Widescreen etc as stated above

there it is: DV-PAL never is progressive!! DV PAL is lower field first – allways (because of the specs of the codec itself)

so if you encoded your material progressive this is definitivly wrong!

by the way – to use DV-PAL-codec is the worst thing you can do, as it significantly reduce picture-quality, you´ll see this especially on typos. DV-PAL only is 4:2:0 instead of 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 for uncompressed video.

your workflow should be like this:

1.) 1080p23.98-> interprete footage as 25fps while importing into premiere
2.) create a new user-sequenz-setting that has no interlace and no DV within the settings, not even in the preview-function, 720x576px PAL Widescreen

3.) edit your film

4.) export to selfcontained movie (MOV or AVI) with no default-setting, you need to create a progressive user-setting

if you are on MAC choose apple PRO RES HQ (or use sequenz-settings), if you are on PC use AVI uncompressed YUV8bit

5.) use AME to transcode your progressive video to M2V and AC3.

6.) import it into encore and author.

cheers

danny

PS: you might get in touch with me on skype, here´s my nick: dannyoman

[Daniel Ludwig]

johannes,
you didn´t answer my question yet! what is your source-material HD 1080? shot on what kind of cam? AVCHD? P2? what resolution? 1920×1080 or 1440×1080?

if you shot in HD, you should scale-down before encoding to SD PAL MPEG2, and heaven – forget about PCM or MPG audio importing into encore! you need to transcode to AC3, never use the automatic transcoding!

by the way – encore will allways transcode to lower field first, even if you´ll have HD with upper first – there is no automatic field-shift !!

if you´ve recorded 1080psf25 (progressive segmented frame) – you are 1080i50, so you need to care about interlaced lines prior downscaling, and you need to downscale interlaced, not progressive, otherwise you´ll get interlaced trouble!!

cheers

danny (from germany – PAL-country 😉 )

[Daniel Ludwig]

there could always be a short gap beween MPEG2 and AC-3-files as AC-3 has an equal structure like a GOP within your video.

cheers

danny

[Daniel Ludwig]

Lotte,
to use subtitle for this is just a work-arround, as subtitle have no anti-aliasing and doesn´t look as good as when you create the typo within your NLE.

what is the whole duration of all 10 films? did you try authoring DVD-5 or DVD-9?

what bitrate do you use for encoding? audio have been transcoded to dolby AC3?

all these could help you to have as much space as necessary to get all 10 films on your disc.

cheers

danny