David Burch
Forum Replies Created
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I hadn’t heard of that drive. Unfortunately I already bought the LaCie one, as it seemed to be the only real option for the Mac as far as external drives go. I was just wondering if anybody had tested that drive with Encore CS4 yet and knew definitively if it works better now. If not, making an ISO and burning in Toast is still an option.
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Thanks for the reference! I’ll be sure to check it out 🙂
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How are you compressing the footage? Are you using MPEG-2 or H.264? Or are you simply letting Encore do the compression for you? If possible, I would recommend using a program such as Compressor or MPEG StreamClip (if you are on a Mac) to do your compression before importing the assets into Encore. Just be aware that Encore doesn’t like the H.264 clips that compressor makes, so the only way to make a Blu Ray-compliant clip with that program is by making an MPEG-2 For Blu Ray. Here’s a link to a video tutorial on how to do that:
https://www.mefeedia.com/entry/macbreak-165-macbreak-blu-ray-encoding-in-compressor/10989759
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Transcoding or re-compressing? I understand that the file format is different in terms of the flags and data wrappers but does that mean that the actual video information needs to be changed? I guess what I’d like to know is what it is about XDCAM EX video that is non-compliant with Blu Ray spec, and am wondering if it is possible to simply “conform” the already-compressed video to become Blu Ray-compliant.
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Ok, correct me if I’m wrong on this, but this is what I think you are saying: 24p video is encoded on a dvd as paired fields but is still 24 frames per second? That would make sense, as a set of paired fields from a progressive source would still appear progressive when viewed together, and would allow for an easy 2:3 pulldown to be applied during playback. Adding fields would only occur when adding a pulldown from 24 to 30 fps, as far as I understand it. Going the other way around would require removing fields. Am I understanding this correctly?
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I haven’t used Encore yet but I may be able to offer some advice. I normally use Apple’s DVD Studio Pro for authoring, and as such have developed a workflow of creating two sets of assets for menus: one for editing and one for authoring. Since DVDSP doesn’t support layer effects from Photoshop, I usually flatten the image to a .tiff or .png first before using it as a background. Or, if I am using a motion background I will create all my motion graphics in Final Cut Pro or Motion and them render them using Compressor to .m2v files before importing them into DVDSP. That is, I try to do as much design work outside of DVDSP as possible and only import assets that are already compressed and ready to burn.
Using this same kind of method may help improve your quality using Encore. This is just a guess but I think the reason you are seeing poor quality has something to do with the way Encore is encoding your assets. Instead, I would recommend compressing your menu assets outside of Encore first, using whatever program you think produces the best results, and make sure Encore is not re-compressing when you build the DVD.
Another thing I do, which I don’t know yet if Encore will support or not, is build all of my buttons outside of DVDSP and create overlay files for the highlights. This is essentially an image file that is simply pure black and pure white, with the black areas defining where a highlight will occur. Then, after setting that image as my overlay file in DVDSP, I create my buttons without assets, so they are just defining an area and not adding anything visual to the menu. Anything within the area of a button that is black on the overlay file will show up as a highlight, so you can define several button highlights with only one overlay file.
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Well if Steve Jobs’ comment that Blu Ray is a “world of hurt” is any indication, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for full Blu Ray Support any time soon. I was sorely disappointed to find out upon arrival that Apple decided to opt out of the NAB convention this year. As far as I know nobody has heard anything from Apple yet about FCS3…if it is even in the works. That’s why I’m having to go the Encore route for Blu Ray for now. Unfortunately, authoring on a PC just isn’t an option for us, and neither is the $250-per-month fee for the NetBlender software. We just purchased CS4 Production Suite (for many reasons other than Encore), and I am curious to find out if the issues people have been having with Encore CS3 are truly resolved. Using toast to burn is an acceptable work-around, but it’d be nice to be able to burn and author in the same program.
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You said all video on a DVD is stored as interlaced. Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that 24p video was actually stored on the disc as 24p, which is why it takes less room and can result in less compression for the same amount of footage. From what I have heard the DVD player does the opposite of what you said…instead of removing the 2:3 pulldown from interlaced footage flagged as progressive it adds it to progressive footage when it is outputting to a TV or monitor that can’t support progressive scan. This is what I have always read to be the case anyway…
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Wait, I’m confused now…I thought MPEG-2 Program Streams were needed for Blu Ray?
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I’ve never had a problem with this. Whenever I transfer clips that span more than one card it simply joins the clips together during transfer. The only time I’ve seen an incomplete clip was when I missed a few seconds on the last card because I hadn’t realized it had switched over.