[Jeff Pulera]

Export options from After Effects can be limited, and I’ve seen online complaints about H.264 quality when exporting from AE. Probably best to use a high-quality intermediate codec to export from AE, and then use Adobe Media Encoder to create the assets for Blu-ray, using either the “MPEG-2 Blu-ray” or “H.264 Blu-ray” presets.

If the source video is 25fps (PAL-based), then most definitely stay with 25fps throughout the entire workflow, as NTSC is 29.97fps.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Mike,

Rather than having the PLAY button point to Chapter 1, how about pointing to the TIMELINE for that video instead? And also, when you return to the default button, does that button happen to be the PLAY button?

I also have my share of fun debugging my own Encore projects, hope this helps!

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Even if they did purposely exclude one drive from the RAID as a “spare”, 3 drives provide 6TB, minus one 2TB drive for redundancy, would still leave closer to 4TB formatted, not the 2TB that the poster is reporting. Something is messed up.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Four 2TB drives is 8TB, and of course in reality they actually format a bit smaller due to the numbers game, but if they were RAID 0 to begin with, you would’ve had over 7GB formatted.

With RAID 5, the capacity of ONE drive is used for the redundancy, so 8TB-2TB = 6TB, so the 5-point something seems right for the formatted RAID 5. You should not have unallocated space, they did not include all the drives when they assigned the RAID is my guess.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I work with NTSC video and commonly create Progressive MPEG-2 DVD files and use those in Encore, and they do not transcode, don’t see why you couldn’t do the same in a PAL environment.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I would first ask, what are your intentions for delivery? What is the goal of testing all of these codecs? By knowing what you wish to ultimately accomplish, I can make better suggestions.

If you plan to deliver a Blu-ray, then just edit the native footage, then export as H.264 Blu-ray. Going to ProRes or other format first just adds compression loss/generational loss.

1920×1080 is better than 1440×1080 – a lot more resolution – however as mentioned earlier when you just watch the video on TV you may not notice at all. I have two plasma TVs, one is 720p and one is 1080p. I think the 720p looks just great and can’t see the difference, football games look amazing on either.

You originally said the test source was AVCHD, but apparently you are also working with some HDV clips? There would be no advantage of converting the HDV to full 1920×1080 really, you can author Blu-ray at 1440×1080 (anamorphic) setting and keep the original sizing.

But please let me know the purpose of the testing

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

The difference may not be obvious when just playing back the footage. Here is what I do to compare: stack the various clips on the Premiere timeline, assuming they are all exactly the same length. One above the other.

In the Program Monitor window, turn up the magnification, say 200% for starts and choose a frame of video to look at from your clip on the timeline. Now, toggle different layers on and off and you should be flipping between the same frame, but from difference sources. Look at details, focus on one thing in the image, then toggle back and forth. You should see differences in compression artifacts, detail, etc.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

My question is this – at what point do the SD clips become “HD” clips? Are the clips in an SD sequence when the “Uprez” effect is applied? If so, how then do you export as an HD clip? Just trying to wrap my head around the process.

If you could apply the Uprez and then export that timeline as a new HD clip using an intermediate codec, then drop that new HD clip into the existing HD sequence…then copy/paste the text from SD titles into new HD titles and enlarge font…ought to be good to go. There is even a Replace option in Premiere, so you could easily swap out the SD titles for HD right on the timeline, no need to position new titles or add dissolves, use what is there.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I’m at a disadvantage in offering workflow suggestions since I’m not sure how the Uprez software works…apparently a plug-in directly on the Premiere timeline? But then is that an SD or HD timeline?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

You CAN export titles from Premiere, and Import them into other projects. However, a Title created at 720×480 will remain “SD” when imported into an HD sequence. Best advice would be to Upres the SD source clips BEFORE editing them, then edit and title them in the HD sequence, using HD titles and graphics.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers