[Jeff Pulera]

5.5 hours sounds extreme, but I don’t know :

A) what your computer hardware is like
B) what kind of footage you are working with
C) what effects might be applied

Also, it is unusual to export as 854×480 for DVD, as DV NTSC widescreen is 720×480 with a 1.2 Pixel Aspect Ratio. Encore especially is expecting 720×480 whether using 4:3 video (0.9 PAR) or 16:9 (1.2 PAR). I don’t know what will happen if you throw 854×480 at it, never tried.

I should add that yes, if exporting for online or computer viewing, then you want to use square pixels (1.0) and you would/could use the 854×480 for widescreen video. But not recommended in a DVD workflow which uses 720×480 only.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

As I wrote yesterday after you said your apps were all CS6, those do not natively offer Cineform or DNxHD like CC does, however you can manually download and install other codecs onto your machine, (see my post).

When you export MPEG-2 DVD, you will get multiple files, but the only TWO that you need for Encore are the .m2v video and .wav audio and just disregard the rest, you don’t need them. The beauty of this method is that the video is “DVD ready” and should not get transcoded. The .wav audio by default will be converted to Dolby Digital AC-3 without you doing anything. Once you hit BUILD it goes quickly since only the audio gets converted. I can BUILD a 2-hour DVD project to a ready-to-burn .iso file in like 2 minutes flat!

In Encore, select Import as Timeline and then multi-select the .m2v and .wav files and that’s it, proceed with authoring.

I’ve been using Encore for many years, making both 4:3 and 16:9 DVDs and I’ve never had it confuse the two, and I do NOT ever do any manual setup of Encore. I start a New Project in Encore, and import my .m2v video and it just KNOWS whether it is 4:3 or 16:9, never gives me any grief in that regard and I don’t mess with any settings. Just works.

Just whatever you do, don’t import .mp4 files into Encore, just not a good workflow even if it may have worked in the past, just trust me on this, you are compression the video twice, losing time and quality.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

With CS6, you’d have to install the codecs yourself.

Avid QuickTime codec for Windows here – https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/download/Avid-QuickTime-Codecs-LE

Install with Adobe apps closed! Avid DNxHD should then be available under QuickTime next time you use Adobe.

With CS6, I used to get Cineform by installing the free GoPro Studio software. They have some new app now and I don’t know if that installs the codec or not anymore.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I don’t have AE installed on the machine I’m typing on, but I think if you choose QUICKTIME as the format, then when you look under codecs you may find the GoPro Cineform option.

No DNxHD option? You should be able to export as .mxf format.

What Adobe versions are you running? If everything is CS6, then you won’t have Cineform or DNxHD pre-installed, although the latter can be downloaded and installed from the Avid site.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

But what are the specs of the editing hardware? Maybe it’s not up to the task.

Something else to consider, Dynamic Linking just by it’s nature could be slowing things down. It could actually be faster to export to an intermediate codec from After Effects, then continue working on that new clip in Premiere rather than trying to tie it all together between apps and having to render out the final product going through that complex pipeline.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

For external desktop video drives, look at brands that are meant for media work such as Glyph, G-Technology and LaCie. They do have fast, single 7200rpm drives available at a decent price. If the budget is really tight, these are certainly better than trying to use the C: drive (never recommended).

What kind of 4k are you dealing with? It might be just 100mbps, or could be ProRes or similar format that going to create much, much larger files and the higher data rate of such files will require faster drives to keep up (RAID as Andy said).

A RAID is not a bad idea anyway regardless of footage being edited – faster drives never hurt anyone! At a minimum, look for a 2-drive RAID 0 setup. The data is not protected, but 2 drives working together are much faster than a single drive. For instance, G-Tech G-RAID, Glyph Studio RAID, and LaCie 2big units.

There are also 4-drive RAID units which are faster yet, and most of them will then also offer RAID 5 mode, which does offer protection in the event of a single drive failure.

And you have to consider the interface. If your PC is a few years old, then most likely looking at using USB 3.0. Many newer drives have Thunderbolt 3 now, but that won’t apply to you. But a USB-C interface will work since it is also compatible with USB 3.0 ports (they will will include a cable for that).

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I doubt you can even export MPEG-2 DVD directly from After Effects. In any case, not recommended to use .mp4 as the “intermediate” file – think of .mp4 for delivery only and not part of the production pipeline.

Don’t know if you’re on PC or Mac. Export from After Effects to a decent intermediate codec, like ProRes on Mac, or DNxHD or Cineform on PC. Those are basically “visually lossless”, then make the MPEG-2 DVD from that file.

Any of these intermediate codecs ought to export faster than .mp4 anyway since they are less-compressed.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Basically, don’t put .mp4 files into Encore. The video files on a DVD are always MPEG-2, so whatever other formats you might put into Encore, they WILL get transcoded to MPEG-2 anyway. I prefer to create the proper files for Encore from Premiere, then I have no issues in Encore like you are seeing.

From Premiere, Export your video using the MPEG-2 DVD format, using an appropriate widescreen preset from available options. The resulting files will be “Encore-ready” and should not have weird issues.

It will take the same amount of time to convert your files in Encore or using Premiere/Media Encoder, and I don’t trust Encore to do the best job so I always create the MPEG-2 DVD files first.

Also, I don’t know the source of the .mp4, but if you exported it from Premiere, that’s an error since H.264 is very compressed, and that very-compressed file will be re-compressed again for the DVD, so better to just export Premiere timeline straight to MPEG-2 DVD in the first place if you can.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

What Dave said, except is using PC it’s the CTRL key to drag and insert clips

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Once in while, I will get an Encore project that just does not work right no matter what I try. At some point, I will cut my losses and start over with a New Project and then it works perfect.

You had a corrupted project most likely.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers