[Jeff Pulera]

Perhaps try formatting USB stick as FAT32 or NTFS once and see if that might work. Maybe ExFat is not supported?

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

My reply will be biased because I’ve never been a Mac user, however I am on this and many other video forums every day, and have been editing on PCs for nearly 20 years.

1. A Mac typically costs somewhat more than a PC with similar specs.

2. A Mac usually has less configuration options, harder to update after purchase.

3. Mac users seem to have more headaches with Adobe products, based on posts I read every single day on Adobe forums. For instance, OS updates have caused major headaches for users recently.

4. “PCs overheat”. So do some cars. It’s all about the cooling system. This is not an inherent problem with PCs. Silliness. Don’t believe everything you read on the world-wide inter-web.

5. “The case is not that strong”. There is more than one PC case out there. Maybe hundreds to choose from actually. Some are cheap, some are well-built. Get a decent case, it’s a good investment.

My base recommendation is an Intel Core-i7 based PC (Z170 chipset, or step up to X99), with minimum16 or 32GB RAM., SSD Boot drive, GTX 1060 (6GB) display card, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, 2TB or more of video storage. RAID drive recommended, either internal or many external USB 3.0 options available specifically for video editing performance.

A system like that might run around $2K or so to start. Of course, you will have options of faster processors, more cores, RAM and hard drive size, display card upgrades, etc. to consider. In any case, get an ample power supply, say 750w minimum.

Disclaimer: my employer builds custom PCs for Adobe users. Would also recommend looking at Puget Systems for turn-key machines. Don’t get an off-the-shelf PC from a warehouse or big box store, get something meant for editing.

Thank you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Lieven,

I would not recommend letting Encore transcode your video. Users say that Premiere/Media Encoder does a better job than Encore. My workflow has always been to encode to MPEG-2 DVD right from Premiere. The resulting .m2v file is DVD-compliant and therefore Encore will NOT need to transcode it.

So, if you start a New Project in Encore, and you Import video assets that are already encoded as Progressive, they will be burned to DVD as Progressive (even though default is interlaced) since they will not be transcoded. Works for me every time.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Did you bring the HD file into Encore for transcoding? If so, I would try a different workflow. From Premiere or Media Encoder, convert to MPEG2-DVD Widescreen Progressive, with a bitrate appropriate to the program length (for 30 min., I would use CBR 8.0). Check the box for Max Render Quality as this helps with the scaling. Make sure you encode as progressive and don’t change frame rate.

Regarding the animated photos, did you start out with images larger than the Sequence? Meaning if working at 1920×1080, were the stills substantially larger to maintain quality when scaling and moving? If there is a high amount of detail in the stills, I’ve found that adding a very small amount of Gaussian Blur in Photoshop can greatly improve the animated results (no flicker in details when scaling). Use 0.1 or 0.2 setting (don’t blur the original, use a copy in case you need to go back).

Lastly, never preview a DVD on a computer to judge quality- the software used and monitor resolution can all do bad things to the output. Burn a DVD and play it on DVD or Blu-ray player connected to HD display using HDMI (never RCA analog). This is how I “proof” my DVDs, the way the client would view them. If end user is meant to view on a computer, then give them an HD-quality .mp4, no reason to view DVD on a computer really.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Just watched your video again, which I had not seen in several days, and noticed that the background is all still images, no video. If you are not using any video, then why the 1440×1080 sequence, with 1920×1080 export? Would be better to use 1920×1080 consistently throughout the process then.

Just seems that there may be multiple workflow issues happening at once, adding to the poor output quality.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Andrea,

I believe I understand the cause of the problem – your Sequence is Progressive, while the Export is Interlaced (Upper Field First).

Are your source video clips 1080i or 1080p? I see you are using 1440×1080, which suggests maybe the source is HDV tape? That is typically 1080i.

I might also question whether the 29.97 frame rate is correct – which country are you working in? Most countries other than US and Japan use PAL video, while 29.97 suggests an NSTC country.

Please right-click a source clip in the Project Bin and select Properties – what are the specs of the video?

When exporting to H.264, you almost always want to use Progressive rather than Interlaced, because computer displays are not interlaced and do not display 1080i video very well. You want 1080p or 720p files for computer/online viewing.

Thank you

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

“an AVI file format is about 700MB for a normal length movie of an hour and a half.”

The above is from the link you provided. I’m trying to figure out – on what planet would a 90-minute .avi be only 700mb? That is funny!

Seriously, all I can think is that perhaps the article is so old that they are talking about the “postage stamp-sized” videos from the olden days. They never mentioned the resolution. Certainly not talking about SD video. So please, do not let that article influence your thoughts, it is way off base to anything modern.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Andrea,

I see what you mean, even the background motion is jerky. Please post a screen shot of the Export Settings for review.

Also, perhaps try turning of GPU Acceleration once – that can sometimes cause export issues.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Assuming you are editing 1080i or 1080p video, for me that would mandate that the display be 1920×1080, to eliminate scaling artifacts. All other factors aside, I’d at least want a full HD display to start with.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Doug,

If you are using any 1080 clips in the project, and you want to export as 1080, then definitely go with the 1080 sequence. What happens for instance when using a 720p sequence is that any 1080 footage in that sequence gets bumped down to 720p and if you later export as 1080, the 1080 clips do NOT get back their original quality – they behave as if they were 720p to start with and need to get upscaled with all the other clips.

If you copy/paste contents of sequence to new 1080p60 sequence, the 1080 clips should be just fine. If you have already applied “Scale to Frame” or “Set to Frame” to any other clips, they would scale to the new sequence automatically.

I’ve not used Instant 4K software, so I don’t know how that operates. Might need to turn off scaling for those clips then.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers