[Jeff Pulera]

Looks like Encore wants to Transcode your material, so something is not up to spec in the assets from Compressor. And for 4 hours to max out a dual-layer Blu-ray, must be encoding at the top of the scale. There is a point of diminishing returns when encoding for Blu-ray.

I’ve encoded videos at 20mbps that to me looked very good, so it’s not like encoding at 30 or 35 or 38 is going to look twice as good. No need to push the max. Try 30 for instance.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Matt,

Due to the way GB are represented (or shall I say mis-represented) a 50GB disc has a capacity that is somewhat less, just as a 4.7GB DVD holds more like 4.3GB in reality. So at 48GB, that has to be pushing the limit to start with. Of course that doesn’t explain the 65GB figure, but just saying.

So anyway, how many hours of footage do you have that you need to max out a dual-layer Blu-ray? A 25GB disc can hold about 3 hours at good quality. Any motion menus that can require a lot of extra space if not careful?

I don’t always trust what Encore tells me. What is the actual size of the ASSETS you brought into Encore – did you encode from Blu-ray right out of Premiere, Dynamic Link, what was the workflow?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Tommy,

Is your source footage 1920×1080 or 1440×1080? You suggested it was the latter, however that wrong Sequence Settings might have been used when you set up the project originally. You can right-click a clip in the Project Bin to see the clip specs. Can also right-click clip and select “New Sequence from Clip” to ensure that the Sequence matches the source video.

If the source is indeed “anamorphic” HD, meaning the pixels are not square, you do NOT want to export as anamorphic. More often than not, it will not play back correctly as 16:9 when you do that. You want the 1.0 Pixel Aspect Ratio, not 1.333 PAR.

Whether source is 1920×1080 or 1440×1080, export as such: Choose H.264 for Format, and for Preset, scroll down to the bottom of the list and choose “YouTube HD 1080p25”. This will use 1920×1080 with 1.0 PAR. Expanding the 1440×1080 source to full 1920×1080 will not hurt anything.

Alternately, one could also choose the “YouTube HD 720p25” and downsize the 1440×1080 to 720p. Then you can check the “Max Render Quality” box to assist with downscaling.

And back to NTSC or PAL, just MATCH the frame rate of the source when exporting, so use 25 in your case.

Don’t over-think the whole process. Edit with correct Sequence setting, export using proper YouTube preset. Simple.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

The “Green” drives are all about POWER SAVINGS versus PERFORMANCE of the “Black” drives. Green drives will spin down every chance they get. Just not ever recommended for video editing which needs constant, reliable throughput without interruption.

Ht – I now understand your suggestion to use proxy editing, as you stated your computer is a “dinosaur”. I think most folks on the forum on using something at least from the current decade, so when they have performance issues, we look for solutions other than proxy editing which would be a crutch when perhaps there is a better solution to their issues.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Ht,

The ONLY format that works for Encore without transcoding is “MPEG-2 DVD” which results in an .m2v video file and either .wav or .ac3 audio depending on your settings. If using a regular “MPEG-2” video export format, that is incorrect and will need to transcode (encode AGAIN) in Encore.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Going to have to disagree on proxy editing. That is typically used when the source footage is very heavy, such as RED camera footage, then the workflow may support a proxy situation. I’ve been editing NLE since the late 90s and have NEVER had any need to use proxies, seems like a whole lot of unnecessary extra time, fuss, drive space.

First, do NOT use the Green drive for video capture/editing, they suck. Get a Caviar Black instead. Turn off Indexing on the video drive.

Next, H.264 is very highly compressed, so for playback/editing, it takes a lot of processing power to decode each frame. I don’t know what you use for capture, but if you can capture as an .avi instead, that may solve the problems. The files will be larger – however, being less compressed, they are much more edit-friendly. But don’t use uncompressed, you do need a compressed codec.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Agreed to remove or disable anti-virus, number one killer of performance, and no to 5400rpm drives. However, there is nothing wrong with a 7200rpm SATA drive if it’s a performance model such as WD Caviar Black or Seagate Barracuda. Do not use “green” drives!

You didn’t say what Premiere Pro version you are running – make sure that you have GPU hardware acceleration enabled, makes a very big difference in performance.

And where did you get H.264 files that are 55mbps – Source?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

John is right, USB will not output live video, must use HDMI or analog. Slight correction, Component video WILL output 1080i if camera supports it, not limited to SD (Composite and S-Video are SD-only).

On a PC desktop, the BlackMagic Intensity Pro will work if you have an open PCI-e slot to put it in. Provides capture from HDMI or analog sources, plus output as well. Records as uncompressed or “Motion-JPEG” .avi – you will want to use the latter for sure, as uncompressed HD files require expensive drive arrays and are unnecessarily large.

Most cameras will send video direct from sensor to HDMI output before it ever gets compressed to camera format, so output is 4:2:2 uncompressed. Then you record to a 4:2:2 format with Intensity and really keep the quality up.

The Matrox MXO2 Mini is another capture device I rely on myself. Costs more, but provides a nice aluminum desktop breakout box, plus if you edit with Premiere it includes several plug-in effects.

EDIT: I’ll second John’s motion to look at Atomos, I use Ninja 2 and it works great to record HDMI source to ProRes 422, ready to edit.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

No Dynamic Link since there is no “Encore CC”. Just export from Premiere using “MPEG-2 DVD” format and import results into Encore. You can certainly create the chapter points and poster frames right in the Encore Timeline.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Santiago,

If you want to alienate your customer, then by all means charge them to put the drive they paid for on your shelf, so that they can pay you to do more editing with the footage on the drive later. Seriously, unless you have an office the size of Saul Goodman’s, I would not bring up storage with the customer, seems petty.

Jeff