[Jon Barrie]

I am going to make a guess here.
Both of you are exporting to DV. DV is compressed and therefore shite. It always has been and always will be.
AE is probably spitting out an uncompressed with alpha (from drop down list) which will look amazing. It is uncompressed = no quality degredation. Basically;
Uncompressed – Quality 1.
*DV (a form of compressed) – Quality 1/5th of Uncompressed.
*DVD (MPEG-2 another compressed form) – 1/40th of Uncompressed.

*All compression makes the file size smaller because it’s forfeiting quality in colour samples per frame and freezing parts of the the frame to not recalculate (sample) every pixels change every single frame.

It’s starting to frustrate me how many “Editors'” out there have no education in basic white papers of editing and compression.

– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

If you’ve got a legal copy you should be able to run the autorun window to install all the discs back to back from disc 1. There is no need to ask each disc to install it’s contents. You’ll get a message to put the next disc into the drive.
– Jon 🙂

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

Without seeing it for myself. I’d say the file needs rendering because it’s not a native codec for the apps.
FCP for example needs a Mac rendered QT file. A PC rendered QT file won’t always come up properly. I would use the standard DV NTSC codec not the DVCPro version. There is something in that codec that isn’t being recognised natively.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

720×480 is the real pixel frame size. The other apps are taking the down res of the height aspect ratio (0.889 AKA:0.9) and telling you what it will screen as (640×480). This is the size that PPro works in too, but it tells you the real frame size and then the aspect ratio to work off.
There is nothing wrong with PPro. It’s pretty weak that the other apps aren’t telling you what the real frame size is….
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

Here’s the problem. It’s 4 mins long.
This is a quick guide to guess how big a file will be @ a given Constant Bit-Rate.

Forumula:
(y = KB/sec)
y x 60sec = z
z x mins of video = W
W x 0.80 (80%) = your total size

ie:
(y = 3000KB/sec)
3,000KB x 60 = 180,000KB (180MB)
180,000KB x 4mins = 720,000KB (720MB)
720,000KB x 0.8 = 576,000KB (576MB)
Your goal is 500MB this is too big a rate.

To go Backwards now…(hehehe)
You have a goal = 500MB or 500,000KB
So…
500MB / 0.8 = 625MB
625MB / (4) mins = 156.25MB (MBper min)
156.25MB / 60 = 2.6041667MB (MBper sec)
So your target to make the 4min clip fit down to 500MB is about 2.6MBper sec

You will need to work off a VBR and make the low end of your Rate around 2MB and the Upper end about 3MB and the target to try and stay around 2.7MB

– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

I know you can keep the same clip on a server and then the PDF will keep linking to that one, but as far as spitting out notes in the PDF without rendering I don’t know about that? You’ll have to run a test in tricking the PDF by naming it exactly the same. With the notes you’ll have to render out something so it have an idea of TC placement (maybe black video?). Run some tests.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

I use clip notes all the time. I embed it into the PDF and post it on my FTP server if its too big for an email. I use the MOV preset in Medium Quality – looks great. I work on an XP CS3 Prod Prem and am sending it to clients on both win and mac OS. No Probs.
The win people need to have QT installed, it’s free and everyone should have the latest version installed on any computer mac or PC.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

It sounds like it’s not a true type font or adobe open type format. SO….
If you can get it to work in Photoshop make the titles there and import them into PPro.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

The original suggestion is where I’d start, but then I’d add the add or screen compositing function to the footage that is blurred. To find the compositing effect in cs3 you need to use the compound arithmetic effect. This will give it a dreamy glow instead of just looking like a smudgy quality only blur does.
– Jon 😉
PS: You could animate the opacity up and down to show the dreamy effect trying to wear off but not quite getting there smoothly.

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?

[Jon Barrie]

DVD is Mpeg-2. So it is native in EncoreDVD and won’t need to encode. Faster EncoreDVD workflow to burning.
There is:
VBR for Variable Bit Rate
and…
CBR for Constant Bit Rate.

The higher your Bit Rate the better quality you have.
It all depends on the length of your project. The shorter it is the higher the bit rate at a constant level CBR. You can go upto 9Mb/s MAX, but 8Mb/s is just as good and will not have potential ‘bitrate too high’ errors.
VBR can give you a great looking DVD by compressing more (using less Mb/s) when the image doesn’t change much and then using more Mb/s when there is heavy motion all adding up to a longer project with less space.
You will have to test the settings for yourself. But the Presets for MPEG-2 VBR High should look pretty darn good compared to the CBR High.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?