Jon Geddes
Forum Replies Created
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In all the time that its going to take you to find a “quick fix” to your problem, you could have just copied the clips into a 25 fps sequence and manually adjusted all the gaps. This is the best way to ensure that there will be no framerate or audio sync issues on the final video.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
Hi James,
I’ll see if I can address your concerns.
First of all, the way Encore programs loop points for Blu-ray discs is different than how it programs DVD’s.
For a Blu-ray disc, all the video content before the loop point is cut and placed into a separate timeline/menu. This is all done behind the scenes after you press the build button. So, when the menu is loaded, it first loads the intro part, before the loop point, then once it reaches the end of that, it has to load a separate menu for after the loop point.
A DVD disc can actually have the intro sequence (before the loop point) as part of the same menu background, so that once the loop point is reached, there is absolutely no pause at all, and is completely seamless.
The problem you are experiencing is actually unique to each Blu-ray player. Most Blu-ray players will freeze the last frame of the previous menu/transition until the next one is loaded, making a much more seamless jump, and can be almost entirely unnoticed if you know a few tricks like fading the audio down right at the loop point, and not having fast motion in the menu.
Unfortunately there are some players that will display black during that loading time. Sometimes if you burn at too fast of a speed and there are many errors on the disc that have to be deciphered, that half second of blackness can be extended. Also, its possible a firmware update to the player could correct that issue.
Panasonic Blu-ray players work great with burned Blu-ray discs, and you should not see any problems when using those.
Obviously the ideal situation would be for Adobe Encore’s development team to figure out how to program the disc so that it can combine the intro with the menu properly and not have to split them up.
There is also an issue with the Flash Export feature not being able to start a menu from the loop point, which can create some navigation problems but we won’t get into that now.
Regarding the button navigation, this should always be done manually, so I’m not sure why there is a need to complain about the automatic routing. Hopefully I didn’t misunderstand your problem with this.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
At the bottom of the build tab you will see an area to add data files to the disc during the authoring process.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
Yes it is possible. Create the menu, then set the subtitle selection in the properties of the button that changes it. You will also set the link of the button to itself, so that after it is selected, it will just continue to display the subtitle selection menu, highlighting that particular button.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
The problem is with the horrible algorithms used by the leading NLE applications for downscaling. The closest you will get to studio quality with any NLE alone is using the “Maximum Render Quality” setting in the Adobe Media Encoder.
Unfortunately with this setting enabled, it takes forever to encode, and the quality still isn’t that great compared to studio quality. You will notice issues around high-contrast areas, and strange artifacts.
If you want to learn how to do studio quality encoding using completely free utilities, please read this article:
https://www.precomposed.com/blog/2009/07/hd-to-sd-dvd-best-methods/
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
The square pixel aspect ratio is definitely messing you up. Make sure you are working with 720×576 PAL DV Widescreen throughout each program.
After Effects should detect the non-square pixel aspect ratio of your PSD file. If not, you can right click on the PSD in the project panel, then go to Interpret Footage. At the bottom, under Other Options, you can set the pixel aspect ratio that it interprets the file as.
Make sure your AE composition is also the same format (720×576 DV PAL Widescreen).
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
I didn’t realize you were in PAL land, so yes, you would be using the 720×576 preset, which has a 1.46 Pixel Aspect Ratio. The non-square pixel aspect ratio is probably what was throwing you off with the size. Just make sure your pixel aspect ratio is set correctly before starting the menu.
I wouldn’t worry about the (=1) Highlight bug in Snow Leopard yet, as this has nothing to do with the problem you are having.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
How is your main video being imported into Encore? Through dynamic link? If it is directly imported, what codec is it in?
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
You beat me to it Paul!
Chris-
Please read the article that Paul linked to. It goes into detail on walking you through the steps to achieve studio quality downconversion at faster speeds than Adobe Media Encoder with MRQ enabled.
The results are spectacular… you won’t believe what SD resolution is capable of.
At the very bottom of the article is a link to a walkthrough video tutorial done by Jeff Bellune, very helpful.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com -
You can use manual transcode settings for the video, or you can encode in the Adobe Media Encoder prior to importing into Encore.
Also, had you imported your menus and linked everything up prior to transcoding your video in Encore, it should properly calculate the amount of space the menu will take up, and encode accordingly to fit everything.
Jon Geddes
http://www.precomposed.com