Jon Geddes
Forum Replies Created
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What I was implying is that, in general, a 16:9 flag does not cause the problem you are describing, otherwise all hollywood movies would have serious issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with the encoder. What I seriously doubt is that the problem is simply from the 16:9 flag. It is however possible that the encoder has problematic algorithms when encoding 16:9 footage… again, this would be an encoder problem, and not simply a problem inherent of all dvd’s encoded with a 16:9 flag.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
I would be interested in hearing the results of a proper 24p workflow, with no pulldown in the editing process. You should be editing in progressive mode, because in your current workflow, if you need to render something, it will do it interlaced with no pulldown applied unlike what the raw footage is.
I would take those shots into a program that can remove the pulldown, in a true 24p project, transcode them into a 24p mpeg, burn and test.
We shoot everything in HD, so naturally its all widescreen, and I’ve never seen the issues you are describing. Its very possible that the problem exists in the rest of the video, but its just not noticeable because of the amount of motion or it just blends in (low contrast). Did you happen to do any effects on the wide shot that it had to render?
I’m willing to bet its a problem somewhere with your workflow and not from the 16:9 flag. Either your fields are reversed on the mpeg file, or its from the lack of pulldown removal during the editing process.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
You didn’t explicitly mention this so I am going to ask…
Did you encode the file as 24p?
It sounds like interlace issues. Either it wasn’t encoded into a 24p mpeg2 file, or somehow the fields are reversed (but this wouldn’t affect a properly encoded progressive mpeg file).
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
I don’t understand why you need to set end actions for each chapter. If it’s on the same timeline, it automatically goes to the next video on the timeline. If you remove the end actions of the chapters, and you still get the error, try starting the project over from scratch.
Import all the video and audio as assets. Create a new timeline. Drag the clips into the timeline one by one. It should automatically place chapters at each video start. You can add additional chapters if necessary. Name your disc, and try to build that.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
[Beau Brotherton] “1. Is anyone even doing Blu-Ray?”
Absolutely… at least they are here in Southern California. In fact, at the Production company that I use to do authoring for, in the last 6 months about half of their clients have requested blu-ray copies of their video, and actually decided to go with them over a competitor because they offered blu-ray.
I know there has been a lot of talk about Blu-ray being skipped over by online delivery, but in my experience, clients still like to receive a tangible product, that doesn’t depend on a fast internet connection to watch. Online delivery of content will not be the preferred method for many many years to come. Blu-ray will be around for a while, and is quickly becoming more popular as the prices for the players go down, and more people get HDTV’s.
[Beau Brotherton] “2. If so, what are your rates for producing a Blu-Ray disc? Cost per Disc? Cost for authoring/production? etc”
Most editing systems are capable of burning Blu-ray discs, provided that you have the burner. We decided to go with the Lacie External D2 Blu-ray Burner so that we could move it back and forth between our PC and Mac workstations. It supports dual layer Blu-ray discs, and is external, so it’s more expensive at close to $400.
The discs are cheaper when purchased in bulk. You can buy a stack of 25 printable BD-R discs for $226 at tapeandmedia.com. Because of the expensive price for each disc, you don’t want to make any mistakes. I highly recommend purchasing a rewritable BD-RE disc to make test burns on. They can be reused over 1000 times. Those are just $15 each.
You will also want to invest in the new blu-ray cases for a much more professional presentation, those are pretty cheap (45 cents each when you purchase 25 of them)
Thats pretty much it for cost of authoring if you will be doing it yourself. You will need Adobe CS3 or CS4. If you want some impressive 3D motion menus instead of the boring ones that come with Encore, I offer those on my website. High Definition is fully supported.
It’s really up to you as to what you want to charge your clients for a Blu-ray disc. I know many companies that don’t charge extra at all. They might offer 3 standard dvd’s OR 1 Blu-ray disc. Then you could have rates for additional copies (maybe $25 – $50?).
[Beau Brotherton] “3. Is anyone having couples request to do this. Pay to shoot in HD, then a few months later request to purchase the Blu-Ray? If so, how much would you charge to open an old/finished project and author the BR Disc?”
Yes, we did have this happen, and it depends on a few factors. What is your time worth? It usually takes a very long time to transcode the video into h264, so that could tie up your system for a day or 2 (a good task to do over the weekend). Also, you can’t charge an excessive amount. Maybe $50 or $100 for the first disc, and then a reduced amount for copies.
What we do is make an HD backup of the project, using an avi file with a good codec (we use the matrox hardware), and store that on a removable drive. This file can then be easily retrieved later, converted into the blu-ray h254 file, and dropped into our menu template. The easier the process is for you to do, the less you can charge, and the happier your clients will be.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
Use the decimal/delete key on the number pad to play just the audio in realtime. Place markers at the points that you want the camera movements to happen. You can even label the markers by double clicking on them if you think it will help. With the markers in place, it should be pretty easy to match up the movements to them. Until our computers are fast enough to render dozens of HD layers in realtime, this is the workflow that most of us follow.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
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That is just the way it functions with separate timelines. But since you are not using a menu, why not just place all the clips in a single timeline?
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
If you are authoring in Encore, then you can add an html document to the disc using the “dvd-rom content” area in the build tab. The html document could be a simple page with a message and a link to the website. You could then have a menu on the dvd that explains how to access the file. You might want to name it appropriately so they know what it is right away without even having to open it.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
I haven’t really seen any low budget ones in action besides the Primera… but here is a question; If you are going to be making thousands of copies of the same image, won’t it be much more cost effective to have the disc replicated (pressed)? Those little duplicators are ideal for copies in the 10 – 200 range. Once you need more than 300 or so, its cheaper to have 1000 of them pressed. In addition to the cost of the duplicator, you also have to factor in the cost of blank media, proprietary ink cartridges, wear-and-tear, etc…
of course, if each one of those thousands of discs needs to be unique, then yes, it might be wise to get a duplicator.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com