[Martin Pickett]

I understand she wants to make dvd. Two thoughts:

1. Doesn’t Encore encode for dvd no matter what format you bring in to it?

2. I do a lot of wedding dvds and haven’t had one come back yet because it wouldn’t play. I just like the picture quality of those settings listed better than mpg2 for dvd. To my eye there is a difference.

[Martin Pickett]

I have 7D also and have had very good results using 720p, H.264 instead of mpeg2 for dvd.
On your timeline hit command-M.
choose format – H.264
choose preset – HDTV 720p and 29.97 (if your camera settings were 29.97)
– HDTV 1080p if you’re going to Blu-ray
choose output name and location
scroll down the video tab slider:
the dimensions should say 1280×720
leave other settings until bitrate:
choose vbr2 pass, bitrate between 7 and 8
check maximum render quality if you have any renders on your timeline and check use previews if you rendered your entire timeline.

I found that these settings look so much better on dvd than mpg2-dvd. Plus the exported sequence on your hard drive is all together (video and audio), so you can play it, export it to Youtube or whatever.

Try it on a short sequence and see if you like it.

-Marty

[Martin Pickett]

I always assumed .mov files were the same no matter what but if I get them from my friend who output them using Final Cut Pro, they won’t import into my Premiere Pro. I don’t know why.

[Martin Pickett]

After reading more posts and playing around I figured it out. The key to adding video to a menu is this:

In Encore CS5, start with a menu template > right click > Edit in Photoshop

In Photoshop: in the Layers pane you’ll see at the bottom “Background” with a lock. This must be clicked on. (Encore inserts the video here so you will not see this “background” layer. The buttons and any other layer you have will be on top of the video). Adjust the buttons and Layers located above the background as needed then click > File > Save

Go back to Encore. The menu will be black except for the button font.

Right click in Project Panel > Import As Asset > choose your video and audio > click the menu > in the Properties pane click the Motion tab > pick whip the empty Video button to the video asset in the Project pane > then pick whip the empty audio button to the audio asset in the Project pane.

After everything is complete with all motion menus click > File > Render > Motion Menus.

This will render the video to the menu. When you click the Preview icon you will see your menu with the video playing.

This is for DVD setting – I have not tried this with Blu-ray yet.

[Martin Pickett]

I started off with Media Composer then FCP now PPro. They’re basically the same. What I like about PPro is you set your timeline for the video you are using and just drop it in. Any other formats can be dropped in on that timeline and PPro will make it work.

Exporting and Encore is a breeze. Blu-ray discs look awesome. Making menus in Encore is very easy, with a quick link to Photoshop.

One thing is to get the max memory you computer will take. PPro uses a lot.

[Martin Pickett]

Either at a lower track like Alex said, or it may be a mono track and all your audio tracks are stereo. Or vise versa.