[Tobias Andersen]

Perhaps it’s actually better to export the avi at the target resolution (since it’s PAL it’s 720*576 and a aspect ratio of 1,458) – previously I’ve had to crop 14 pixels from top and bottom from my source in 1920*1080, because I was getting vertical black bars on the sides.

Perhaps I don’t have to do the cropping when exporting the avi prior to making the MPEG2 DVD export?

Conrad: I don’t seem to have that option of 24 fps when exporting – and I think it may be safer to do 25 fps anyways?

[Tobias Andersen]

I can’t really tell any differences between this export and with the other method (where I manipulate the timeline) – so that’s pretty nice 🙂

I think I do have an alpha, though not intentionally, and I don’t need it – I got a title on top of nothing/black a few times in my project which I think causes this – in the .avi it looks a little strange at the edges of the text. I think it needs to be premultiplied – but when I import it in Premiere Pro it looks fine – and the final outcome also seems to be fine in this regard.

So I suppose it’s not a problem I did 32 bit, apart from the increased file size (will do 24 bit in the future)?

Many thanks for your help 🙂

[Tobias Andersen]

Thanks for your suggestions 🙂

I just tried to export the clip in 24 fps to try your first suggestion – I wasn’t entirely sure on the format to choose, but I chose Microsoft AVI and set the codec to ‘None’, I ticked ‘Maximum Render Depth’ and chose 32 bit (probably not necessary).

Apart from the large file size (it’s 20GB for 1min and 45 seconds) – are there any problems doing it this way?

I’d asume I could use some losless compression for the same quality – but if there aren’t any problems with the way I did it, I don’t think I will change it for now 🙂

It seems to be working fine (with the audio sped up to 104.1%).

[Tobias Andersen]

Many thanks for your reply 🙂

I am using Premiere Pro CS5, and I export from here by going File>Export>Media, it may be using the Media Encoder by doing this, I’m not sure?

I did try with the automatic framerate based on source, but for some reason it still seems to be outputting at 25 fps (it does say 24 fps for source in the export settings – but in output it says ‘F Fps’ for some reason when I choose this framerate setting). I assume it’s best to go with 25 fps though for PAL.

Regarding the method I posted, how important do you think it is to create a new sequence with 25 fps with a copy of my stuff in the 24 fps sequence (and with a change of framerate of the clips), as opposed to just using the 24 fps sequence (and also change framerate of the clips)? The problem is that I have many titles in my sequence and they are getting shortened too when pasting into the 25 fps sequence – so if I could just use my 24 fps sequence I wouldn’t have to change much.. but I’m unsure which effect this has on the export?

Thanks again.

[Tobias Andersen]

Okay, thanks for your help 🙂 I tried to make a new sequence with a framerate of 25, and then I copied everything over to this and went to ‘interpret footage’ and set them to 25 fps too.

This caused a mess in my timeline though (many small holes inserted), so I had to do a lot of small adjustments – but the export does seem smooth now without frame interpolation.

It’s not a worthwhile solution though as it’s too much work I would need to do again if I need to do some other changes to my project – but I think it will work for this time 🙂

Another option could be to just use NTSC instead – haven’t all DVD players for a long time been able to handle both NTSC and PAL?

[Tobias Andersen]

Sounds good 🙂

I do have one minor issue though with my DVD which I just tested on my TV. Perhaps you can help me out with that too 🙂

The problem is that my source footage is 24p (1920*1080), but I have been making a 25p MPEG2-DVD PAL Widescreen export (25 fps seems to be the only option when exporting) – so I used frame blending to smooth out the result (it was choppy on my PC without it).

This gives a bit too much motion blur though, so I was wondering how I could do the export in a different way so I don’t have to use frame blending?

Is there a way to speed up the entire sequence I have (both video and audio) so that it plays at 25 fps instead of 24 fps?

[Tobias Andersen]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply 🙂 It was very helpful.

I do have the original project, but I wasn’t aware that I could do it in Encore directly.

I added the files and made an iso which I burned with ImgBurn – it seems to work perfectly now.

Do you think there are any risk of ‘confusing’ some standalone DVD players by having some extra files in there? Or will these files always be completely ignored?

[Tobias Andersen]

I was also thinking to go with CBR – but I wondered if there could be compatibility differences between VBR or CBR? I would guess it doesn’t matter, but I seem to get a little mixed opinions on that topic when i google it.
I also sometimes get the feeling that I could use a higher bitrate than those 6-7 mbps and it would still playback on the vast majority of DVD players – but I guess I’m better safe than sorry 🙂

[Tobias Andersen]

oups, posted this reply in the wrong place (see the right one below) 🙂

[Tobias Andersen]

The method with cropping seems to work alright so I think I’ll just stick with that, it’s a very easy solution 🙂 Would you use CBR or VBR for the encoding?