[Vince Becquiot]

Well, Nero might not be of much help here. First it doesn’t really play well with mpeg2 files, and it may want to recompress them. The second issue is that 2 hours is a lot for a single DVD; quality won’t be at its best.

I would try burning with Premiere directly then, Premiere does have DVD templates as well (better than Nero).

The settings you should use (assuming it’s exactly 2 hours) are:

VBR 2 Pass

Min: 1.35
Average: 3.45
Max: 8

Audio PCM

Let me know of the exact length if you want better settings; also the render will take quite a while.

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

Good, so now, tell me about the project. Are you planning on putting it on a DVD ?

If so, the new settings will depend on the length of the video. If it’s under an hour, you can use the same settings.

Do you have a third party DVD authoring software such as Adobe Encore? Are you planning on using menus?

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

Yes, we talking firewire then, another term for ilink.

All right, so: Let’s work with DVD, since I’m not really sure your system can handle an export to tape at this point.
If you are working in NTSC DV (I’m assuming you are in the US), make sure your project is indeed NTSC DV 29.97, lower field first. Now, set a small work area of say 5 minutes, then select your timeline > export > Adobe Media Encoder

Format: Mpeg2 DVD
Range: work Area
Skip to the video Tab
Quality: 5
TV Standard: NTSC
Frame rate 29.97
Field order: Lower
Pixel Aspect ratio: 4:3
Bitrate Encoding: CBR
Bitrate: 8Mb/s
Keep the default GOP settings

Click ok, and choose a folder where the DVD files will be saved.

After the render is complete, go to that folder, and right click on the m2v file and choose open with Windows media.

You won’t hear audio, since it’s a separate file.

How the quality?

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

I actually forgot to include the interlace file, to add a bit of a more realistic look, that should be inserted between the viewfinder and the video.

https://www.kaptis.com/media/web/Interlacing.psd

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

For binoculars, you can use the circle effect, increase radius, add feather, change blending mode to stencil Alpha.
Also see second post in this thread for viewfinder overlay.

Cheers,

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

I actually made a simple one a while back. You can do a “save as” on the Gif below (720×480) and import it in Premiere, then apply the “Blue Screen Key” effect to it. It’s no award winning design but you get the idea 😉

Here are the original Photoshop files if you want to tweak the settings.

https://www.kaptis.com/media/web/Viewfinder_with_record.psd

https://www.kaptis.com/media/web/Viewfinder_NO_record.psd

Cheers,

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

What I meant by analog capture was: Was it captured through Firewire, or through a video card input like RCA or SVideo?

Firewire is good, but analog capture software usually uses a third party Codec, and that can be an issue.

The external drive can also be a problem, especially when exporting to tape, since the data rate likely isn’t high enough, and is putting extra weight on the CPU. So, that’s for the export to tape.

But that wouldn’t explain issues for DVD burning (well the analog input would)

So, one last thing, can you put the original video that was captured through Gspot and tell me what the codec is?

Also, if you play the original video by itself on Windows Media player, how is the playback ?

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

You can always use the “remove unused” function, that should take care of some of them.

Premiere can’t remove files that are in use, so removing duplicates and replacing them with the first version automatically would probably be asking for trouble.

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

All right, so yes, the system can be capable of a smooth playback to tape, although, a single laptop drive on a P4 would be borderline. I would make sure the drive is well defragged and has plenty of free space. An external drive might cause issues here. So, these are videos you have shot yourself? Once the footage is rendered, how is the playback in the preview window.

“Jump cutting, freezing, skipping” does sound like a codec issue, but if you are getting the footage directly from a DVCAM or miniDV tape, then it should be fine. This isn’t coming from an analog input right?

Once we have this part solved, other issues might include a wrong field order (lower first for DV), a wrong project setting (are you using the default NTSC DV 29.97?), or if none of these are solutions, you may just be looking at a need of a new install.

Cheers,

Vince

[Vince Becquiot]

So, by export, do you mean Firewire, or render? By freezing do you mean the entire application, or just the video.

The reason I ask, is because in there you mentioned camera, DVD, and tape. Tape / camera would be Firewire, DVD would be either Mpeg2 export, or direct burn from Premiere.

BTW, what are your system specs? The requirement for real time in Premiere are much higher that Movie maker.

Vince