How are you making DVD's

Phil B

Phil B

Active member
I have been shooting events (weddings) with my 150 set to 720/60p. I finished editing my first one last week and everything went well except for the export to DVD. I am editing with Premiere CS4 and tried just telling the Media Encoder that I wanted a MPEG2 DVD file and set all my parameters and it did not look good. I then found the following tutorial http://bellunevideo.com/tutorials/CS4_HD2SD/CS4_HD2SD.html and I am still in the process of that right now. I exported the intermediate files late last week (watch the tutorial from about 9.20 to see the what I am talking about) and those intermediate files are being transcoded to MPEG 2 DVD files right now. They have been running for 46 Hours and still have about 5.5 hours left. HOPEFULLY they look good, but I just do not have the time to do this for a bunch of events. I am shooting more and more with the 150's and getting away from SD, but as the events pile up behind this the encoding will really pile up.

So how are you event videographers converting your 720/60p shoots down to DVD?

Thanks for any and all help....

Phil
 
Export the edited HD project from your NLE to an SD AVI file. Import the DV file into your DVD authoring program to make your DVD. I think the whole encoding process going from HD to MPEG2 DVD is not the best idea in your case as its way too time consuming. Encoding to DVAVI shouldn't be too long of a process and going from that to DVD is a breeze.
 
Have you messed with Adobe Encore? That's what it's designed for -- to create DVDs -- and it doesn't take 48 hours.

I've never used Adobe Media Encoder to attempt to create a DVD -- but I can tell you the number one reason for getting bad results from Adobe Media Encoder is bad settings. Although I hate to ever say anything nice about Adobe -- the truth is that the current version of Media Encoder is indeed very powerful and does indeed produce powerful results. The trick is to get every single one of those encoding settings set properly.

Bottom line -- export your Premiere project to Adobe Encore and you should end up with a wonderful DVD. There's also online training around that helps with Encore.
 
I don't know about premier too much, but for what i could see the problem is what Shaun1970 points out, Going from an HD file to a SD-mpeg2.
The way for me to get the best results in Final Cut Pro is to go from HD to a SD quicktime file (avi for premier) and then use that file to make your DVD's
I know is an extra step but you save a ton of time, and get better quality!
 
I thought the advantage of cs4 is that you can dynamic link your timeline to encore and render the final dvd from the original mts files (thereby only rendering once)?
 
AGMedia said:
Have you messed with Adobe Encore? That's what it's designed for -- to create DVDs -- and it doesn't take 48 hours.

I've never used Adobe Media Encoder to attempt to create a DVD -- but I can tell you the number one reason for getting bad results from Adobe Media Encoder is bad settings. Although I hate to ever say anything nice about Adobe -- the truth is that the current version of Media Encoder is indeed very powerful and does indeed produce powerful results. The trick is to get every single one of those encoding settings set properly.

Bottom line -- export your Premiere project to Adobe Encore and you should end up with a wonderful DVD. There's also online training around that helps with Encore.
Click to expand...

I know that Encore is for creating DVD's but it is just not that simple from a 720p60 H.264 timeline to say "Make a DVD" I use Encore everyday and it is a good authoring program but it is just not that simple.

I am familiar with the Garbage in and Garbage out thing. If you can come up with some settings in AME that will take a 720p60 timeline into a DVD complient MPEG 2 in one stroke please let me know. I do not think you can do that though...

Phil
 
Last edited:
Superfresa66 said:
I don't know about premier too much, but for what i could see the problem is what Shaun1970 points out, Going from an HD file to a SD-mpeg2.
The way for me to get the best results in Final Cut Pro is to go from HD to a SD quicktime file (avi for premier) and then use that file to make your DVD's
I know is an extra step but you save a ton of time, and get better quality!
Click to expand...

I am basically doing that right now, with the intermediate file. I am exporting a MPEG 2 file at 100 Mbs that is "I" frames only. Then importing that back into Premiere and creating the MPEG 2 DVD compliant file from there, which is the one that is taking a LONG time. I did it with a VBR 2 pass which means it is obviously taking twice as long. The author of the tutorial that I linked to in my first post recommends VBR 1 pass. I talked with him on another Forum and he says that 2 pass only give a Slightly better render at the expense of a much longer time frame.

Thanks for the help...

Phil
 
KnoxHotch said:
I thought the advantage of cs4 is that you can dynamic link your timeline to encore and render the final dvd from the original mts files (thereby only rendering once)?
Click to expand...

You can do that with CS4 (although I do not like that) but like I said from another post, it is just not that simple to get a good looking DVD. Is it possible to Dynamic link to Encore and then tell it to make a DVD? Yes. But the quality of the DVD will be low.

On a side note. Dynamic link is nice if you are just burning a project onto One DVD. If it is a 2 disk set then it is faster to put both timelines into Adobe Media Encoder and do them both when you do not need the computer for a little while. Then import those MPEG 2 files into seperate Encore projects in the morning and burn your DVD's. It can be useful if you are just doing one disk and want to get the menus and everything made so that your DVD is Done when you come back to your computer...

Phil
 
First, you need to be specific about "not look good" in order to identify your issue -- that could span anything from your project settings all the way through to your TV and/or DVD player.

Second, it is that simple. And, things will look fine when done properly.

Good luck. I'm sorry I responded.
 
Are you attempting to go straight from an AVCHD native timeline in CS4 to an m2v encode?

Not sure what you are doing, but if that is it, it would account for what you are seeing.
 
AGMedia said:
First, you need to be specific about "not look good" in order to identify your issue -- that could span anything from your project settings all the way through to your TV and/or DVD player.

Second, it is that simple. And, things will look fine when done properly.

Good luck. I'm sorry I responded.
Click to expand...

I did not intent for my response to come off as "Short" sorry if it did...

What I mean by does not look good is that there is a lot of compression artifacts all over the video... I exported a H.264 Blu Ray version that looks fantastic. by just going to my AVCHD timeline that is is 720p60 and telling AME that I want to export a H.264 Blu Ray file and set all the approiate setting and away it goes. It is just not that simple with a DVD MPEG 2 file. Yes you can just go to AME and export a DVD compliant MPEG 2 file but like I said it looks very compressed, like it is simply scaled down for a 4x3 tv. Adobe Premiere does not scale really well FYI.

As far as why you cant just export the DVD file from a AVCHD timeline that is 720p60 I do not know the specifics. What I do know is that it does not turn out well at all. The guy who put together the Tutorial that I linked to in my first post could probably tell you the technical reasons why you should do it the way that he demonstrates.

Phil
 
David S. said:
Are you attempting to go straight from an AVCHD native timeline in CS4 to an m2v encode?

Not sure what you are doing, but if that is it, it would account for what you are seeing.
Click to expand...

Yes David, I have a AVCHD 720p60 timline that I am trying to export. I just finished authoring Disk 1 in Encore and it looks fantastic doing everything like Jeff does in the Tutorial I linked to. Just time consuming...

Do you have any suggestions or a workflow that you use for footage that is 720p60 and trying to down convert to DVD

Thanks
Phil
 
I watched much of the tutorial to which you linked, and although the guy does indeed seem like a sensible, likeable, and intelligent fellow, there are issues with that tutorial.

To avoid a vast essay -- I'll share the simple, clunky, inefficient, and incorrect method of solving your stated problem.

Create a new Sequence in Premiere at your target DVD settings -- drop your project on the timeline -- resize what you've dropped on your timeline -- and then export it to Encore.

You can either use Premiere's resize function (Effect Controls/Motion/Scale) or some more advanced third party plug in.

Again, the above is the simple, clunky, inefficient, and incorrect method -- but with the CS4 version of Premiere (NOT older versions) this should fix "compression artifacts all over the video."

Good luck.
 
AGMedia said:
I watched much of the tutorial to which you linked, and although the guy does indeed seem like a sensible, likeable, and intelligent fellow, there are issues with that tutorial.

To avoid a vast essay -- I'll share the simple, clunky, inefficient, and incorrect method of solving your stated problem.

Create a new Sequence in Premiere at your target DVD settings -- drop your project on the timeline -- resize what you've dropped on your timeline -- and then export it to Encore.

You can either use Premiere's resize function (Effect Controls/Motion/Scale) or some more advanced third party plug in.

Again, the above is the simple, clunky, inefficient, and incorrect method -- but with the CS4 version of Premiere (NOT older versions) this should fix "compression artifacts all over the video."

Good luck.
Click to expand...


I will give your method a shot, but I have never heard good things about Premiere's ability to scale video very well. I may try it this week with a short clip and see what I end up with... If it really is that easy that would be awesome, but things just generally do not seem to work out that way for me...

Thanks for the input...

Phil
 
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