1:04:40 time limit encoding

[Steve Long]

I hope someone sees this, and can help!!!

Twice I've encoded a Premiere 6.01 project to MPEG2 with LSX.

First time it was a 2 hr 47 min DV project. The encode had to be done @ 3500 and it wasn't that hot, plus it stopped encoding at a spot in the project around 2:30 min, with the final MPG being 1:04:40 in length.

So, I split the project into 2 DVDs. The first DVD was fine. The project (wedding) was encoded into three separate files: Love Story, Rehearsal, Then all the post ceremony stuff, for the first DVD

For the second, I re-encoded the Prelude/Ceremony (a 1 hr12 min event), and it stopped short, this time at the 1:04:40 mark in the video. The resultant DVD was :54 min in length. Is there something magic about 1:04:40? It took both encodes almost 12 hrs each, so I hate do go through this again and have it cut off at 1:04:40.

I have a client anxiously awaiting their wedding DVD.
I could encode the Prelude and the Ceremony separately, but they flow right into each other and wouldn't be very artistic.
I used the videohelp calculator and the resulting MPEG2 was 4.0 Gigs, but, alas, 8 minitues short of the full length.

The file:
1:12 in length (original Premiere Timeline)

Compressed with LSX MPEG-2
bit rate: 5079 kbps
Audio 192 kbps (mpeg Audio Layer 2)

I would greatly appreciate any help

Steve
Premiere 6.01
Matrox RT2500

[Rob Lohman]

First: I would go away from LSX. I did so years ago. I can't even
find it on the Ligos site anymore. It is/was an encoder with all
sorts of problems, one being output quality.

This ofcourse will not solve your problem unless your willing to
buy another package like Canopus ProCoder (Express) and get
going with that.

My thoughts would be that 1:04:40 is purely a limitation of LSX
in this case for some reason. Make sure you set the end point
for encoding correctly before encoding. It might be LSX just
fills in the wrong numbers to start with?

How large is the resulting file for 1:04:40? I'm a bit worried that
the DVD was 54 mins in length in stead of over an hour.

If I'm not mistaken you also get a free MPEG2 encoder (Cinemacraft
which is also better than LSX) if you upgrade to Premiere 6.5.

We have retired our LSX-MPEG line of products, including LSX-MPEG Encoder, LSX-MPEG for Adobe Premiere, and LSX-MPEG Player. These products are no longer available for purchase, and downloads/demos are not available.

[Ed Smith]

Hi Steve,

Being that you use an RT2500 capture board I think that it comes supplied with a Matrox MPEG 2 IBP export. So rather than using the LSX encoder why not try the Matrox one.

You'll find this by going to: Export movie timeline, Select next so that you go to the codec screen, from the drop down menu there might be a Matrox MPEG 2 IBP (export only) option. If there is choose it, click on settings/ configure and you should be able to change the datarate etc. Click OK, give the file a name and location and then export. This should be sligtly quicker.

You should then be able to import this in to your DVD authoring program.

Thanks,

[Steve Long]

Rob, Ed
Thanks for the reply. I remember using the Matrox export, once I followed Ed's path. Can't remember why I switched to LSX.. I think it was someone's advice long ago. Due to the destuction of Hurricane Isabel in September, I had a long hyatis from editing, and simply forgot what to do. I remember that LSX gave me precise bit rate selection, while the Matrox was in increments of 500.
Anyway, I split the file in two, and the final project ended being about 300 megs too big for the DVD! So, I'm re-encoding the Prelude with Matrox at a slightly smaller rate. I'll now have a side by side comparason for the two.
Again, thanks for the help.

[Steve Long]

Now I remember why I used LSX rather than IBP. The IBP gives me an .avi, which my DVD software wouldn't accept, without a big time upgrade.
Now I'm using ULead Workshop 2, but it won't work with the .avi file either. My Mpeg file is there, accounting for 2.7 Gigs. When I added the avi, it worked in the play, but when I went to add chapters, it would always go back to the beginning with the video, and the audio would be chaptered correctly. So, I saw the beginning of the DVD, but heard where ever I chaptered. Then I looked at the size of the project, and it was still 2.7 Gig. I removed the .avi, still 2,7 gig, add the .avi, 2.7 gig. If I added another mpeg, it would register a larger file.
So, I guess this software doesn't accept .avi without a plug in or something. So, for the 4th time, I'll re-encode, this time in the workable LSX format.
Any ideas?

[Rob Lohman]

An MPEG encoder should never output AVI. It should output MPEG.
Usual file formats are .MPG, .M2V, .TS, .VOB etc.

[Ed Smith]

The Matrox codecs are different to any other codec. In that it puts an AVI wrap-around even though it is an MPEG IBP file. This is the way Matrox decided to it from the beginning, its the same for their high end Digisuite platforms. Now with an RTX 100 rather than creating the MPEG IBP file to an AVI, it exports it as an MPG file, which makes more sense.

I think the RT2500 came bundled with Sonic's DVDit? If it did I think that it will except the file format, and you can create DVDs using it.

In Matrox Land all these files have an AVI wrapper:

DV 25/50
MPEG 2 I-frame
MPEG2 IBP
MJPEG

If you can get hold of Premiere 6.5 it comes it Main concepts MPEG encoder, which will do a good job. It also means you will get various bug fixes as well.

Hope this makes sense,

Ed

[Kris Holodak]

My RT2500 came with Sonic DVDit, but it's the LE version and I have yet to make it work even with Premiere 6.5 outputting the MPEGs. My latest research suggests that upgrading to the full version of DVDit will "solve all my problems" or at any rate give me a different set of them, but I haven't been able to get my help desk guys to agree to give me the upgrade.

If you've got a deadline it's probably not the best time to try it. On the other hand the fact that I don't have a deadline is one of the reasons it never makes it to the top of my priority list. At the moment 100% of what I do is web delivery and until someone is breathing down my neck for a DVD I'm unlikely to get around to figuring it out.

Good luck,
Kris

[Steve Long]

Thanks to all. This is the only Forum/Board of 4 that responded with anything. I ended up using the LSX MPeg2 export and used a trial version of ULead DVD Workshop 2, and the results were good.
I saw a little plug-in ( Premiere Video Server Plugin) that will allow TMPGEnc to encode straight from the Premiere Timeline. Anyone with experience in this utility?
I guess I'm like everyone else, waiting for the dual layer DVD to get fully established.
Again, thanks for the valuable help. I know which Forum to use now.

[Rob Lohman]

TMPGEnc is a very cheap (money wise) encoder that is very good
(CCE and ProCoder will beat it quality wise). It had some technical
problems earlier, a bit hard to use. But you can try it out freely,
so please do!

[Steve Long]

Rob
I have that program, but to use it, I have to first encode and export in Premiere, then use "TMP"
This "plug in" is what has my interest. I downloaded it, and did the set up, and it saw my Premier time line and it began to encode, but it leaves the company logo and "Trial Version" in frame. So, before purchasing, I was wondering if anyone uses it with Premiere 6.
I know.. I should up-grade to 6.5 or 7.0 or 1.5, but I'm just starting out and need a few more jobs first!
Thanks

[Rob Lohman]

Well, you have it working, right? That's all that matters. The logo
and watermark will be gone with the registered version. If the
trial works for you, including Premiere plugin, then the registered
will as well!

[Steve Long]

Rob
To tell ya 'da truth.. when I saw the logo, I just stopped the encoding, as I was under the gun to get the project finished. So I didn't play around with the program at all, other than initial setup. I guess my real questions is:
"Is there an advantage to using TMPGEnc encoder, rather than the Premiere or Matrox ones provided?"
Thanks for all the responses.

[Rob Lohman]

I can't comment on the Matrox one. TMPGEnc is far superiour
in quality to LSX for example. Quality of the encoder that comes
with Premiere (MainConcept I believe) is quite good, but TMPGEnc
should be better.

Check to see how much upgrading to a higher Premiere version
will cost and how much TMPGEnc costs. You can check the quality
TMPGEnc gives before you buy. I don't think you can try a trial
encoder from Premiere, though.

So if TMPGEnc is cheap and good quality go with that. Otherwise
if you want to upgrade Premiere anyway I would do that first
and see how you like the quality of their MPEG encoder.

The best quality you can currently buy for not too much money
is Canopus ProCoder. That is aroun $499 for the full version I
think. There is also an Express version.

[Steve Long]

Rob
Thanks. I'll start doing some research and testing. A few more jobs and I won't have to worry so much about cost. Just added a secong GL2, so its soon time to get real serious about editing.
Thanks again.