How to get best quality that will fill DVD

[Brad Stout]

Heys guys I have a project that is 2 1/2 hours long. I will be authoring it soon. Is there a way to just bring it into encore and tell it to burn to disc using the best possible quality that will fit on the DVD but fill the DVD to it's maximum gig capacity.

I am running CS3 and this is a SD video project.

[Harm Millaard]

Just let Encore do the encoding.

[Randall Leong]

Unfortunately, Brad, neither Encore nor Adobe Media Encoder offers an "auto-fit" setting at all. The video bitrate must be set manually (and Encore's default transcode setting must also be preset manually when you open a new project).

[Harm Millaard]

Randall,

That is correct for timelines less than 1 hour, but Brad is talking about 2.5 hours and then the auto-fit feature works nicely. Personally, I prefer to use a calculator like this: DVD-HQ : Bitrate & GOP calculator

The reason it does not auto-fit anything below 1 hour duration is because of the maximum bit rate for compatibility.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

Randall,

That is correct for timelines less than 1 hour, but Brad is talking about 2.5 hours and then the auto-fit feature works nicely. Personally, I prefer to use a calculator like this: DVD-HQ : Bitrate & GOP calculator

The reason it does not auto-fit anything below 1 hour duration is because of the maximum bit rate for compatibility.

That makes sense. I have not done a project whose timeline is as long as even one hour since I started playing with Premiere Pro; in fact, I have been using completely separate timelines, each of less than one hour, when the total length of my authoring project is well over one hour. No wonder.

[Adam Gold]

I don't have CS3 on my rig any more, but in going through the Encore CS3 help files I can't find any mention of an auto-fit function at all. Is it possible this was only in later versions?

Edit: The CS5 help files gave a little more info. A partial quote:

Assets are designated as follows in the DVD Transcode Settings and Blu-ray Transcode Settings columns:

Automatic: Displayed for all non-DVD-compliant or non-Blu-ray Disc-compliant assets by default.
For assets with the Automatic designation, Encore determines the optimal settings for transcoding. Encore bases these settings on the number, length, and size of the assets and the available disc space.

So it appears to me that as soon as you import the asset, Encore auto-fits it automatically. There does not appear to be a button or control that does this, but I'm probably missing something obvious.

[Brad Stout]

Thanks for everyones help on this.

So should I bring my 2.5 hour project in as 1 big .avi file or can I bring it into encore like it is now. (a sequence/timeline in premier.) How do I do this?

[Greg Hogland]

Brad
I use CS4 and encore will automacally set it when the footage is over 60 minutes. It will compress it as much as it needs to in order to get it onto a single layer DVD. At its highest quality you can get around 60 minutes on SL and 120 minutes on DL. After that it gives you the highest quality possible depending on the amount of footage you are putting on the disc.
I prefer to bring in an AVI file rather than the sequence. It seems like it takes a lot longer time for encore to render a sequence from a premiere project than it does a avi file. Once a project file has been rendered in pro if you use the "use render files" in you export setting, it doesn't take to long to create a avi file.

[Brad Stout]

Greg I can't find the option you mentioned "use render files" in my export settings. I may not be understanding the correct way on how to export this from premier. Should I be using file - export - movie or file - export - adobe media encoder? Then what should I do?

Will I loose some quality by exporting my sequence to a movie by making it an avi file? I want to choose the best way of doing this (with no quality loss) rather than quicker rendering time in encore.

This is probly very easy for most of yall but my knowledge on adobe and all this encoding, authoring etc.... is very basic.

Thanks for your time and help!

[Greg Hogland]

Brad
I have had good luck with this process in sd video. I haven't made the move to HD. I am away from home at the moment so I am going by memory. You do use file - export - movie and choose microsoft avi as the format, once you set what you want then adobe media encoder opens after choosing ok.
I found this on adobe's site so it will have a picture of what I am referring to. Follow the link and look under Tab menu settings.
Adobe Media Encoder CS4 * Custom encoding settings
If you have rendered the sequence time line then the media encoder will use those files with this checked, other wise it will have to render the time line again and media encoder will not use the files it made during the render process.

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Brad Stout

This is probly very easy for most of yall but my knowledge on adobe and all this encoding, authoring etc.... is very basic.

in the adobe encore help section, there is a note on how to calculate bit rate settings. Bit rate calculations entail a lot of things:
1. images
2. your main video
3. your menu (and whether it contains images/video/sound)
4. the number of audio tracks you have
5. transitional videos/images, etc

Each of these have different bit rates under MPEG-2 and that help section tells you what to use. Use that for your particular project and you'll find a bit rate for your 2.5hr project.

Once that is done, use your original source files if possible. DON'T do any transcoding to AVI unless absolutely necessary. Use Encore to check for any broken links or loops.

About CBR vs VBR. VBR is only used if your project is big enough to fit a DVD and more. I think if your video is 2.5 hours long, it qualifies for VBR. Keep the maximum bit rate under 6.5kbps. Most older players don't read more than 6.5kbps. A lot of people will yank this setting up to 9, which is the highest setting, but you'll get complaints from people with older computers and players. So, depending on your target audience, you can set these.

Once you have done all of this, the next step is to burn a DVD. Adobe Encore will burn your source files into M2V files - which is MPEG2. The software uses thse M2V files to burn their VOB files. You can subsequently use these M2V (which are stored in your computer) to burn further discs if the changes are not too great. If it makes it any easier for you, I burned fifteen discs before I got my first project right.

All the best.

[Adam Gold]

Brad, CS3 doesn't use render files for encoding so you don't need to worry about that.

Believe it or not, the best and most reliable way to do this in CS3 is simply to go to File > Export > Export to Encore, straight from the Premiere timeline. It's always worked brilliantly for me and results in near HD quality with a minimum of fuss and never one coaster. I would certainly try that first and then move to a more complicated workflow if you're not happy with the results.

I actually miss this simple option in CS5.

[Ann Bens]

File/Adobe Dynamic Link/Send to Encore?

[Adam Gold]

That would be for CS4 and later. No Dynamic Link in CS3, which Brad noted he is using in his first post.

For my purposes (which is what you probably meant), using CS5, yes, that works great. Not quite as simple but very close. Very nice results as well.