Burning 1080i h.264 DVD+R for Blu-ray with Encore/Premiere

[Tom Morrow]

Can someone tell me the settings to use for exporting from Premiere CS5 and importing/transcode settings for Encore, so that I can burn a DVD+R that will play in Blu-Ray players at 1080i?

I have a Premiere Pro project that is based on Canon DSLR footage shot at 1920x1080px29.97fps, and I don't have a blu-ray burner. I want to burn a single or dual layer DVD that will play in a samsung standalone bluray player, at high def quality levels.

So far I've encountered a few problems trying to do this, namely that it seems to go ahead and transcode in encore even when I tried to output a 25mbps 1080i h.264 Blu-ray .m4v from Premiere; I was thinking it shouldn't need to transcode. And the build panel in Encore only seems to work with setting Format: DVD and Output: DVD with my DVD burner; choosing Blu-ray for either shows that it can't find a device to burn.

But rather than analyze why it isn't working for me, perhaps someone can just tell me settings that work, for exporting from Premiere, and importing and other setup in Encore.

Many thanks.

[Robert Young]

Tom
It is possible to burn low data rate (16-18 mbs) BR onto a DVD and play it back on standard BR players.
1) You need to transcode your PPro project to BR format @ no higher than 18 mbs. Just export to Adobe Media Encoder for the transcode.
2) Import the BR file into an Encore BR project and author (build) a BR Image file. Note- Encore will not burn a BR image to a DVD disk.
3) You will then need to use third party software like the free ImgBurn utility, which will import the BR Image file and burn it onto a DVD disk.
Note- this does require a BR burner even though you are burning to a DVD disk. A DVD burner will not burn a BR Image.

[Tom Morrow]

Bob, thanks for that explanation. The part about needing a bluray burner to burn a bluray DVD+R seems to be my bottleneck. To clarify, do you mean that I need bluray burning software, or that I actually need bluray hardware (burner drive)?

[Ann Bens]

The whole idea is that you burn a BD-iso to a DVD disk.
Import your BD footage into Encore. Don't use DL because it will reverse the fields.
After making your menu and linking all the footage you build a BluRay image.
This file is an iso which you burn as an image to a DVD disk with e.g. Nero. (Encore can't do this for you). Nero or ImgBurn are your usual software and you do not need a BD burner. Just a BD player.
About 20 minutes of HD content will fit on a DVD disk.

[Tom Morrow]

Thanks that sounds doable; I'll give it a go. Could someone elaborate a little bit about what was meant by the statement that DL [Dual Layer, I presume] will reverse the fields [the interlaced video fields I presume]? Why would the physical media have anything to do with the interlacing?

[Adam Gold]

In this case, DL means Dynamic Link from Premiere or Encore.

I use DL all the time to go from HD timeline to DVD and while DL may in fact reverse the fields upon export, there is no visible effect on the final disc in my experience. Ann's probably right but it could just be reporting the fields incorrectly.

[Tom Morrow]

Ann and Robert you are lifesavers... I just burned a test disc using your suggestions using Nero 8, and it played well in my Sony BluRay player. Looks much better than a normal DVD. The only weirdness was that the BD player reported the format as "1080/60p" even though I thought I specified 1080i at 29.9X fps.

I am still curious about what the concerns are around fields and dual layer; I'd like to hear more about why that would be a problem before I start turning my limited supply of DLs into coasters.

[Tom Morrow]

> In this case, DL means Dynamic Link from Premiere or Encore.

Aha, so I can burn a Dual Layer DVD and expect about 35 minutes to fit?

Great advice here.

[Adam Gold]

That sounds about right. Hopefully your software will let you specify where the layer break occurs so the glitch when it changes layers isn't too noticeable.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Tom Morrow

Ann and Robert you are lifesavers... I just burned a test disc using your suggestions using Nero 8, and it played well in my Sony BluRay player. Looks much better than a normal DVD. The only weirdness was that the BD player reported the format as "1080/60p" even though I thought I specified 1080i at 29.9X fps.

Actually, your disks are indeed 1080i @ 29.97 fps. It's just that in default Auto mode, the Sony Blu-ray players convert 29.97i to 60p when outputting through the HDMI out. Currently the only way to fix that would be to force the HDMI output on the Blu-ray player to output in 1080i (this will interlace and change the frame rate of 1080/24p-encoded discs).

[Robert Young]

Originally Posted by Ann Bens

...you do not need a BD burner. Just a BD player.
About 20 minutes of HD content will fit on a DVD disk.

This is for sure??
The DVD burner will burn a BR image to the DVD disk?
I had always used a BR burner for this, but perhaps it was actually operating in DVD mode, with me operating in clueless mode :(

[Ann Bens]

Yes i am sure.
Have made several DVD's with HD content like this.
DVD software like Nero is not interested in the content of that image, just the image itself.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

This is for sure??
The DVD burner will burn a BR image to the DVD disk?
I had always used a BR burner for this, but perhaps it was actually operating in DVD mode, with me operating in clueless mode :(

Yes, as long as the DVD burner in question supports UDF 2.5 (almost all recent DVD burners do). And even some that originally did not support UDF 2.5 may support UDF 2.5 with the latest firmware update.

[Tom Morrow]

Yes, Robert as I say I confirmed this by actual test with my non-BR burner. And Randall, you're right about the Sony BR player; I verified that it says 1080/60p even for standard def DVDs. Good help here.