I know many people have had the same question, but I have not yet seen a definitive answer. What is the best way, using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Encore CS5, to turn a nice looking 12-minute HDV project (60i) into a nearly-as-nice looking DVD?

I've tried many things - downscaling on a DV timeline prior to export, exporting as HDV, etc - but nothing seems to be optimal.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Paul

I just use File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Send to Encore and my DVDs come out pristine and virtually indistinguishable from the Blu-Rays, playing back on a PS3, a Panasonic upscaling BD player and a Sony BD player, to a very large HDTV.

With a very short project like yours, Encore will automatically set the transcode settings to as high as possible and it should look great.

I know many people have had the same question, but I have not yet seen a definitive answer. What is the best way, using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Encore CS5, to turn a nice looking 12-minute HDV project (60i) into a nearly-as-nice looking DVD?

I've tried many things - downscaling on a DV timeline prior to export, exporting as HDV, etc - but nothing seems to be optimal.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Paul

Hi Paul,

While Adam gives you a very direct method, but relient on dynamic link, often it's better to create video & audio file via Adobe Media Encoder (AME) depending upon your system standard and DVD media.

The AME has its regulation definition for what is legal DVD (Standard) and DVD (HD - Blu Ray).

From my Prem Pro project I either encode to MPEG2-DVD or MPEG2-Blu Ray. This will create an encoded MPEG2 file (both audio and video) which you can use in Adobe Encore (or other burning software).

When wanting to burn to standard DVD, these are my (PAL 25fps) AME settings:

Format: MPEG-DVD
Set Preset to "Match Source Attributes"
Quality: 5, Everything else should be auto, but you can work out the basics frame rate etc.
Frame rate and NTSC system will change this as I illustrate this example from a PAL 25fps viewpoint.

BitrateSettings: Bit Rate Encoding: CBR (Constant Bit Rate): 9
GOP Setting should set depending upon your system standards and frame rate, for example here in PAL Land that will be M Frames: 3, N Frames: 12

Set Audio coding to Dolby Digital, Bitrate 192.

These settings should encode a file which, imported into Adobe Encore will burn to your Standard Format DVD without additional "Transcoding." AME should in auto attributes detect most of the correct settings.

Dynamic Link will do the job as Adam rightly says, but you will have more control over defining your resulting file if you chose to go via AME.

:)

Don't use Match Source Attributes, its using the wrong codec.
The sequence uses a different codec then the export.
Use a preset or set everything manually.
DL does not do the job right, it flips fields.
Very often noticable in motion buttons.
Exporting from AME and importing into Encore is imo the best way to go.

Bellune Digital Video Services - Tutorials - Adobe Premiere Pro - HD to SD Using Premiere Pro CS4 (http://bellunevideo.com/tutdetail.php?tutid=10)

This video helps out a little

The big problem is indeed the field-inversion: HDV is upperfield, DVD is lowerfield. (At least in PAL it is.)
Shooting progressive saves you the field problems on DVD and internet :-p

The big problem is indeed the field-inversion: HDV is upperfield, DVD is lowerfield. (At least in PAL it is.)
Shooting progressive saves you the field problems on DVD and internet :-p

Actually, the field inversion also occurs in NTSC. Here, HD video and broadcasts are upper field first while SD is lower field first. For PAL, however, broadcast SD was upper field first - but digital SD video is lower field first.

What is the best way, using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Encore CS5, to turn a nice looking 12-minute HDV project (60i) into a nearly-as-nice looking DVD?

For a number of goofy reasons exporting as 720p60 before mastering the DVD may give the best results.

I like to know the goofy reasons, because imo that means a extra step in compression.
Which you want to avoid at all costs.
Or do you mean an uncompressed file?

Personally I obtained the best results by exporting from Premiere to YUV 4:2:2 uncompressed SD PAL/NTSC (in your case NTSC) with maximum quality render, and then transcoding to MPEG-2 either in Encore, or via AME. This way the fields problem is contained (uncompressed is upper field first), there is no quality loss on export, besides downsizing, and later you can tweak MPEG-2 settings to your content.

Most likely for such a short project you would use CBR 8 Mbits per second (you need to allow for audio, so 9 will be too much) with quality set to 4 or 5. Quality set to 5 paradoxically does not always produce the best quality, especially with highly detailed footage with a lot of motion, or noisy footage.

For a number of goofy reasons exporting as 720p60 before mastering the DVD may give the best results.

Would this also mean that if the intended result is a DVD (in addition to HD), that shooting in 720p60 would be the best format? I was thinking that p60 avoids the upper/lower field first issue.

I like to know the goofy reasons, because imo that means a extra step in compression. Which you want to avoid at all costs. Or do you mean an uncompressed file?

I would suggest either 100mbps or lossless. It appears that rendering a 720p60 intermediate can work around the flaws that some NLEs have down sampling 1080i30 HD directly to 480i30 SD. However, there are rumors that CUDA assisted downscaling in Premier works well enough that there is no need to do anything strange to increase quality.

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/adobe/story/scaling_in_adobe_premiere_pro_cs5/P0/

Since Premier runs differently on different hardware, it is worth comparing final DVDs made in different ways using a real DVD player and television to judge quality.

What is the best way, using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and Encore CS5, to turn a nice looking 12-minute HDV project (60i) into a nearly-as-nice looking DVD?


I haven't read the rest of the replies, but my workflow is simple:

1. Edit native and export a master image sequence (like TIFF)
2. Import into Premiere and launch Encore. It will encode based on best settings. A CBR bit rate of 6.5Mbps gives great results. Only use VBR if you have other stuff and are cramped for space.
3. Finish in Encore. If you have done the second step right, Encore will NOT re-encode the MPEG file created earlier. The Encore manual explains this perfectly. Follow it, and you'll get the best result possible for HDV.

Hope this helps.

I think CS5.5 does a good job in downscaling.
I used to use avisynth and the HC encoder.
Now I frame-serve to TMPGenc which i find equally as good as the HC encoder and a tad better then AME.

This is akin to going to ten different psychiatrists and getting ten different diagnoses, and it's interesting how difficult it is to come up with one best method.

I have tried many things and so far the best advice was encoding to MPEG-DVD using CBR instead of VBR, which I usually use. I set the CBR at 9, but that may have been too high because there turned out to be jiggly motion during some camera moves in the piece. I'm going to try CBR 8 and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice and I'll reply again when the optimum solution is found.

Paul

My final verdict, for what it's worth - CBR set at 8 provided the best result. I also tried VBR 2-pass at some high settings (2.8 min, 7 target, 8 max) and it wasn't quite as good.

I shoot HDV 30p. From Premiere I output to a MPG-2 file, VBR 2-pass at 2.8 min target 7 and Max render checked. Create the DVD in Encore and they look beautiful.