Anyone burning Blu-ray DVDs?

[Greg Rothschild]

I could use some help burning my project to a Blue-ray DVD with Encore. After I created the menu (and checked it to make sure there are no errors) I click on build and get this error from Encore:

invalid time, Code "24", Note "start + duration exceeds clip duration"

Don't have any idea what that means and there's no info on Adobe.com. I tried exporting from PPro CS3 to Encore and I tried exporting the project (as an MPEG2 and H264 video) to the hard drive and importing it as a timeline into Encore. Tried MPEG2 and H264 at 1920x1080 and 1280x720, interlaced and progressive. Don't know what else to try. Nero was able to burn the video file to a Blue-ray -re [rewriteable] disc successfully so I know the source file is ok.

[Tony Neal]

The first time I tried to burn a BD-RE from Encore I got similar meaningles errors - it turned out that it was trying to tell me that the video file was too big for the disk ! The error handling for BluRay is diabolical.

Consequently I don't use Encore to burn BluRay. I just use it to create an ISO image and use Nero to burn the disk - its much more reliable and I haven't had a failure yet.

[Greg Rothschild]

Thanks Tony very much for the info. Unfortunately I get the same error whether I choose burn to disc or burn image. Are you using Encore to create that iso image? I took the time to design a pretty nice menu in Encore and really want to use it.

[Tony Neal]

Yes I'm using Encore to create the image.

The only thing I can suggest is to create the simplest possible BluRay with a default menu and a few minutes of video encoded to MPEG2 (preferably by PPro) and see if Encore can handle that.

[Greg Rothschild]

Thanks again. I tried that with an H264 file-- the same 7 minute file I was able to successfully burn to BRDVD with Nero, and a 10 second clip [same export settings] but neither worked. Will try with a small MPEG2 and see if that works. The full 7 minute MPEG2 did not work. I read last night somewhere (think it was on the Adobe forum) that H264 is only good for 1280x720 and MPEG2 should be used for 1920x1080. First I ever heard about that. Regardless, the Nero disc I burned was H264 1920x.

[Taky Cheung]

Did you encode your h.264 or mpeg-2 HD file in Premiere? Or other program that encode compliance video?

Encore can author H.264 Bluray in 1440x1080 no problem.

what you said "Did not work". what does that mean?

Also, don't use Nero to burn the BluRay disc. You can use Encore to burn directly to BD-R or BD-RE. Or you can burn an ISO image then use ImgBurn (free download) to burn the image to Bluray disc.

Btw, there is no such thing as BluRay DVD.

[Greg Rothschild]

Hi Taky- thanks for your help. Yes, I encoded both H.264 and MPEG2 files in PPRO CS3.

>>Encore can author H.264 Bluray in 1440x1080 no problem.

I know it has the capability but so far I've received an error [see first post] every time I've tried. I really hope I can get this problem solved. I have a feeling it's a software bug but I don't know what setting is causing the error, if it is in fact a setting I am selecting that is causing the error.

>>what you said "Did not work". what does that mean?

I meant that it caused the error message to appear (then Encore shuts down).
I haven't been able to burn a BD-R or -RE yet because of the error. Exporting an ISO image doesn't work either... same error comes up. The file does burn to BD-RE successfully in Nero.
Perhaps you can see something wrong with my export settings:

export to Encore
Type: Blue ray single layer H.264
author with menus
I then click on settings because the default is medium quality (?!). In the box that pops up I select:
Audio is PCM, 48 khz, stereo
NTSC
1920x1080
frame rate 29.97 (video was shot and edited in 1080/60i)
field order lower
pixel aspect ratio widescreen 16x9
bitrate encoding constant
bitrate lowered from 20 to 12 (also with 6, 8, 10, 20)

See anything wrong here? I've experimented with these settings quite a bit and nothing seems to work. It's worth noting that originally I was exporting with no audio because there's no audio in the project. That was causing Premiere to crash at the end of the export. The Adobe tech says it must be a bug in the program and it's been noted.

[Taky Cheung]

When you import the video to Encore, in the project window, does it show "Do not transcode" under the BluRay column?

You can also try to start a new Encore project, then just import that particular clip, nothing else.. then see if you can create just a plain BD-RE disk. In that case, you can eliminiate other uncertainty.

It's meaningness to burn such to Nero because Nero just treat it as data disk. It won't be playback on BluRay player.

You should output to 1440x1080 with pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.33. You shouldn't export to 1920x1080. With all that, I assume you are editing HDV footage.

[Greg Rothschild]

Thanks again for the help.
To your first question: yes, "Do not transcode" is there. By the way, as we speak I'm exporting a 1280x720 H.264 file. I'm pretty sure I tried 1440/1.33 but I will try it again... I've tried so many things it's hard to keep track. I have a sneaking suspicion that 1920x1080 has something to do with this. Anyhow- Nero can in fact burn Blue-ray now and it did play on my Blue-ray player connected to an hdtv. And it looked great! I used a 1920x1080 PPRO exported file as the timeline.
Yes it is hdv footage- from a Canon XH-A1.

[Taky Cheung]

I would just stick with 1440x1080x1.33.

it is very likely you start your Encore project in 1920x1080. That might be the problem.

I have Nero 7 so it only burn BluRay data disk.

I use Encore to output ISO file then burn the image using ImgBurn.

Originally Posted by Greg Rothschild

Thanks again for the help.
To your first question: yes, "Do not transcode" is there. By the way, as we speak I'm exporting a 1280x720 H.264 file. I'm pretty sure I tried 1440/1.33 but I will try it again... I've tried so many things it's hard to keep track. I have a sneaking suspicion that 1920x1080 has something to do with this. Anyhow- Nero can in fact burn Blue-ray now and it did play on my Blue-ray player connected to an hdtv. And it looked great! I used a 1920x1080 PPRO exported file as the timeline.
Yes it is hdv footage- from a Canon XH-A1.

[Greg Rothschild]

Ok- as soon as this file is done exporting I'll try a new Encore project with a 1440 file. Will let you know how it goes.

[Greg Rothschild]

Didn't work- I got the same error message burning to disc or iso image.
Don't know what else to try.

[Tony Neal]

Looks like you have a configuration problem on your PC - something is upsetting Encore.

I had big problems importing HDV files into PPro and Encore when I first installed CS3, and after a number of re-installs I was ready to move to Sony Vegas because CS3 was unusable.

My last ditch solution was to uninstall CS3, Cineform, Nero, Quicktime and all other video-related apps and kill them off completely by renaming all of their various source folders in 'Programs Files' and elsewhere, renaming all of their registry entries then re-installing everyting (except quicktime, which has been known to cause problems for CS3).

I never discoverd which app was upsetting CS3 (I guess it was Nero 6 or Quicktime) but everything works perfectly now, although Encore BluRay error handling is still rubbish !

You may have to bite the bullet and re-install.

[Greg Rothschild]

Thanks Tony-
I did try a re-install when Adobe tech support had nothing better to try. I re-installed the software after disabling all non-Microsoft services (via run>>msconfig) and still got the error. Didn't try changing the registry entries though. I wonder if a registry cleaning utility might clear the registry for me once CS3 was uninstalled- otherwise I would not know how to go about doing that.
Encore was installed after this problem appeared.
When I get a break I'll call Adobe again and see if they have any more suggestions.
By the way- the 1440 MPEG2 also burns to BD-RE successfully in Nero. The H264 file looks a lot cleaner though. I used a bitrate of 10kbps for the MPEG2 and it's pretty noisy considering how clean the source video is- it was all shot at -3db and looks creamy smooth pre-export.

[Tony Neal]

If the Registry cleaner can remove all entries for a specific application then go for it - but take a backup of the registry first.

10 Mbps for MPEG2 on BluRay is far too low - not much more than a standard DVD can handle. At around 15Mbps I get noticeable banding in the shadows, but at 30 + Mbps the BluRay playback is indistinguishable from the original captured M2T files. I don't use H.264 at the moment because it takes forever to encode the 2+ hours of video that I normally have to put on disk.

I notice from the settings you posted that you are using the 'Export to Encore' method rather then the Adobe Media Encoder, which works very well for me.

In Adobe Media Encoder, select 'MPEG2 BluRay' and 'HDTV 1080i 29.97 High Quality' preset, set the encoding to VBR 2-pass and make sure the field order is Upper (not lower, as in your settings). Then adjust the average bitrate as high as it will go without exceeding a filesize of around 20 Gigs (estimated filesize is at bottom left) and select PCM audio. Import the resulting file into Encore as a timeline.

This may not work for you but its worth a try before re-installing or messing with the registry.