Encoding and DVD burning via Prem Pro

When burning a HDV project to DVD from Premiere Pro I am loosing quality drastically. I have chosen what I believe to be the highest quality i.e. CBR, High quality and 16:9 but still the quality of the DVD is pretty average. I have also exported the .avi file into a MAC and tried burning using iDVD and same result. Is there a set process for getting the best quality results.

Any advice would be great

J

Jonny, how long is your project? Often if it's longer than 50 mins, auto programing will do all sorts of compression to fit it on a DVD. Also u/w video isn't the usual scenes that auto settings are made for. So many times the quality will suffer.

Compression is a black art where maybe 20 people in the world really know what they are doing. And those bastards are getting paid well for that alchemic knowledge.

If you have very complicated scenes involved lots of blues and little fish... it may pay to go learn a compression program instead of relying on autosettings.

A few tips:

1. Gamma correction for TVs

2. Motion detection should be a bit higher than normal

3. High bit rate as possible

Just realize as you mess with settings, the longer the render will be. I use Bitvice to output but also use compressor, even though I don't like the interface. The Apple Mpeg2 codec is much better than it was just 1 year ago!

the video length is short only about 15 mins and contains a fair amount of fast moving footage etc plus music. You mentioned the word 'Gamma' which I hear people brandish around but I have never really had a clear understanding of. Watching the DVD again I believe that the footage which has hardly had any colour correction looks alot better. Does this sound normal? Or am I just crap at colour correction (I use the fast colour corrector to try and correct white balance etc).

I have chosen the highest bit rate, the only option higher is for dolby 5.1 would that make a difference on the actual video compared to audio?

where would I find motion detection?

So many questions, sorry...

As you may have guessed I am pretty new to this and have found the learning curve steep but great fun (learning how to storyboard,film, edit, ect etc),

Thanks

Hey Jonny

Mpeg 2 encoders are all different and the standard one that comes with Prem Pro is &^%$# I used Procoder 2 or Main Concepts or you can frameserve to others like TMPGEnc which is a good one.

Underwater footage, it's best to go CBR @ 8 mbps as you will have problems with laptops and even normal DVD players if you go to 9 mbps due to many reasons. If it's just for yourself then you could go 9mbps.

DVDLAB PRO is very good to make your DVD's and Nero is very good as not only can it burn to multipy burners at the same time, but I have never had anyone complaint about a DVD that has been burn't by it and they have been going all around the world...MAC or PC...

Last is the blank media itself...yep there is a huge difference....Taiyo Yunden are a very good brand..not one complaint out of 100's burnt and sent all over the world....

psst Wags... you forgot to mention Edius....

So basically p#ss off Premiere Pro for creating DVD's and use a separate program e.g Nero. Do I just use the exported .AVI file?

Thanks all for the info?

J

As a prior Premier Pro User...yes...no good for DVDs...terrible quality:(

i don't use Premiere but...

i export out of pinnacle a video_ts file (ie DVD ready) and then burn to disc using Nero

just sharing what i do

1) Export as MPEG2-DVD from Premiere Pro 1.5

2) Import into Adobe Encore DVD to make the DVD (menus, titles etc)

3) Create DVD Image using Adobe Encore becomes .img file

4) Rename the .img file to .iso file

5) Burn the DVD Image .iso file using Nero

I know its a bit long winded, i tried burning straight from Premiere Pro 1.5 before but failed, tried burning from Encore also failed so I stick with what works.

ps. Don't use anything older than Premiere Pro 1.5, they are buggy & temperamental

Personally I use Cinemacraft Encoder (CCE) Basic for my MPEG2 files for DVD. It's super-fast and better than anything else I've tried (which is a LOT, including Main Concept and TMPGenc) except Canopus Procoder 2 which is now on a par. CCE is my favourite piece of software ever, along with Sclive.

For productions under an hour I go 8Mbps CBR with Dolby AC3 or WAV audio and I author in TMPGenc DVD Author for the simple ones or Sony DVD Architect for the more complex ones.

From Premiere Pro you can either write out a DV AVI file and then put that in your encoder, or you should be able to frameserve it and so avoid the large intermediate DV AVI file. Not sure which frameservers currently work in Prem Pro but you could investigate Satish's Debugmode Frameserver which I use from Sony Vegas.

Hi Guys,

Do these comments about Prem Pro's poor DVD performance equally apply to v2?

Yes, PP version 2.0, I have dowloaded a demo of cineform aspect HD which seams to work pretty well, the cost is about $499 US.

Personally I am starting to use Final Cut Pro more so will probably keep down that ave.

Working with HD I also generally found with PP is to edit in HD on the timeline then export back to the tape and let the camera downconvert to DV and then burn that....

Also it is a good way of backing up your project.

Yes Prem Pro 2 is not much better and Cinecraft is a good encoder.

Maybe some useful info.

EDIUS 4

Using a 3 GIG PC

1 hour of Canopus HQ 1440/1080 res timeline takes about 3 hours to render out a m2t file with speed encoder.

About 2.5 hours to render out a 8.5 CBR mbps mpeg2 file. (progressive or interlaced)

In DV mode it's like real time.

Qualtiy is very good.

Author with DVDLAB PRO...it's also very good.

Wags me old son..

I'm narrowing down the field of editing systems to: Edius4 Your baby..Avid (can't remember the name, but around £1100) and Vegas 7...Vegas being the cheaper option but being sony as well, maybe...

I'll get there..

I'm even thinking Mac FCP

Dive safe

DeanB

Premiere Pro isn't intended for DVD authoring, it's mainly production. It can create DVDs, but I have frequently had problems with it. If using SD, I export as AVI and use Encore as my DVD authoring program. For HD, I'm shifting far away from Premiere Pro. Just doesn't work well for me, unless you buy the AspectHD for roughly $500, and I refuse to support a product which requires you to buy someone else's product just to get it to work even reasonably well.

Max.

I totally agree about having to purchase additional software to make a reasonable product. I have ended up going the MAC route and getting final cut pro studio which I am very happy with. Just learning how to use a MAC which has been an interesting experience!! But overall excellent.

Jon

Well here is what I do

Edit EDIUS 4

From a HDV or DV 16.9/4.3 or just about whatever else you have in the mixed timeline.

A few clicks and it's encoding interlace or progressive.

For us PAL users we do not have to worry about that AC3 as all PAL DVD players can handle the tiny mpeg 2 sound files unlike NTSC Players.

Then open up DVDLAB PRO and author then compile to test DVD on computer.

DVD Lab Pro is cheap but very powerfull, it can do things that the $5000 US Scenarist can do.

Then burn with either Nero or Geo Pro mastering.

With Geo Pro you can output to DLT tape or if you have no DLT tape drive then a simple DDP image on a DVD disk and off to the replicators.

Or you can just get EDIUS to encode and burn all in one go by itself, but you don't get and menus etc.

You must be on commission from Edius Wags!

Do you have the tattoo too?

Seriously though must be good...

J

No No ...no commission...I'm just really happy how it works compared to how Prem Pro and Aspect HD worked thats all. You cannot beat it for mixing HDV and DV together. It's easy as.

I use to hate that audio comforming thing Prem Pro did all the time.

Yes it has a few bugs, but what NLE is perfect anyhow?