Hi there, I'm fairly new to this whole movie making thing so I have a few questions about achieving the best settings during the finalizing stages. I have a 6 minute short film which I want to put on DVD. I don't know the exact procedure for putting a Premiere Pro 1.5 project on DVD, but what I did was Export to DVD play around with the settings and it created a DVD. Now I'm not sure about ways of maybe maximising the quality of the project. For example is there a step outline of what to do once you've finished editing. I used a 7mb VR setting is there a problem with this? I'm not worried about space or other content so for this short film alone I want to achieve the best quality for a DVD. I read somewhere you export the MPEG 2 files to a DVD Author i.e. Encore. I didn't do it this way, is there a real difference if I did it by only 'Exporting to DVD' ?

Any help is appreciated. I tested out a copy and it was filmed with my Panasonic GS250, I've noticed some of the bright colors appear more pixelated on full screen mode could this be a result of the captured footage or loss of quality during the authoring stage?

Thankyou

Guy

I only use adobe premiere to edit my video and then export it to dv avi and let adobe encore do the rest . Never export to mpg2 because you're losing quality,let adobe encore do it .

I also author and burn in other applications but generally speaking if you know for sure that your video will fit on the DVD you have then select CBR rather than VBR. ( Constant Bit Rate - Variable Bit Rate)

I can never remember the max bit rate allowed by mpeg standard. I think its about 9500 and that is both video and audio rates combined.

The higher the bit rate the better the quality. Variable bit rate adjusts the rate from very low (segments with little or no movement) to very high (segments with lots of movement that need the higher bit rate.)

If you know you can fit your video on the DVD using CBR will ensure you have the highest bit rate thoughout the entire video.

Within VBR there are also two options. 1 pass and 2 pass. The two pass does more analyzing prior to adjusting the varied rates.

I use 7500 for my CBR rate to leave some head room for audio. I think you can go to 8000 without any problem.

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So much information... the more I learn, the more questions develop. If I keep learning at this pace, soon I'll be too dumb to continue!

Here are the settings I use with the adobe mpeg encoder for achieving the best quality:

Open the "advanced" window.
- Quality slider all the way to the right to = 50
- Set to CBR
- Set CBR to 7500
- Set audio to PCM.

You will then have to "author" the produced files to a DVD using whatever software application you have. Also be sure to use the best quality DVD media you can get. I use Ritek (premium) or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R media.

Regards,

Mark
natureflixs

Hello,

I am also fairly new to exporting things to DVD so I am having some problems as well. I have been using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 to edit a short film of mine 35 minutes in length. I burnt it on DVD directly through premiere and there are parts that glitch on the dvd. Should I export it as either a "DV AVI" or a "MPEG 2", and then use adobe encore to burn it to dvd? If so how do you use this program (encore) to burn it to DVD properly with the best quality possible? Does it also make a difference what sort of DVD-R's you use to burn on?

Thanks for any help,

Wes :-)

Hi Wes,

There are options to play around with in Encore just like in Premiere, where one can change paramaters and so forth. I've been encouraged to use an 8mb DV setting with a Constant Bitrate. I usually go via the MPG route but now I'm thinking the AVI is better. I'm guessing this would mean exporting the full file both audio and video as one? Whereas at the moment I'm exporting .m2v and .wav files into Encore and then building a disc.

Does anyone know how to reduce the size of your disc without loosing too much quality? I'm on the 8MB setting in Encore and in Premiere it was a 7MB High DV PAL. The 1 hour 40 minute film seems to be about 7GB and doesn't fit my 4.7GB discs. Are lower rates favored for longer screen time? I take it that is how they fit all those hours of video onto Retail DVD's?

Thanks guys!

Your best bet for the best quality would probably be to use DL dvd's so you are not stuck at the 4.7GB limit therefore you do not have to compromise. DL (dual layer) is what most all commercial dvd's movies are on, they dont compromise the quality of their movie they just put it on a higher capacity disc. They may cost a little more, but is it worth an extra buck to get the best quality? I say absolutly for sure it is.

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Link to a few raw unedited SD dvd cam sample clips http://www.4shared.com/dir/1728796/25f562f9/sharing.html

Although I have Encore and PPro 2 I use PPro to edit and an entirely different program to author. I use Ulead's DVD Workshop2. Its an older application, but very feature rich and much less overhead than Encore.

To fit larger size AVIs to a single layer DVD, I can use the Dolby Digital to cut the audio size down, and I use from 4500 and up on the btrate, with Variable single pass. I can't tell any major quality loss. 2 hrs to 2.5 looks fine.

Now and again, its worth an Ebay search for a used DVDWorkshop program. I bet you would really like it.

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So much information... the more I learn, the more questions develop. If I keep learning at this pace, soon I'll be too dumb to continue!

Use DL disks and as high bitrate as possible. With lower bitrate amateur video tend to suck. This is caused by cheap encoders, but also by the source video itself. A lot of details, the movements of a handheld camera, fast pans, ets. do not compress well. Studio-produced DVDs are made out of quality source for a start, they use less details in the scenes, shallow DOF, steady cameras, smooth movement with professional dollies, etc. They also use top-notch encoders that squeeze the last dot from a limited bitrate.

Just use a DL disk if your video does not fit a single-layer disk.

Sweet DL it is!

I followed the recommended instructions and in Premiere Pro I exported a Full Size AVI file of about 20GB to my Desktop. I imported this into Encore and as a Timeline made sure all the video and audio were in sync. After it transcoded and built the DVD, I played it on various platforms and well neither work? The actual content as an AVI managed to fit onto the disc which was the single layered 4.7GB. When I had been importing the .m2v and .wav's in the past I noticed the full size was way too big for the media, hence the need to have dual layer discs, but the AVI was actually bigger than the MPEG route, but still managed to condense itself onto the media. Firstly why is the disc not playing via the AVI route? Just out of guessing I'm thinking an MPEG codec would be missing in the transcoding process? And how comes the AVI file which is bigger can condense itself onto a disc, but the MPEG which is condensed won't? I'll get dual layer discs and do it again but I'm just wondering if the media did fit everything on via the AVI route why won't it play? Have I done something wrong or missed something?

Thanks guys!

Anyone?

I have been using Premiere and Encore for a few years now. I started with 6.5 to now CS3. What I've discovered is, the older versions of Encore left something to be desired when it comes to burning directly to DVD. I've found if I burn a image and then burn the image to DVD using Nero or Imageburn. My videos are usually 1.5 to 2 hours, and I just let Encore encode automatically.