From Sony MiniDV to final DVD

[admin]

Bitrate can be either. VBR is better if you have lower medium bitrates. CBR is better if you have plenty of space and adequate bitrate.

Example:
No action on screen, followed by action (car chase, sports, etc)

You need to put 3 hours on the disc. That limits bitrate to about 3400k. We'll assume 352x480 MPEG-2 interlaced footage.

At CBR, the non-action will be fine, the action will likely have blocks or artifacts. Constant bitrate.

At VBR, the non-action gets less, say 2000k, and saves the rest. Then the action comes, and it'll use that extra right here for 4800k. It's variable, not constant.

With VBR, 2 passes is better than 1. The first one in 2-pass will analyze. The second encodes. In 1 pass, it tries to do this all at once, and the results are not much better than CBR (not in Procoder).

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Sonic Solutions authoring software (like DVDIT!) requires closed GOP. Most authorware does.

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If you export from Premiere, you'll only be exporting one file, one movie. Single file mode.

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With interlace, match your source. For DV material, it is bottom field first interlaced. For more info on interlace, read this guide:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/interlace.htm

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You continue to get the error in DVDIT because your MPEG-2 files are not encoded properly for DVD format. The MPEG files must have sequence headers. This should be turned on by default in Procoder. Be sure to follow the guide on PROCODER shown above, to the letter.

I'll be re-installing the software here shortly (mine got corrupted somehow) to see. In PROCODER full, it's easily found. In EXPRESS, it should not be much different.

[admin]

Try to use the PROCODER DVD template.
Since you've got 720x480 DV source, we can assume you want to leave it as 720x480 ?

[ravid57]

Even when I export the entire edited video from Movie Maker...it's only one file.

I'm not sure where PROCODER DVD template is or where it's located?

[admin]

[admin]

It may start after the first couple screens in Premiere, other NLEs.

[ravid57]

Lordsmurf...I've tried everything...and things are working great. Made my first real dvd...played well in the player and I'll be making more.

Thanks again for all your help.



-Ron

[ravid57]

Lordsmurf...now that I'm able to spit out these dvd's...which is so cool by the way. Can you show me what setting I need to tweak for 16:9 display in Canopus? or wherever?

Thanks.

-Ron

[admin]

Is your source 16:9 ?
If not, you'll have to crop in by adding black bars.
Such filters are not available in the EXPRESS version.

You'd need to make sure you feed the encoder 16:9 from Adobe Premiere. It's surely got 16:9 ability, by means of crop, and then adjusting the file.

If you try to encode a 4:3 images as 16:9, it'll just squish the picture on screen.

This is starting to get into things I've never done before, would take a while to experiment and find out.

You'll want to do a PROGRAM STREAM on the "DVD FILE TYPE" screen shown above (Procoder settings, several posts up). And then on the "LOAD SOURCE" screen, you'll want to config the source settings. Finally, on the "JOB SUMMARY" screen, you'll want to go to the advanced options.

Because of a bug in the software, you cannot edit advanced options using ELEMENTARY STREAMS. Report this to Canopus when you find time. The more complaints, the more likely it'll be fixed. It thinks the bitrate is too high because it sees WAV 1536k and then refuses to allow you to save the advanced output changes. Stupid bug, not present in full $600 version. You can also change to 352x480 and alter your own bitrate as you see fit if you use PROGRAM and not ELEMENTARY.

This will add another step to your authoring process, as you must now DEMUX the file, and then convert the MP2 to WAV.

Read this post:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=96
It's backwards of what you want to do (shows WAV to MP2, and then muxing a file), but the information is good for demux, then MP2 to WAV also. DVDit! PE only takes WAV or AC3. For that matter, you can encode to AC3 in BESWEET if you want. Either way.

[ravid57]

Hi Lordsmurf...things are going great on my end. Just spitting out dvd's like there is no tomorrow.

I'm taking a trip to India next month and they are on the PAL system. For ProCoder Express, on the 'DVD Format' page...would I just select PAL instead of NTSC? Would all the other selections in the series be the same before and after that?

Please advise.

Thanks.

-Ron

[admin]

You can. PAL conversion never looks as good as just leaving it alone (native format of the source), but it will work that way. And when you author the DVD, select PAL format in DVDit! PE.

PAL is 720x576, 352x576, etc. Instead of x480, it's x576.

Most PAL DVD players actually play NTSC discs already. You may want to check beforehand. No need redoing a disc if it already works.

Be safe on the trip, glad to hear things are working well for you DVD-creation-wise.