Feature film as MPEG problem

[scottrwn98]

I have 20 short films that I have re-edited into a long 115 minute edit with all of the short films overlapping each other to form an anthology.

This is done is Premiere 6.5, so I export the whole thing as an MPEG (6000) with PCM audio. It saves for about 3 hours (47 minutes of the film) and then exits saying "Cannot Write File." OK... so I end up saving the film as two 30 minute MPEG's and one 45 minute MPEG...no problem. I export the audio as a 115 minute wave ... no problem.

I then take the three MPEG's and WAVE and import them into ULEAD Video 6. I export as a "DVD file (MPEG2 NTSC)." I press OK, and the program just closes. After doing this twice, I saved as a "custom fie" and told it save as an MPEG and call it DVD NTSC [6000] (instead of just MPEG-2). Ok, this time is saves. I leave for a few hours, come back and it says "Failed to write file."

Currently, I'm saving it as 4000 file instead of 6000. I have 11 gig of harddrive for this MPEG ... so I know its not space.

Is this one going to crash as well as the others? Why can't I save a 115 minute MPEG file to be placed in DVD Workshop? Why does it say ERROR Writting file?

Help!

[Trust_No_1]

What operating system are you using? If you are not using an NTFS file system a file cannot be more than 4gb. This might be why you are getting a write error. The file is more than 4b and cannot be written.

Bear in mind that a 120 minute video will take up close to 4gb without the audio. The PCM audio alone will be close to 1 gb. A DVD-/+R stores 4.35gb. These numbers are not entirely accurate but it gives you an idea of the amount of file space you are using up.

Are you sure you have 11gb of free disc space available?

I have no idea about Ulead products? Have you considered using another authoring package? DVD lab and TMpegenc DVD author are cheap and easy to use - especially DVD Author. I'm not sure if Ulead re-encodes video.

Options:
1) You might have to split the movie in half and save as two DVD's.
2) Encode the audio to AC3 or MP2 format. Note not all DVD players can play MP2 audio. This will significantly reduce the size of the audio by about one third in size.
3) Reduce the video compression rate. This will have a significant impact on the quality of the DVD video.
4) Have you considered just saving each movie as a separate mpeg title and doing the anthology assembly in your dvd authoring tool? You can them offer the ability to view the titles separately or all together - just like a Hollywood DVD.

Just a few suggestions. As with all things there are a million ways to skin a cat.

Good luck!

[BJ_M]

i guess my first question why are you re-encoding your file twice .. you are just going to lose more quality as you didnt encode it at very high bit rate in premiere ..

get the premiere mpeg encoder update for premiere 6.5 http://www.mainconcept.com/adobempeg/downloads/AdobeMPEGEncoder1.3EngBeta.exe

and try to encode it to dvd mpeg2 within premiere ..

adobe even has a template ( a few of them - also these are on your premiere cd) for dvd encoding .. http://www.mainconcept.com/adobempeg/downloads/muxed_dvd_presets.zip

also make sure you have the NTFS file system .... (i see you are using XP)

[thayne]

I think your problem is your OS/File system. You should use Windows 2000 or XP with NTFS file system.

[scottrwn98]

Trust_No_1
I do not have NTFS....and yes, I am saving as MP2 audio for spacing saving purposes. I'm not going to use PCM Audio. ... and yes I do have 11 gig free.

BJ_M
I am encoding the file twice. I exported 3 MPEG's as 6000 bits in Premiere and then I'm exporting 1 MPEG as 4000 bits in Ulead Video 6. All I want is a feature lenght MPEG so I can then import it in DVD workshop.

thayne
and I think you are all are right about having a file 4gig and over in FAT32. There is nothing I can do with this ... because I would have to reformat my harddrives for NTFS and there is too much information on both hard drives for this.

I think if I encode this 115 minute MPEG at 4000 bits, it will work (its still saving by the way, as we speak) because it will be under 4 gig. All I want is for this to be put on a single MPEG. I am having a premiere of our films at the local theatre and I need themt to be on a DVD.

There has also been times that I have had a hour long AVI edit and when I've saved it in Premiere as an MPEG, its said "File write error."

Still a little confused, but I think the 4gig file is what might be the problem. If you can think of a way in DVD Workshop to have two MPEGS and have one load after then other with no "SKIP" in the middle, I might do that too.

Thanks all !!

[BJ_M]

you can convert your drive to NTFS without losing any info what so ever ..

partition magic is one of the best known but there are others .. (including built into windows) ..

[scottrwn98]

so you are telling me you can convert your FAT32 harddrives to NTFS without anyformat?

I have C and D ... C= 26gig ... D= 80gig.

and I can do this to both for without any format? Explain. ...


Thanks !

[baz161]

yeah,

a simple DOS command will do the trick

http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

personally id do it on only 1 hard drive, the spare one eg which ever one doesnt have the OS on it, just incase.

Baz

[scottrwn98]

Well, the file saved. 115 minutes became a 3.2 gig file (in MP2 sound format). I do thank everyone for their answers for why I couldn't export. I know know why all my films did not save as one.

One small note ... I did learn not to mix a title with AC3 following a MP2 audio MPEG ... The volume is way off for the AC3 file ... I had some logos presented in Ac3 and then the films on a different title folllow as MP2. Opps.

Thanks all !!