Adobe MPEG encoder setup

[EGrier]

Hello,
Was wondering if someone could help me out. I have made a movie with Premiere 6.5. It has a combination of bmp images and dv footage from my MiniDV camcorder and wav audio files. Kinda like a slideshow/movie. How would I need to setup the included MPEG encoder to put out a nice looking movie to burn on DVD? Or, should I just frameserve to TMPGENC or some other encoder?

Thanks for your help!

[racer-x]

If you're using the built-in MainConcept encoder, you should update it to version 1.3(I think that's the latest version for Premiere 6.5) if you have'nt allready.

Since you're encoding DV (likely to be interlaced) and still images (progressive), you'll need to encode as Interlaced Lower Field First. If it was stills only, then I recomend Progressive or "No Fields". Adjust the quality slider all the way up to 50. Use Variable Bitrate ( I sugest max=8500, Avr=6500 min=3500) and you can export Multiplexed (MPG) or Elemental stream (M2V). Elemental streamed is prefered by all good DVD Authoring apps.

That should yeild excellent quallity. There are other more advanced settings you can tweak, but I don't want to confuse you.

[EGrier]

Thanks Racer-x

Maybe you can help me here also... I scanned in the pictures that I am using. My scanner doesn't have the option to scan the pictures as pixels. So, I have to resize them in Photoshop to 720x480 from whatever they were to begin with. (they are 4in. x 6in. pictures) Am I going at this the wrong way? They seem to be not as sharp as the originals either. I just want them to look good when played back on a TV. I did some motions on most of them instead of the drab, show image...freeze on image...fade to another image....pause, etc. I am still learning the in's and out's of Premiere. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[BJ_M]

you should have scanned them at 648x480

[EGrier]

That's just it, I don't have that option to scan them in at a certain resolution. So, that is why I have been resizing them in Photoshop. I should just get a different scanner. I don't like it anyway.

Thanx

[BJ_M]

resize them to 648x480 then

[EGrier]

I think I'll do that. Any thoughts on why the pictures are not very sharp?

[Brehmstein]

Premier has the ability to use pictures with higher resolution. If you are not careful, it will stretch your image and look wrong. However, I know there is a check box that is something like maintain aspect ratio (or something). When that is used you can either crop the image in premiere or have black bars.

I learned about is in on of Wrigley's tutorials.
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tutorials.htm

I believe it was in the "Montage to Music" tutorial under the Premiere 6.0 area. (if not that one, it was in the "Video Photo Album" under the 6.5 section)

Hope this helps...

[EGrier]

Yeah, I have used Wrigley's site several times.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

Ethan