Powerful MPEG-2 encoders?

[DJMartin]

Hello, I am creating a dvd for my school. This will be about 4-8 hours video.
My workflow: Capturing and editing in Premiere, exporting to Encore.
And all this video will take a lot of space. Which settings should I use to export from premiere to Encore. Or do I have to use a 3rd party program to compress and encode?

[pijetro]

This will be about 4-8 hours video.

I hope that's not on one DVD?!

Or do I have to use a 3rd party program to compress and encode?

This comes with Premiere. It's the Mainconcept plugin. Go to File Export>and dig down a little...You can then export for DVD, or elementary streams (.M2V and .WAV)..
You can import your assets into Encore from there..

Likewise, you can save out the entire .AVI. Import it into Encore, and let Encore do the encoding..
The good news, is that either way, Encore will encode the audio to .AC3...

Good luck..

[DJMartin]

He, it`s not on one dvd.
But how many hours can I get on one dvd, with acceptable quality?

[axlish]

Acceptable, two hours. Best, between an hour and 1:15 depnding on which audio type you choose.

[pijetro]

That's the great thing about Encore..It encodes to .AC3, and allows more bitrate to the video stream..
As far as calculations go, use the bitrate calculator.
Use a value of 192Kbps, or 224Kbps for audio..
Simply plug the length, and voila, your video rate is shown...A must have tool, to try and get every inch of filesize to a disk...

[harley2ride]

You might try breaking it into 2 four hour videos and encode them as "1/2 D1". Burn one first and try playing it back on a standalone dvd player on your tv and see if the quality is acceptable. If not, cut it back until it is acceptable. If you will be playing it back on a standalone, your best bet is the 1/2 d1 encoding. If it will be played at school on a pc, you can try divx compression to get more info on one dvd. If you can get 8 hours on in any format, with acceptable playback, let us all know how you did it. Generally 3hrs is pushing the envelope.

[tmh]

8 Hours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a long video.

Not that you asked for "creative input", but the #1 thing I've learned with making videos from DV footage/Still photos is the LESS IS MORE ! Try cutting segments to short clips that make the point without the boring details if you can. That's what the edit software is for.

if it's a must that all the footage be included, then ignore the above ..... just don't expect to hold folks' attention for more than 30-40 min - and that's only if the video is about THEM (or close friends/family)!

I disagree with any method of cramming it onto the fewest discs - what's one or two more discs if the quality is better? Once you go past ONE disc, what's the difference? I'd use a high quality DVD compliant encode if it were my project and fill as many discs as needed.

[SingSing]

Even an epic movie last less than 3 hours. Even this is really, really, really great, people will start to walk out after 3 hours.

Less is more is absolutely the right idea.

[jman98]

Whether or not you should encode at 1/2 D1 would depend on your source, which we know nothing about. If you have a high quality source such as DV, you might as well use full D1.

I've gotten over 2 hours of very good quality laserdisc video on DVDs I made myself, but I used CCE to re-encode it, my source was high quality and clean (a laserdisc as I said) and I haven't gone past 2.5 hours.

I do think very strongly as some have said that if this is a school project that no one is going to watch it if it lasts more than 2 hours. I often travel to foreign countries and at first, I used to show all my photos to family members. They politely looked at them, but then I realized that it took way too long and there was no way they could really be interested in seeing them all. Now I just show the best 45-50 photos on VCD. It's much quicker and less "viewer fatigue" that way.

[lordsmurf]

Learn to edit. For a school project, anything more than 30-60 minutes is pushing it.

[Cornucopia]

If this were installments/episides of a series and lasted 6-8 hours, that might make sense.

BTW, once again, nobody mentioned DL discs. This length could be doable on them (depending on material, and quality requirements).

Scott

p.s.--maybe he means 4-8 hours of source footage. That sounds more reasonable (assuming 4:1--10:1 raw:finished usage, it would end up as ~1hr).

[DJMartin]

Ok, I appreciate all your feedback.
First of all, it is about 8 hours source footage. Trough this year I have filmed everything from schooltrips to special lessons. I have not said that we are going to see it all in one part, from start to finish. I intend to sell it and they can chose which chapter they want to see.
It is not a project, it`s a dvd you can buy.
The answer I am looking for is a program to copress video at high level; CCE for example.

Thank you all!

[yoda313]

Even an epic movie last less than 3 hours

What about waterworld? I'm sure that was longer than 3 hours

But seriously Return of the King was 3 1/2 hours for the theatrical release and upwards of 4 hours for the special edition dvd.

[olyteddy]

Even an epic movie last less than 3 hours

What about waterworld? I'm sure that was longer than 3 hours

But seriously Return of the King was 3 1/2 hours for the theatrical release and upwards of 4 hours for the special edition dvd.

Waterworld seemed like three hours after the first fifteen minutes...

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some intense scenes of action violence, brief nudity and language.
Runtime: 136 min / USA:176 min (director's cut)

[BJ_M]

Ok, I appreciate all your feedback.
First of all, it is about 8 hours source footage. Trough this year I have filmed everything from schooltrips to special lessons. I have not said that we are going to see it all in one part, from start to finish. I intend to sell it and they can chose which chapter they want to see.
It is not a project, it`s a dvd you can buy.
The answer I am looking for is a program to copress video at high level; CCE for example.

Thank you all!

use the encoder that comes with premiere -- cce sp costs 2000$

i agree wit the other posters here == a well edited dvd is much more marketable and intersiting .. even if you make a set of 2 x 2 hour dvds is better than 8 hours of shaky fast pans ...even a singe 2.5 hour dvd is better yet

[edDV]

Think about marketing strategy. Make one good 60-90min DVD, sell it. Get them hooked then release and sell Vol 2. 3. 4. etc. with promotion for each.

Problem is you may just sell one that they will copy and copy and copy.

[tmh]

Well, truth is, there are many programs that will "compress" the video to a DVD compatable format. However, what folks here are trying to point out is that the EDITING software is far more critical to your project. You should transfer the video to your PC. then edit (countless hours, btw) the heck out of it, add transitions and some "flare". ALL in the editing program, still in the raw video form.

Not until you have your edited video created do you need to worry about encoding form DVD. That step is basically "cookie cutter" following a guide or whatever. Yes, you need a program to do it which may or may not be included in the editing program. But either way, the success of your DVD is all about CREATING the edited video.

This is true whether you leave it kind of long or really edit it down to a watchable DVD. Either way, Capture --- Edit --- Encode to mpeg2------Author ---Burn are the stepos. 98% of your time will be EDITING.

[lordsmurf]

98% of your time will be EDITING.

Or 49% editing, 49% restoration