Premiere Pro to DVD

[foochuck]

Hello Everyone,

I'm working with a standard NTSC Widescreen DV format in Premiere Pro CS3 - I want to output to MPEG-2 DVD format - I'm really not too happy with the quality that Adobe Media Encoder gives me so I want to use HC Encoder as I've used it to create a standard DVD from a HDV project in Premiere.

I'm not sure how to feed my Premiere Pro Project into HC Encoder though...

Could someone help me out with this? Here is the HDV to SD DVD tutorial I was using...(note that I'm now just going from SD to SD DVD...)

http://invertedhorn.axspace.com/hdv2dvd_basic.html

Thanks.

[Baldrick]

Have you tried anything in that guide? Try export to debugmode frameserver in premiere pro and then make an avisynth text file with just AviSource("c:/path_to/signpost.avi") and the open the .avs in hcencoder. (Change the path_to/signpost.avi to your filename).

[foochuck]

Thanks Baldrick...I should be able to take it from there.

[edDV]

As for the Adobe MPeg encoder (Mainconcept), they default to low agerage VBR bit rates that are too low for hand held camcorder source. Make sure you are set to lower field first, Mpg or AC3 audio and boost average video bit rate to ~9Mb/s. You should see picture quality improvement.

[foochuck]

edDV - Are you referring to HC Encoder or the Adobe Media Encoder?

[foochuck]

HCencoder asked me to add this line to my script:

ConvertToYV12()

I'm not sure if I need that for going from SD to SD DVD...

[foochuck]

Also, do these settings in HCencoder look correct?

My source format is NTSC Widescreen DV (720 x 480 - 1.2 PAS)

Thanks...

[edDV]

edDV - Are you referring to HC Encoder or the Adobe Media Encoder?

Adobe Encoder but it also applies to HC. Hand held camcorder source requires more bitrate.

5000 Kb/s is on the low side if quality is the goal. Try it at 8000 Kb/s VBR in both encoders.

[foochuck]

What's a good average bitrate? I have about 1 hour and 20 minutes of footage...is 5000 too low?

[poisondeathray]

If it's interlaced, use
ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true)


To optimize bitrate, use a bitrate calculator eg.
https://www.videohelp.com/calc


If you were using the same workflow and assets from the HD=>SD conversion in your other thread, I would specify RGB in the frameserver instead of YUY2, because PP will be working in RGB. Let the AVISynth script do the interlaced RGB=>YV12 conversion.

[edDV]

What's a good average bitrate? I have about 1 hour and 20 minutes of footage...is 5000 too low?

The bit rate calculator shows 7395 Kb/s average at 1hr 20min will fill a DVD5 (single layer).
https://www.videohelp.com/calc

Test a motion clip at 4000, 6000 and 8000 to see the differences.

You should be evaluating on a good TV (from a test DVD) not a computer monitor.

[foochuck]

Thanks guys!