Finished DVD in Premiere CS5 - transcode in Encore?

[Mylo]

I have a 2 hour footage (presentation, no action or too much camera movement) that I just edited in Premiere CS5 and now I'm about to make my first DVD.

Should I export my edited work in Premiere via the File -> Export -> Media menu to make it DVD ready or does Encore handle that?

I persume I should encode the footage with the MPEG2-DVD preset which makes my file output *.m2v? The project is meant to be basic DVD 720x576 footage.

I was experimenting in Encore and I noticed the Transcode option, whats it for?

Also, after trying to export the 2 hour footage (with some overlay titles and graphics) in MPEG2-DVD preset, Premiere estimated 20 hours to complete the task. Is this too much? I work on iMac Core 2 Duo 2.8

[nharikrishna]

Should I export my edited work in Premiere via the File -> Export -> Media menu to make it DVD ready or does Encore handle that?

File --> Export Media. This will open up the Adobe Media Encoder using which you can encode to MPEG-2 DVD. It will produce .m2v and .ac3 (if Dolby Digital is selected as audio). These .m2v and .ac3 files can then be imported into Adobe Encore for authoring purposes. Authoring involves creaing menus...etc, and NOT the actual encoding. It is best to leave the encoding tasks to an encoder such as Adobe Media Encoder (which uses MainConcept engine). Since your video is over 2 hours long, you might want to set the bit rate properly so that the final output fits on a singl layer disc (if that is your media of choice). If you are going to use Dual Layer DVD Blank disc, then it will surely fit 2hours of video at maximum bit rate for DVD-Video.

I persume I should encode the footage with the MPEG2-DVD preset which makes my file output *.m2v? The project is meant to be basic DVD 720x576 footage.

Read above.

I was experimenting in Encore and I noticed the Transcode option, whats it for?

Encoding is the process of converting your 'source' material into a target format (such as MPEG-2 DVD), whereas transcoding is converting 'an already converted' video file into another format. Basically, encoding-the-encoded, if my understanding is right. From your Premiere, you will be 'encoding'. Encore will 'transcode' if (it thinks that) the encoded files that you supply to it are not entirely compatible with the final DVD Specification.

Also, after trying to export the 2 hour footage (with some overlay titles and graphics) in MPEG2-DVD preset, Premiere estimated 20 hours to complete the task. Is this too much? I work on iMac Core 2 Duo 2.8

I faced this issue long ago when I tried to export the video directly to DVD Disc from Premiere. I suggest you use the option Export --> Media, which will open-up Adobe Media Encoder. This should not take 20 hours.

Also, learn about CBR and VBR (for encoding) and bit rate calculations by browsing through the forum.

[Mylo]

Thanks for the reply! I will look into the forums for variable bit rates, also I have 5 hour material at disposal so I think I'll rather spread it across 4 DVDs, since I have some 4-pack boxes laying around

[nharikrishna]

You are welcome.

[Mylo]

I think I've figured why Premiere estimated 20 hours for 1,5 hour DVD video.

I had the Maximum Render Quality option on. When I turn that option off, it dramatically speeds up the process. I hope it doesn't effect the final quality of the footage.