Trying to author my first BRD's...?'s

[Jerry]

Aside from investing in PPro Production Premium to the tune of $ 1,700 (I have never used PPro, After Effects, or Photoshop [well I do have Photoshop elements on my computer]) how is the learning curve to be able to author say a basic menu in CS3 with motion background, motion thumbnails, perhaps moving text.

It is not that I am lazy but there only so many hours in the day and since I am an "obsessed hobbyist" with a full-time Cardiology practice and 3 young kids to take care of it doesn't leave me much time to spend hours and hours learning layers and the other complex things I have heard about in Photoshop menus and applying them to a CS3 Encore authoring project. That is why I have stuck with DVDit ProHD despite it's shortcomings I do like the idea of setting up a project with simultaneous output for blu-ray, DVD, etc. Any advice would be appreciated (except perhaps - "you are a hobbyist not a professional - you don't belong on this forum) LOL.

Being a 'hobbyist' is not a disease. If you are not familiar with Adobe Products
it will have a steep learning curve. The key is once you learn one, you can pick up the others pretty quickly. This excludes After Effects. That has a very steep learning curve.
That stated, you can do the same as with DVDITPROHD in CS3. It is drag and drop. It does not open up with a graphical interface. You have to read some of the manual, or even download the tutorials from Adobe....they are free!
http://www.adobe.com/products/tips/encoredvd.html
Just to keep this on topic, you can use Procoder 3 to create your standard DVD mpegs and import them into Encore.
Encore comes with libraries with menus that you can customize in Encore or Photoshop.You can also download the 2.0 version as a trial and practice on standard DVD. The interface and actions are pretty much the same since v1 thru CS3.
I can direct you to help, I just can't teach you how to use it.

[planetweckesser]

1. Keep in mind that menus used in Encore CS3 are created by Photoshop.
If you are familiar with photoshop CS3, you can do anything that you want.
If you think that those menus in DVDITPROHD are complex, you are in for a
big shock.
2. I only use PP if I have to. I usually will opt for AE instead.

All I can say is that Encore runs circles around DVDITPROHD. I am going to be doing a new rebuild here shortly, DVDITPROHD will not be one of the programs to be loaded. It served it's purpose. Nothing more, nothing less.
I look at DVDITPROHD as a very confusing and troubled entry level program.

Aside from investing in PPro Production Premium to the tune of $ 1,700 (I have never used PPro, After Effects, or Photoshop [well I do have Photoshop elements on my computer]) how is the learning curve to be able to author say a basic menu in CS3 with motion background, motion thumbnails, perhaps moving text.

It is not that I am lazy but there only so many hours in the day and since I am an "obsessed hobbyist" with a full-time Cardiology practice and 3 young kids to take care of it doesn't leave me much time to spend hours and hours learning layers and the other complex things I have heard about in Photoshop menus and applying them to a CS3 Encore authoring project. That is why I have stuck with DVDit ProHD despite it's shortcomings I do like the idea of setting up a project with simultaneous output for blu-ray, DVD, etc. Any advice would be appreciated (except perhaps - "you are a hobbyist not a professional - you don't belong on this forum) LOL.

[Jerry]

I do the H264 encoding in PC3 as well (with Mark's presets) and it works well in Encore CS3 without re-encoding.

Your one of the lucky ones.

[Crespel]

The only encoding I do through Encore CS3 is for H.264 product. It looks good
and as far as H.264 goes, is the only game in town as far as I know.

I do the H264 encoding in PC3 as well (with Mark's presets) and it works well in Encore CS3 without re-encoding.

[Jerry]

The preset shuedardm puts out is great, I think it looks better than Encore MPEG2 HD, I would just use PC3 for HD MPEG2.

The only encoding I do through Encore CS3 is for H.264 product. It looks good
and as far as H.264 goes, is the only game in town as far as I know.

You can't go wrong with PC3 - albeit it is slower but there has never been a question about high quality.

It is only slower if you encode one thing. For example, if you encode from 1 file to 1 transcoded file, yes it is slower. However, if you encode from 1 file to more than one transcode at a time, it will surprise you how fast it is.
I did a 20 minute Corporate promo with PC3 from an 8bit uncompressed 1920x1080 master going to MPEG2HD. This process took 2 hours.
When I did the MPEG2HD, SD DVD, and bluray for DVD files, it took the same time. This is on the same machine(quad 2.4 running at 3.1) .

[Khoi Pham]

The preset shuedardm puts out is great, I think it looks better than Encore MPEG2 HD, I would just use PC3 for HD MPEG2.

[planetweckesser]

The easiest solution I've found so far is to render a finished project to an Edius HQ file, and then import that into Adobe CS3 for authoring and burning. This way you let CS3 make the compliant MPEG2 output according to its own specifications, which is fine except it takes a while and doesn't look as good as MPEG2 from PCE. Sounds like buying the full version of Procoder is worth considering for optimal results, using confirmed compliant encoding settings.

You can't go wrong with PC3 - albeit it is slower but there has never been a question about high quality.

Rendering directly from the timeline to a blu-ray compliant file with PC3 seems like it would probably make the most sense as rendering to .m2t and then to the blu-ray compliant file adds one more step with theoretical (at least) quality decrease. I still will make .m2t files of finished projects for archiving.

[kwshaw1]

What you need to know, and also express in your article, is that it is not as simple as getting a bluray burner and software and making a blu-ray disc.
Yes, it is much easier these days than it was 2 years ago when I started. However, just making one mistake can create a non-compliant blu-ray file.

The easiest solution I've found so far is to render a finished project to an Edius HQ file, and then import that into Adobe CS3 for authoring and burning. This way you let CS3 make the compliant MPEG2 output according to its own specifications, which is fine except it takes a while and doesn't look as good as MPEG2 from PCE. Sounds like buying the full version of Procoder is worth considering for optimal results, using confirmed compliant encoding settings.

[planetweckesser]

It is no big secret- the sticky thread has the presets, the new version has a copy of them (all you do is change the frame rate to suit). You are the first and only person that can't get the Mpeg2 HD preset to work.

When I downloaded and installed Procoder 3.05 update and tried using the included presets - there were several items left unchecked - "Use Closed GOP", "put sequence header on each GOP", "enable scene detection", "use strict GOP bitrate control". I am not so sure why they were unchecked unless I had done it by mistake in 3.0 and it carried over to 3.05 - anyway I checked them all and compliant files were produced.

I apologize about my comment on the availability of presets - I usually don't go into the Procoder section of the forum and had overlooked it. I have installed them in the Procoder update and plan on using them. Thanks for your effort in producing them.

[shueardm]

I thought the idea of these forums is to exchange information - all of the people here are Edius Pro or Broadcast users and many want to author on blu-ray - the proper settings for blu-ray compliant files should be no big secret held be an elite few - by the way, the blu-ray presets in Procoder 3.05 do not produce files that will go through DVDit Pro HD without being re-encoded - I had to tweak them a bit by trial and error. Perhaps they work in Encore, Blu-print, Scenarist etc.

It is no big secret- the sticky thread has the presets, the new version has a copy of them (all you do is change the frame rate to suit). You are the first and only person that can't get the Mpeg2 HD preset to work.

[Jerry]

But then to refer people to another website and then say "by the way" those settings are old, have been improved upon and no longer used and I have removed the links from that website (without saying what the settings are or where you can find them) - well I won't make a comment on that further.

The settings and website link was mentioned earlier in this thread.
Since the settings are no longer current and are still being downloaded
by way of the posted link, I felt it better to remove them for accuracy sake!
The settings that are stickied on this forum are current and useable.

As far as Procoder 3 settings, they work fine for Encore. DVDITPROHD has too many quirks for consisitent product quality. I own it, but do not use it.
Procoder 2 settings allowed for BD burning within DVDITPROHD without re-encoding. Nothing has changed with that program (DVDITPROHD). I believe the last update was the PS3 update over a year ago.

When I can create 3 different versions of the same program, Blu-ray, Standard DVD, and Blu-ray on DVD, and one time... I don't see taking a step back.
All three of those discs are created with Procoder 3 with a perfect playback record of BDMV and AVCHD machines with firmware enabled.

[planetweckesser]

Might I suggest a move to the DVDITPROHD forum, as that is the program with which you have discussed authoring.

By the way, the encoding information contained in the Procoder Express settings download is 1 1/2 years old.( Where were you guys then?)
Those settings have been improved upon and are no longer used, therefore I have removed them from my website. Consequently, the links on the DVDITPROHD forum no longer work.

I fully understand not mentioning another company's products that may compete with a similar Grass Valley product on this website and certainly will comply with that.

But then to refer people to another website and then say "by the way" those settings are old, have been improved upon and no longer used and I have removed the links from that website (without saying what the settings are or where you can find them) - well I won't make a comment on that further.

I thought the idea of these forums is to exchange information - all of the people here are Edius Pro or Broadcast users and many want to author on blu-ray - the proper settings for blu-ray compliant files should be no big secret held be an elite few - by the way, the blu-ray presets in Procoder 3.05 do not produce files that will go through DVDit Pro HD without being re-encoded - I had to tweak them a bit by trial and error. Perhaps they work in Encore, Blu-print, Scenarist etc.

[Jerry]

Well spotted.

People, please keep this discussion GV-related. As for the "Canopus HQ upside down in Sorenson" issue - there's a thread for that already.

For Sorenson-Blu-ray workflow, take it offline please.

Might I suggest a move to the DVDITPROHD forum, as that is the program with which you have discussed authoring.

By the way, the encoding information contained in the Procoder Express settings download is 1 1/2 years old.( Where were you guys then?)
Those settings have been improved upon and are no longer used, therefore I have removed them from my website. Consequently, the links on the DVDITPROHD forum no longer work.

[planetweckesser]

Well spotted.

People, please keep this discussion GV-related. As for the "Canopus HQ upside down in Sorenson" issue - there's a thread for that already.

For Sorenson-Blu-ray workflow, take it offline please.

I have not mentioned the "S" word since shueardm's admonition that you guoted in your post. My last post just concerned bitrates - nothing specific to any compression software.

Henceforth will be following guidelines.

[GrassValley_KH]

We're pushing the limits aren't we? Talking about how to do things in Sorenson?

Well spotted.

People, please keep this discussion GV-related. As for the "Canopus HQ upside down in Sorenson" issue - there's a thread for that already.

For Sorenson-Blu-ray workflow, take it offline please.