Alright, I've got a question (2 actually)

[emjen]

I've just rendered my latest short with my new computer (which is a great computer by the way) but the footage turned out pretty crap. Some shots lack color, there's an occasional stutter (the whole film doesn't run as smoothly as when I play it within Adobe Premiere Pro 7.0) and I've got plenty of jaggies everywhere (I just saw that I didn't deinterlace the video footage - that might be it?)

My question? What is the best compressor out there, and what's the best way to get my footage out as nice as possible?

and here's the second one. I want to put it up the internet of course, but the latest trailer was absolutetly terrible (the pixels were way too big) I've seen quite some nice looking quicktime shorts (and of course the trailers) which still are small enough in resolution to download, but at least they don't blow up the pixels.

To sum up, I need a good free compressor for my video footage, both for dvd and internet quality.

And you'll see my work of grandeur when it's ready of course.

[Xendar]

How are you playing the video back and what video have you exported? If you're watching something in Windows Media Player for instance it wouldn't be surprising to get tearing or stuttering playback.

You need to create the right file type for the right job.

If it's a DVD you've created what settings did you use?

[Xendar]

Sorry, I didn't see your second question. Generally for the internet I'd use Windows Media Encoder and QuickTime as they are the most common (and best) formats found on the web.

Generally speaking I go with the standard 150 148Kbps 15FPS 320 x 240 setting in Windows Media Encoder. There are settings for de-interlace if you're having problems. The Broadband medium setting seems good in QuickTime Pro.

Whenever you encode anything for the web it is always a comprimise between size and quality.

[emjen]

It's not the windows media player fault. It plays like crap in every player, so it's definetly got something to do with de/encoding.

I exported it to AVI with the Cinepak Codek by Radius (comes standard) with normal DV resolution.

I've been trying to find a Mpeg4 codec, I found a 3ivx but that just keeps getting errors, and I downloaded the Divx ones as well, but that doesn't even show up as an option in adobe [img]frown.gif[/img] .

Edit: divx does show up as an option when I select: export>movie, instead of export>adobe media encoder. But fuck divx, it gives me crap beyond belief.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 27, 2006 01:25 PM: Message edited by: emjen ]</font>

[Xendar]

What will this file used for? Using a cinepak codec or MPEG4 will making look crap.

If you've edited it as a standard DV AVI file then you need export it as a standard DV AVI file. If you go to Export&gt;Movie and use the default settings it should export okay. This won't be suitable for the net though as it will be too big but you can then take that file into Windows Media Encoder or QuickTime Pro.

[emjen]

thats the weird thing. On my previous computer the avi footage looked fine - (almost) like the original footage. But on my new and improved pc the exported footage (all on default, mind you) looks rubbish.

I'm now trying all kinds of different codecs to get the best result as possible, but alas.

And I want one version for internet, and one for dvd. I got the best results so far with mpeg2-for dvd (m2v file). And that still wasn't really that good.

Thing is, I never really had problems before. I captured everything as avi into adobe, but exporting to avi gives me shit. Makes me want to cry and let my mama solve my problems.

edit: Ok, I've now exported the footage as DV AVI. It gives me the best quality so far, and not only that, it renders pretty fucking fast. My only question is: (how) will this burn to dvd (easily)?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 27, 2006 03:59 PM: Message edited by: emjen ]</font>

[Xendar]

Okay, you've got two choices for burning to DVD. You can either do it in Premiere but you won't have a menu. Or you can export it out as MPEG2 using Premiere's Media Encoder. Either way the resulting should look fine.

Be careful what MPEG2 setting you choose from the list of presets though, there are loads of them and only 4 or 5 will be applicable to your TV standard.

What TV standard and aspect ratio are you using?

[miker]

What version of Adobe Premiere are you using? I thought that touted exporting a basic DVD from the timeline as a major feature?

Much as I hate to say it, in three years of being a Mac user I've never had to think about the technology, I've just been able to get work done.

On a Mac if you want a DVD, just use iDVD. If you want a file for the web "share" it from within QuickTime and get a small h.264 file pumped out.

Content creators using Windows are masochists in my opinion (and believe me, I was a Windows user for ten years, now I am merely a Windows administrator so I still haven't lost touch with the platform completely).

Oh, and Cinepak is like an ancient codec designed for 1x CDROM multimedia. Avoid it.

[emjen]

PAL, 4:3

The burn to dvd function doesn't work on my premiere, maybe because I 'loaned' my version.

(I've got premiere pro 7 btw)

What I do is export to avi, then burn it as an svcd with nero. And what I can't get over with is that there is no video function if you select DVD with Nero.

But I'll find some other program.

The latest cut was far too fast for my 2 test subjects. I'm all for doing everything as quick as possible, but I guess I've gone a bit too far. :|

[Xendar]

If you can't activate the Main Concept MPEG2 encoder in Premiere you'll need to use some other software to encode the MPEG2 and create the DVD. I wouldn't recommend Nero or SVCD - you won't get anything of any qulaity or that's playable with that.

Just to clarify, version 7 of Premiere is actually called Premiere Pro 1.0.

Premiere Pro 1.0 and 1.5 can burn a DVD from the Timeline with no menu. Premiere Pro can burn a DVD from the Timeline with a menu.

Creating DVDs is fairly simple on PC with this software, it's just a matter of knowing which preset is the one you need. It's that bit that requires some knowledge of the settings.