5 Replies Latest reply: Sep 28, 2011 9:52 AM by Stan Jones RSS

    Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link

    dan_hin Community Member

      I'm creating a DVD in the way I have hundreds (OK tens) of times before - import footage into premiere, add chapters in premiere, dynamic link into Encore and "transcode now" in order to make my motion menus and animated buttons work properly. When all my navigation etc has been signed off I hit "build".

       

      For some reason Encore has decided to transcode all my footage again, as if it wasn't DVD compliant. This baffles me as it was showing as "transcoded" in the project window and from previous experience that should mean that the only thing remaining to do on build is to order the files for the project and burn. Interestingly my motion menus are re-rendering too, before the main timeline transcodes. Very confusing.

       

      EDIT - I note that in addition to transcoding everything twice, the full screen motion menu (basically the title sequence used as a background for the main menu) has somehow transcoded with flipped fields. It's the same source footage as the main timeline - which has transcoded fine - and the same transcode preset too. I'm at a loss to explain what's going on here, except that DL simply isn't production ready for Encore.

       

      Dan

        • 1. Re: Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link
          Stan Jones CommunityMVP

          That certainly sounds odd.

           

          After transcoding twice, is the DVD okay?

           

          Are you sure you haven't set it, before or after, to bluray?

           

          Have you tried the Right click, run as administrator?

          • 2. Re: Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link
            dan_hin Community Member

            Stan,

             

            It is odd!!

             

            The DVD is fine (shot on DV so quality is hardly pristine to begin with) and in all 3 of my years of experience I've never touched the blu-ray settings. I'm not a sysadmin so am unable to run programs as adminstrator, which isn't a problem unless I'm trying to build a dual layer disc.

             

            I'm actually more pissed off about the field order issue with rendered motion menus to be honest, I had to go into premiere and deinterlace the main menu background in order for it to stop strobing.... ridiculous.

             

            Dan

            • 3. Re: Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link
              Stan Jones CommunityMVP

              I missed this part:

              and "transcode now" in order to make my motion menus and animated buttons work properly.

              Transcode now only applies to each asset you choose, not to menus. Even if you transcode an asset used as a menu background, that motion menu must still be rendered. That is always true unless you add no text (in a button set or otherwise), graphics, etc to the menu - anything other than highlights. In the case where you have only highlights on a video background, you can avoid Encore rendering the motion background into the menu.

               

              In looking back at this, I wonder if your settings for transcode now are noncompliant, either generally or regarding the max rate.

               

              Are you using AME for transcode now or Encore? Set to automatic or another setting?

              • 4. Re: Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link
                dan_hin Community Member

                Stan,

                 

                I'm well aware that menus always have to be rendered, after all how else is the DVD player to decode the motion menus? However as per usual with Encore there are always illogical inconsistencies (you might call them bugs) which prevent me from completing projects without a hitch. Take the example of using DL assets as backgrounds for motion menus. I discovered that when I didn't transcode them, Encore only managed to render about 2 seconds of the video (total duration about 1" 30') before freezing. When I transcoded the assets, Encore was able to render the entire video (although for some reason flipping the fields in the process). I also noted that when I rendered the menus in order to preview them, Encore "forgot" it had rendered them and proceeded to render all motion menus again, despite the fact that I had changed nothing on the menus prior to the build.

                 

                Regarding the compliance of my assets - well, I'm transcoding using Media Encoder in the possibly misguided hope that this will offer some sort of performance increase, but my specs SHOULD be compliant: MPEG2-DVD, 2-pass VBR with a low threshold of 1.5mbps, target 6mbps and max 7.99mbps, upper field first, "best quality" checked. I don't use automatic because it has delivered inconsistent results in the past.

                 

                I'll shut up now as I'm in danger of ranting about Encore in general rather than the issue at hand - thanks for your help so far Stan.

                 

                Dan

                • 5. Re: Encore CS5 transcodes twice via dynamic link
                  Stan Jones CommunityMVP

                  I'm well aware that menus always have to be rendered, after all how else is the DVD player to decode the motion menus?

                  Under the conditions I described, Encore does not re-transcode the motion background, since it is all that is put in to the vob. The highlights are separate.

                   

                  Regarding the compliance of my assets - well, I'm transcoding using Media Encoder in the possibly misguided hope that this will offer some sort of performance increase, but my specs SHOULD be compliant: MPEG2-DVD, 2-pass VBR with a low threshold of 1.5mbps, target 6mbps and max 7.99mbps, upper field first, "best quality" checked. I don't use automatic because it has delivered inconsistent results in the past.

                  I would pick a max of 7, but others argue that a higher number is fine. And as long as you project max fits (an 8 in this instance, or with 7.99, should it be higher?) it should work - or throw a max rate exceeded error.