Encore CS5 Blu-ray
 

I am currently working on my first project in Encore. I am doing a 50gb Blu-ray disc. I'm in need of a little guidance since this is my first project. I am editing the footage in Avid and exporting a uncompressed quicktime. I take the quicktime into Squeeze and create a .m2v video file and .ac3 audio file. Bring them into Encore and add them to a timeline. When I look at the Blu-ray Transcode Statues it says Untranscoded. Why does this need to be transcoded if it's a .m2v? When I burn a test disc, the video quality doesn't look good even though I have the Automatic Transcode setting at 40mbps. It seems like by transcoding in Encore, I'm doing it twice and that's why the video is suffering. I don't see any way to not transcode in Encore. Anyone have any ideas???

Glenn, your Editor/encore might not be making "compliant" mpeg-2 files for Encore to read or the bitrate is too high, or you used VBR.

I encode in Edius and if the bitrate is over 40,000 Encore will want to transcode it. Or if I use VBR Encore will want to transcode it.

So I never go over 39,000 for the bitrate and always use CBR.

Welcome to the world of -should be better than DVD because we could have learned from the past but we did not not- Blu-ray production.

I am bitter as Encore will not ever accept an h.264 encoded asset from Edius without a run though another program as it is not level 4.1.

Blu-ray will work but one would think it would be a lot smoother than it is at this point in time.

You can also encoder your uncompressed video to Bluray compliance H.264 using Adobe Media Encoder. Then Encore will not transcode it.

I would really like to know how to bypass Encore from transcoding my videos aswell! I have not been able to find a way around it!
I render from Vegas to MainConcept MPEG-2 (.m2v) at constant bitrate.

You can certainly bypass it by using Adobe Media Encoder and select any Bluray preset. I would suggest not to use any Bluray MPEG-2 because of the inferior MainConcept MPEG-2 enginge. But their H.264 encoding engine seems great.

Thanks Taky, you're right. It actually works straight out of Vegas too. Encore says Untranscoded under "DVD" Transcode Status, clearly in reference to DVD's not Blu-ray.

WHOA! Taky, I see your comment re using H.264 vs. MPEG 2 in AME - I'd be really interested as to whether
you have experimented with both and found this to be the case, because if you and/or others have actually seen this demonstrated, then I will change my production immediately from what I've always used, MPEG2 in AME to your suggested H.264!!!!!!!! Thanks for your comment.

Whoops - Again, Taky, I don't then understand? I just read your post below, "Use procoder to convert the same video to mpeg2 for DVD and mpeg-2 for Bluray (Encore is really flaky when working on H.264 files)."

Sooooo, which have you had the best success with if using AME and then Encore????

I did a few BluRay using H.264 encoded by Procoder. Encore just give different unknown error during the built process. Drove me crazy. I did once using H.264 encoded by AME. The video looks great and the authroing process in Encore is fine. However, the long H.264 encoding time makes me turn to MPEG-2. Procoder generates beautiful MPEG-2 output even in lower bit rate. But in AME, resulting MPEG-2 encode is just horrible.

I was also thinking of buying CompressHD by Matrox which encode H.264 in real time for BluRay. About $400. But currently, I'm still using MPEG-2 encoded by Procoder to author BluRay.

Well, I also installed Adobe Media Encoder CS5 5.0.1 with Premiere Pro CS5 5.0.2, and guess what? AME CS5 5.0.1 now produces H.264 Blu-ray files that are compliant with Encore's "Don't Transcode" (for Blu-ray) feature. The first release of AME CS5 produced H.264 Blu-ray files that were not compliant with Encore's "Don't Transcode" feature, requiring a re-transcode.

I've been going NUTS over this over at the Adobe forums....

I've tried every different configuration out there..
I've even tried bringing in a transcoded Encore file into a new Encore project....Encore still insists on retranscoding...
I mean really, why would it need to transcode again?? Encore doesn't even respect it's own transcodes!!!

I'm at a loss....I thought i was the only crazy one....

Are you working on a BluRay project or DVD project in Encore? Does the project panel said the footage is "Don't Transcode" or "Untransacode" ?

How do you bring the "transcoded Encore" file into a new Encore project. where you find those Encore transcoded files?

Good questions Taky....

I had Encore build a BluRay project..All the files were therefore transcoded..

As a test, i created a brand new project, and imported the .M2V's and .AC3's from the folder of the previous project...
They are located under the Folder>Sources>Transcodes>_session USF .m2v and .ac3 files.
These are the transcoded assets that get used to build an .ISO...

As i was saying, i used these files in a new project, and Encore considered the status as untranscoded..
How can this be?

This is only happening with .M2V files for BluRay...
It's never an issue with SD DVD footage..

Is your BluRay project MPEG-2 or H.264?

I assumed you read the "Untranscoded" is under the column or BluRay?

Have you considered using Adobe Media Encoder to encode all your files with MPEG-2 BluRay preset before importing to Encore?

Yes, this is where the problem actually started....
I actually prefer AME because the speed is faster, and i can batch encode..

AME's BluRayMpeg2 settings have many presets..
I used the presets 1440x1080i high quality to best match my source footage.

It's pretty well idiot proof...
Playback is gorgeous.
Unfortunately, Encore wants that these files need transcoding.

I've also tried many variations (muxed, demuxed, data rates, etc....), and no matter what i do, Encore wants a transcode...

This isn't my first time encoding, and i'm not a beginner at this...There's obviously a bug, issue or corrupted preference that's holding me back....

I suspect that the assets are fine, but i suspect that there's something in the header of the file that tells Encore to do a transcode..