720p25 footage to DVD?
 

I know there are many topics about this, I red most of them but in every topic different things have been said. (sorry for my english if I made mistakes)

So I have a 11 minute short film edited in Premiere Pro 2 in 720p25 format (cineform). I want to export it to a DVD with flawless quality.

What setting I should use? Many people said "don't yous direct to DVD in Premiere. Export avi than use virtualdub etc.

What are the exact settings? What should I do?

I usually export in h264 quicktime format. No body uses .Mov to DVD I guess? (only on Macs) Is it bad compared to avi?

And the last thing I use this settings to export last night: Microsoft AVI with Cineform Codec And it gives arror after 8-9 hours (between %70-%80). I don't want to try it again because I don't want to wait that much time again and see another error.

The DVD spec only allows for 720x576 PAL (I assume you are using PAL with the 25P), so you have to downrez to SD MPEG2-DVD.

I know I have to downscale to SD. But the question is which method? Should the resolution be 720x576? (PAL). Is there a 16:9 solution? Should I turn the video to Interlaced? Or can I keep progressive?

Yes, exporting to avi then encoding with a separate encoder is a good way to maintain high quality.

But, your end product needs to be DVD-specification MPEG2. So you will need a good-quality encoder to convert your avi file. Virtualdub is not an encoder - you'll need something like TMPGEnc or Procoder.

Also, the first thing you will need to figure out why your export to avi is crashing. Did you run out of disk space? (Cineform avi files are large!)

All PAL DVDs are always 720x576, regardless of whether they are 4:3 or 16:9. If the footage is widescreen you change the "pixel ratio" so it displays correctly. There will be a setting for that in your encoder software.

For smoothest movement you would retain your interlacing.

For "film look" you might consider converting your footage to progressive (although there's a lot more to film-look that that).

EDIT: If your footage is progressive already, keep it that way.

Thanks for the quick reply. My footage is progressive, so I can keep it like that.
So I will try this method:

I'm currently exporting as Cineform HD output. (not Microsoft AVI and then Cineform Codec). Is it okay?

I have 133 GB free disc space and my footage is 12min 1280x720 25p. I used quicktime all the time during editting. Files like between 800 MB - 1.1 GB. So it should be okay.

when my export process is done, I'll resize with virtualdup resize filter (Lanczos3). Then "export via frameserving or uncompressed temp file to Tmpgenc" (I copy/paste this from another topic). They say the quility via this method is excellent.

So then with Adobe Encore I will write it on DVD. Is this method ok? In which stage I must change the "Pixel Ratio" thing? Where? and how?

I'm asking to much, I know but I'm trying to finish my project to attend a festival. It's endig this Thursday and my export time takes 8-9 housrs :D.

The "pixel ratio" needs to be set at the TMPGEnc encoding step. You will be frameserving 720x576 to it....and you need to specify that it is 16:9 aspect ratio. By specifying that aspect ratio, the pixels will be set correctly.

I dont have TMPG in front of me right now, but somewhere I know you will see an "aspect ratio" box.

Also, when you take the resulting MPEG footage into Encore, just be sure you tell encore that you want a 16:9 formast dvd.

Given that things are time-critical for you, I would strongly recommend you render out 30sec of footage, and take that right through all the steps. Take good notes, and confirm that the end result will be OK.

And yeah .. Cineform HD output should be fine.

Thank you very very much for your replies Graham

Last question: How can I export the specific time of my footage? I can't find it. Export --> Movie --> ?

To export a section of your timeline, rather than the whole thing, you first need to select a section of the timeline by moving the start and end markers (near the top of the timeline window).

Then when you go to "Export", on the first page that comes up select "Export work area" rather than "Export entire sequence". (The "entire sequence option is on by default ... you'll need to change it).