Advice for a newbie, please!

[John Warren]

I've been putzing around in Premiere/AE for about a year, but never had the impetus to actually take a project all the way to DVD. I shot a friend's wedding about a month ago, and she's putting the proverbial thumbscrews to me to get her project done. I finished a rough-cut and wanted to see how it was going to look - saving the timeline as an avi, then attempting to encode using Encore. I got a "disk full" message 2/3rds of the way through the Encore process, which didn't make sense as I had 60+ gigs free. I then used Premiere's (latest rev.) DVD encoding, and got a DVD readable on my normal entertainment system. Three things I noticed right off the bat:

1. The footage seemed slightly lighter.

2. There were noticable artifacts.

3. The MP3 files I used seemed somewhat (further) muffled.

I've read that Adobe's encoding leaves something to be desired - so today I ordered Canopus' Procoder 2.0, as I do boardsports photography and DV as a hobby, and want the cleanest final product possible within the realm of a comsumer budget. So, while the Procoder's on the way, I thought I'd get your opinions of the best workflow.

I'm using Photoshop CS, Premiere Pro, AE Pro and Encore, and now adding Procoder. Do I:

1. Export my finished timeline in Premiere to an AVI, use the Procoder simply to encode, then bring the MPeg-2 file into Encore so that I can create my menus, etc. in Encore - or is Encore going to further compress what Procoder already did?

2. Will I really get better results with Procoder?

3. Should I be using .WAV files in my timeline for the best audio fidelity on the finished product?

Any other input would be great - thanks in advance!

[Rob Lohman]

your first list:

1. that is possible, depending on settings and encoder etc.

2. this is quite possible, usually result of low bitrates or low quality encoder

3. avoid MP3

your second list:

1. sounds fine to me

2. yes you should. BUT, MPEG2 encoding is a trial and error and experience PROCESS. It is ALL in the parameters you choose. It is better to go with VBR (Variable Bitrate enoding) than CBR (Constant Bitrate encoding). The downside is encoding time. Bitrate is also very important. Make sure your mpeg2 uses a DVD compliant template. ProCoder is one of the very best encoders out there at this moment!

3. yes you should. And they should be uncompressed as well. Do not choose any other codec for audio (for anyone who wants to bring up PCM encoding etc., yes you can use that). MP3 is a lossy compression format (ie, it throws information away). If possible avoid it. Stick with uncompressed WAV. Audio isn't that big these days anyway.

[John Warren]

Thanks!