From Premiere to DVD! Which Settings should I use!?
 

Alright, about 5 months ago i put together a short 15 minute slide show for my girlfriends graduation party. I just exported the movie to my hard drive and used a projector to display the movie directly from my laptop. Now, months later, I want to export the movie and burn it onto DVD, but I have no idea where to start.

When i first exported the timeline, the file was massive...and I dont think ill have enough space on my hard drive to export the entire movie in mpeg-2 format.

I read somewhere that I can map a network drive using a patch cable between my laptop and my pc (which has 300 gigs of free space on )

Once i find the solution to my disk space problem, ill need to use the correct settings to export to the proper format then burn it to dvd.

How should i go about doing this? any help would be greatly appreciated :) thanks in advance...

As you indicate you have multiple problems. You MUST export
to MPEG2 if you want to make a DVD. I assume Premiere has
a DVD export template for you to use. Otherwise it will be a
real fiddle with settings.

Creating the MPEG2 file (and seperate audio file if wanted or
needed) is the first step. Your disc must then be authored by
an authoring package and then burned to disc (some authoring
packages can also burn the disc for you).

Most DVD burners come bundled with (simple) software to
accomplish this.

Firewire
 

You can use your Firewire/i-link to connect the two computers, if I understand what your wanting to do correctly.

Re: From Premiere to DVD! Which Settings should I use!?
 

<<<-- Originally posted by John Garcia : Alright, about 5 months ago i put together a short 15 minute slide show for my girlfriends graduation party.

...and I dont think ill have enough space on my hard drive to export the entire movie in mpeg-2 format.
-->>>

15 minutes of MPEG-II shouldn't be more than about 600MB -- far, far less than 300GB and most likely small enough to fit on your laptop (and if you don't have 600MB free space on your laptop, you might want to consider doing some spring cleaning!)

As for connecting the computers, you are thinking of a "cross-over" cable -- basically an everyday Cat5 ethernet cable, but with the wires flipped on one end so you can connect two computers via their ethernet ports. You can pick up a cross-over cable at any Best Buy (or similar store).Depending on your OS, networking the two computers might be very, very easy once you connect the cross-over cable.

If you are running Premiere 6.5, you will have an option to export an MPEG-II under your Export Timeline options. It uses the MainConcept encoder and is pretty good and easy to understand. There is also an update at the MainConcept site (don't know the URL offhand) for the Premiere encoder that slightly improves results.

Otherwise, Rob is correct in saying that some authoring programs include an encoder. If you have a Sony DVD burner, for example, it probably came with Sonic MyDVD, which allows you to import an .avi file, which it will convert to MPEG-II on the fly. Again, at optimal settings, 15 minutes of video shouldn't much more than 600MB.

thanks for the advice everyone! :D

ill try it out! thanks again:)

ok...i went to export timeline/movie

i have a whole bunch of options here...

i dont see an option to export to mpgII format...

this is what i see...

export movie settings : General

file type -

microsoft dv avi
microsoft avi
tiff sequence
targa sequence
quick time
gif sequence
animated gif
filmstrip
flc/fli
windows bitmap sequence

if i click next, i get video, audio, keyframe and rendering, and special options.

my question is, once again, what settings should i use!? lol...

i guess i could export as an avi, burn it onto a disk, load it up into my home computer then convert the avi and burn to disk using my dvd software that came with my dvd...

hmm...any advice?

Well, first -- do you have Premiere 6.5? If you have 6.0 or earlier, then you do not have mpeg2 options (if I recall correctly -- I know 5.5 didn't have it)

Next -- the MPEG encoder is not under the Export Timeline -> Movie option. Instead, it's under Export Timeline -> Adobe MPEG Encoder (In my menu it's near the bottom of the list, under EDL and right above the Advanced Windows and Advanced RealMedia Export options).

If you have an earlier version of Premiere, you'll need to export an .avi file and convert it with another application (such as your authoring program)

darn....yeah, i have premiere 6.0...

ok...so i guess my next question is, being that i have to export into AVI format, then convert to mpg2 using a different software, what are the best settings to use for my AVI file? should i output at microsoft DV/AVI? if so...i know ill have a file size issue, being that i tried it before and the file size was outrageously large...

i have about 6 gigs left on my laptop...

dv .avi *should* encode fine into mpeg2 (it has for me previously) -- but it may depend on the encoder. It may affect your quality as well (though it very well may not). I often export projects w/ multiple video layers as DV AVI files and re-import that file into Premiere 6.5 to do the final m2v export, and the final results are fine.

I am looking at a DV AVI file on my computer right now that is 1:19 (one minute, nineteen seconds) long and is 285 MB in size. The video consists of 30 secs bars and tone, 10 sec. slate, 30 secs of video, and 9 total secs of black -- so I don't know if this is indicative of a minute of full-on video.

But, using that as a reference point, here's an approximation of the size of a 15-minute video file: 280 MB = 1 minute; 280 x 15 = 4200 MB = roughly 4.2 GB for 15 minutes of video.

4.2 GB leaves you almost 2 GB to make your DVD, which should be more than enough room.

If you want to use an uncompressed .avi file, you will definitely need to network to your PC. Uncompressed .avi files are -- IIRC -- roughly 1 GB per minute.

Try exporting to DV AVI first and encoding that and see what happens. The total process shouldn't take more than a half-hour or so, so give it a shot...

<<<-- ok...so i guess my next question is, being that i have to export into AVI format, then convert to mpg2 using a different software, what are the best settings to use for my AVI file? should i output at microsoft DV/AVI? if so...i know ill have a file size issue, being that i tried it before and the file size was outrageously large...

i have about 6 gigs left on my laptop... -->>>

DV-AVI requires about 13 gigs per hour, so 6 gigs gives you almost 30 minutes.

As for encoding to MP2, I agree that Sonic MyDVD or something like that (something bundled) would be easiest. But if you're really after quality, one word: TMPGEnc. www.tmpgenc.net

alright!

so i exported my 13 min video in dv/avi format and it came out to about 2 gigs, so I have a few gigs to work with.

now my problem is transfering the 2 gig dv/avi file from my work laptop to my home computer...

If you've got 2 PCs, a cheap cross-over cable (as I mentioned in an earlier post above) will give you quick and easy networking.

Or -- at 2 GBs, the raw DV .avi file will fit on a DVD that you can transfer to your desktop PC ...er, unless your laptop doesn't have a DVD burner (or if you don't own an external burner).

Do you need to transfer to your desktop b/c you don't have a DVD burner for your laptop? If so, go with a cross-over cable.