More DVD problems
 

Ok after alot of trial and error I was unable to render out a mpeg of my movie. But I was able to render out an uncompressed avi. Then I took it into Adobe Encore and transcoded it using the high quailty progressive transcode preset. Now when I preview the disc or burn it and watch it certain shots in the movie skip or are on screen for 1 frame. Or some shots are on screen for too long. Kinda like it takes the first frame and pulls it out a few more seconds. Examples are a picture that is suppose to be on screen for 2-3 secs is on screen for 1 frame or so, a title that is suppose to be on screen for 3 secs is on screen for 1 frame, then two titles earlier on that is supose to be on for 3 secs is on for 7. Then after the titles are done we are supose to go to black and hear quarters being dropped into a juke box then see the next get dropped in. Instead the first frame of the 2nd quarter is shown while the audio of the 1st one is being dropped in as a still frame. Now when I play the avi it plays fine, it's just after transcoding that it does these things. And there are a few more through out the movie.
Plz help. This is the last leg of this crazy ass project I have been having so many problems with over the last few months.

I assume all your software has been patched to the latest bug updates?

Given that, I can think of two problems:

1. you rendered out an interlaced uncompressed AVI instead of progressive

2. encore is making the MPEG at the wrong framerate (like 25p when it was 30p?)

For best results with Encore, just Export your movie as DV AVI. Then leave Encore to transcode at its automatic settings. Encore does a fine job with this setup. Playing around with other bitrates and source video gets extremely tricky if you want your final disc to play on a majority of players.

Uncompressed AVI is a tricky animal. Others have had similar issues Its also totally unnecessary to use it for final DVD output. Since Mpeg 2 is highly compressed anyway, you are better off using plain old DV-AVI as a source. You won't notice a difference in the final MPEG 2 output. People just assume that since Uncompressed AVI is "uncompressed", their DVD's will look better.

Ok so when you render out a dv avi what setting do you use for the data rate? I think by default it says recompress maintain data rate. should that be un checked?

I'm not an expert on the data rate settings. What I do know is that if you do not have a lot of effects on your clips, leaving the box unchecked can make rendering go faster. Basically it just does a direct copy of any original, unaltered DV clips inyour timeline that way. If the box is checked, it recompresses or "re-renders", so to speak, everything even if some of the clips are un-altered. Checking the recompress box might be more stable, but I don't know for sure. I did have a corrupt AVI export once, and when I went back and checked that box, it came through fine the second time.

Also, uncheck the "optimize stills" box in the Video properties window of the exort dialogue. Encore is known to have bugs pop up when that feature is used.

Will encore know that it is a 24p avi and transcode it accordingly by default?

I assume so, but I haven't done any 24p DVD's yet. The mpeg2 transcoding process basically just groups frames into GOP's (Groups of pictures) which consist of multiple frames "clumped" together. It shouldn't affect, or be affected by framerate.

Of course, you need to export as 24p from your NLE in the first place...