🚀 go-pugleaf

What is the duration of the video file?

Which codec was the MOV file encoded with?

And which version of Encore are you using?

hi there

the video file is only 2.15! the mov was created using the animation codec! and im using encore cs3!

the mov was created in adobe after effects!

2 minutes 15 seconds?

There is a maximum video bit rate of 9.8 Mbps for DVD-Video, so your video is only going to be about 200 MB at the very largest. You could get closer to the maximum allowable size by assigning a custom encoding preset.

Tell us more about the original video file - frame size, frame rate, etc.

yeah sorry 2 min 15 seconds.

the original files are coming from maya 3d software rendered at 768 x 576 at 25 fps(which i thought was pal standard ) then to after effects and put in a composition with the same settings and rendered to a quicktime movie!! then to encore!

the quicktime is crystal clear!!

768x576 is not PAL for DVD standard. That would be 720x576.

Try using Interpret Footage in Encore on the video asset. What is it currently set to?

right clicked on the test reel.mov (i imported this as a timeline??) and went to interpret footage?
a box popped up with this option checked . use the assets pixel aspect ratio: sd pal (1.066. or there is a conform to option? what should i do?

thanks for the help much appriciated!!!

Set it to Square Pixels with a PAR of 1.0.

jaston - do you want to create a DVD-Video disc you can play on a set top player, or do you want to create a backup of the film for archival purposes?
I ask as the animation codec is an uncompressed format of Quicktime, and no matter how you tweak settings when you go to DVD-Video it will be reduced to MPEG-2 with an absolute maximum bitrate of 9.8megabits/second including audio - loss of quality is inevitable & unavoidable.

If a watchable disc is the goal, then you can - with care - create a version that although reduced in quality will be perfectly acceptable. Settings will depend on the material encoded - is it animation (or CGI) or is it motion film? If the latter, is is fast action or fast moving, or reasonably static?
MPEG encoding is an art form - Hollywood employ people specifically as encodists - and takes practise. The presets in Encore will get you into the ballpark, to the right block & usually into the right row as well. Finding the right seat is achievable with practise.

hi neil yes its for showreel for animation/cgi! basically the quality isnt bad its just not as good as watching the quicktime movie on the pc! i thought i must be doing something wrong?

my only issue then if a loss of quality is inevitable! is that encore seems to cut off my screen recordings i did with camtasia! i loose the edges!! any ideas??

Hi Jaston.
Now I get what the issue is - sadly, the effect you are seeing is due to something called overscan which happens on all CRT TV sets and most LCD ones too - unless the set in question has a setting to allow you to change the displayed aspect ratio then there is absolutely nothing you can do about this.
When you create your footage, the best way to avoid issues like this is to always create with the safe areas displayed. There are 2 areas to worry about - Title Safe & Action Safe - and they are at 10% & 5% from the outer edges respectively as it is considered that Titles need more space than Action. This translates to 72 pixels in from the left & right edges for Action Safe, and 36 pixels in from Left & Right for titles. The same ratios also apply from top & bottom as well.
If the TV being used to display the resulting footage uses overscan, there is nothing you can do about this at all. The best way to deal with the problem is to be aware of it, and keep all critical detail within the safe areas.

With regard to the output quality, there is no way around the loss - the uncompressed animation QuickTime codec simply uses a heck of a lot more bits and additionally does not use Predictive frames either.
If you feel like doing some experimentation, then you might want to try getting a copy of the sadly obsolete TMPGEnc, or even buying a standalone later version as the same rules will still apply plus you will have the advantage of being able to feed the encoder with the original quicktime file (TMPGEnc original did not accept MOV files, and you would need to re-output your footage as an AVI file using something like the Lagarith or HuffYUV codecs).
Anyway, there is an extensive article about adapting your MPEG-2 encoder settings & tweaking for better results at
 <http://dvd-hq.info/dvd_compression.php>
This is a very useful site - and also with a little trial & error most of the suggestions here can be applied to the built-in MainConcept encoder used by Encore. You may find though that this encoder actually gives you better results.......