Burning Blu-ray discs with Premiere Pro CC 2017

[Chris Sollart]

I just purchased PP CC 2017 and edited an event.  Now I want to burn it onto a Blu-ray disc.  I cannot find any instructions on how to do this.  All the tutorials that I have found relate to PP CC 2016.  I was told by a chat person that PP CC 2017 no longer comes with Encore and that the latest version of Encore (CS6) is not compatible with PP CC 2017.  They say that you now have to use Media Encoder to burn discs with PP CC 2017 but I can not find any instructions on how to do this. 

Can anyone help me with this or do you know of a good tutorial that explains it?

One more thing; I am at the Beginner level of working with Premiere Pro CC 2017 so please do not assume I know all the details of how it works.  I have burned DVDs with Premiere Pro before but that was about 10 years ago and I haven't worked with it much since then and it seems the process of burning discs is quite a bit different.  Thanks!    

[excited_Genie16B8]

I've downloaded Blu-ray burning software and I'm trying to burn a Blu-ray disc.

Don't forget step 2 from post 23, authoring a Blu-ray.  You need to do that before you can burn a disk.

As to your questions:

1. This you should learned outside the forums.  There's a plethora of information on video production available these days.  The main point is, know what you're doing before you try doing it.

2. The video and audio portions are the only one's you will be able to import into Encore.  Whether you use that or something else is editor's choice.  I personally like the following over Encore.  (It's not free, though)

Blu-Disc Studio - Blu-ray authoring software

3. This can be learned by reading the documentation for Encore, or watching tutorials.

[Chris Sollart]

Thanks! However; as for learning it outside the forum; believe me, I've

tried! Adobe Chat was worthless. I've watched lots of tutorial videos on

YouTube and on Adobe site but they all seem to be out-dated. There seems

to be little or no info on Premiere Pro CC *2017 * which, apparently

functions differently than any previous version; there is no longer a

dynamic link to export Premiere sequences directly into Encore. I have

burned Blu-rays with Premiere and Encore before (years ago) but it seems as

though Adobe has made it *more *difficult to author Blu-ray or DVD discs!

(or maybe I'm just not smart or experienced enough!)

Chris

On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 10:59 AM, Jim_Simon <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[R Neil Haugen]

Encore uses a licensed authoring code module. The company that held the license got bought by another company, who didn't want to continue with that line of business. Due to that licensing issue, Adobe could not update Encore as it was. They chose not to buy another company's code, and then completely rebuild Encore around a new 'base'.

So ... Encore still exists as it was in CS6. ​None​ of the CC versions have had a "link" to Encore. One needs to export using the Mpeg2 DVD or Mpeg2 BluRay preset, take the resulting two files (one the video, the other the audio) and use those in Encore to build the DVD.

Those exported files can of course be used by other authoring programs, many of which are newer and with more "modern" UI's.

I've used Encore some, and it's an intriguing program. Jim and some of the others here have found newer DVD/Blu-Ray authoring programs that to them were worth a purchase fee because of being much easier to use or better/newer features.

You pays your money, you takes your chances ...

Neil

[Ann Bens]

Moved to Encore forum

[Chris Sollart]

Hi Neil;

Thanks for your responce! Actually; Premiere outputs 4 different files; so

I assume you mean the MP4 (.m4v), and WAV files; right?

I admit; I made some mistakes with this project right from the beginning

(shooting it!). But at this point, I just want to wrap it up as simply as

possible. After I get this completed, I promise I will take the time to

learn the programs properly! I've had a very hard time finding good

tutorials that are not out-dated, so I purchased a video tutorial for *Premiere

Pro CC 2017* and am eagerly waiting for it's arrival!

BTW; the sequence plays just fine in Premiere so all I need to do is burn

it to a disc and that's where I'm stuck.

I would prefer to use Encore to finish this particular project and burn the

disc with it because I know that I've done it before and it worked fine (

many years ago).

However; if you can recommend a better burning program, I don't mind

purchasing it. But I'm not looking for anything fancy; I just want to get

this disc burnt!

I did download a free trial version of *iSkysoft DVD Burner *however; it

will not let me import any of the files created by the output of the

sequence by Premiere. Could I be doing something wrong or is this just not

a good disc burning program?

Thanks!

Chris

On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 1:28 PM, R Neil Haugen <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[excited_Genie16B8]

as for learning it outside the forum; believe me, I've tried!

You may not be trying in the right way.

I was not suggesting you look for the specific answer to your question.  I was suggesting you learn the general data about resolution, frame rates, pixel aspect ratios, etc., as well as the Blu-ray specifications  Once you have that general knowledge, you will be able to answer your own question.

[Chris Sollart]

Hi Jim;

Thanks for your responce!

After I get this completed, I promise I will take the time to learn the

programs properly! I've had a very hard time finding good tutorials that

are not out-dated, so I purchased a video tutorial for *Premiere Pro CC

2017* and am eagerly waiting for it's arrival!

I have very successfully used Premiere Pro and Encore to create discs to

play on a home player many years ago and so I thought it would again be

easy but a lot seems to have changed since then and now I'm stuck.

BTW; the sequence plays just fine in Premiere so all I need to do is burn

it to a disc and that's where I'm stuck.

I would prefer to use Encore to finish this particular project and burn the

disc with it because I know that I've done it before and it worked fine (

many years ago).

However; if you can recommend a better burning program, I don't mind

purchasing it. But I'm not looking for anything fancy; I just want to get

this disc burnt!

I did download a free trial version of *iSkysoft DVD Burner *however; it

will not let me import any of the files created by the output of the

sequence by Premiere. Could I be doing something wrong or is this just not

a good disc burning program?

Thanks!

Chris

[neil wilkes]

Hey Chris.

Firstly - and perhaps most importantly - do not get stressed and beat yourself up.

Blu-ray authoring is far from straightforward as there are so many little gotchas lurking for the unwary and Encore - whilst it will get the job done - is quite picky about what it will accept as an asset.

Secondly, Encore was not Adobe's product - they put their front end on an old Sonic Solutions package that they had licensed and when Sonic Solutions were bought out & then promptly shut down by the buyers (Rovi) that ended all that, which is why no further updates were ever released.

That all said & done, lets try to get you happening.

Assets.

These are best provided to Encore as elementary streams. Do not multiplex them, otherwise things will go wrong.

Your best video codec is H.264 (Blu-ray) which gets you the same quality as MPEG-2 at half the bitrate & file size

Audio. Personally I would never, ever use anything other than PCM for stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio for surround (although Encore does support DTS-HD MA it is in "passthrough" mode only (IE no preview) so you need to be careful about matching the sync).

I cannot remember off the top of my head what form Encore requires the H264 files - mp4 or M4V (I think it is the latter, as mp4 is a multiplex including both video and audio). To set things up, Launch Encore & set up your project first:

1 - Set standard first. Unless there is a really good reason not to, choose NTSC.

2 - Set default transcode settings. It is unlikely this will matter much as we will be feeding Encore with correctly formatted assets, but to be sure:

A - set resolution & frame rate to match your footage. My recommendation is to always, always shoot at 24fps (23.976 if the option is there, but this does not make a great deal of difference as long as all follow the same rate as 23.976 is 24drop frame, so all okay.

B - set to progressive scan when using 24fps.

C - set Audio to PCM.

D - set your maximum bitrate to 35Mbps otherwise Encore will use 15 by default & try to re-transcode your footage. 35 is safe, and will work just fine on all players.

Importing Video Assets

Simply export/render from Premiere Pro CC 2017 to an M4V extension H264/Blu-ray codec.

If you have a .264 this will work as well and you can also change the extension from m4v to 264 with no ill effects - it will still work.

The critical part isd to make sure your assets are all spec correct before importing into Encore.

Menus

This is the hardest thing to get right in Blu-ray as Encore kinda fools you into thinking it all works the same as it does in DVD - do *not* be taken in by this because it doesn't. What happens is the Encore Abstraction Layer makes it seem that way. In reality, however, there are no menus in Blu-ray at all - everything is a movie file with or without graphical overlays that work as menus once imported.

Do you really need a menu? If you do then you should run through some tutorials about how to do this in Encore.....

Once you have imported your video & audio as assets, create a new playlist from the video asset & then add your audio to this using drag/drop. Check for sync but as long as frame 1 of the video aligns with sample 1 of the audio it should be fine..

When building a disc, instead of trying to write immediately you will be far better off exporting as an ISO file & then burning this to disc with the excellent freeware IMGburn.

Drop us another post if there is anything still confusing.

[Chris Sollart]

Hi Neil;

Thanks for your responce and comforting words!

First; if it is easier to burn a standard DVD than Blu-ray, then that is

what I want to do. I want to just get this done as quickly and as easily

as possible. I'm not using any menus. I just want it to play when my

client puts it in his home player. He is not super fussy so as long as it

plays, he'll be happy (and so will I!) Standard DVD will be fine if it's

easier to deal with!

The sequence plays just fine in Premiere Pro CC 2017, so I just need to

burn it to a disc (originally, I wanted blu-ray but we will all be quite

satisfied with standard DVD at this point!).

"These are best provided to Encore as elementary streams. Do not

multiplex them, otherwise things will go wrong." I'm sorry but I don't

know what you mean by this. I Exported the sequence from Premiere using

H.264 into a separate folder. There are 4 different files; MP4 (.m4v), XMP

(.xmp), XMPSES and Wav. Since there are 4 different files, can I correctly

assume that I did, in fact, do what you recommended?

BTW: when I check the "Properties" of the MP4 file, it says "MP4 (.m4v)".

So I don't know if the file is an MP4 or .m4v. ???

If you know of a better (easier) program than Encore to burn discs, please

let me know. I don't mind paying for it if it works well.

I downloaded a free trial version of iSkysoft DVD Creator but it will not

let me import any of the files that were out putted by Premiere. Am I

doing something wrong or is this just not a good program?

"The critical part is to make sure your assets are all spec correct before

importing into Encore." Can you tell me how to check that? And what am

I looking for?

"Once you have imported your video & audio as assets, create a new playlist

from the video asset & then add your audio to this using drag/drop" Can

you give me more details on this? How do I create a "playlist"?

I'm not using any menus.

Thanks VERY much for your patience and support!

Chris

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 6:24 AM, neil wilkes <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Chris Sollart]

Thanks! But ...

"When building a disc, instead of trying to write immediately you will be

far better off exporting as an ISO file & then burning this to disc with

the excellent freeware IMGburn."

Can you please tell me how to export as an ISO file? From which program?

I tried to download IMGburn from their own website (http://www.imgburn.com/)

but when I clicked "Download" I got sent to a different website that had

nothing to do with burning discs. How could that be?

I did download another free program called iSkysoft DVD Creator but it

would not let me import any of the files that I exported from Premiere.

Is this a crappy program or might I have chosen the wrong Presets when

exporting from Premiere?

Thanks!

Chris

[R Neil Haugen]

When going to DVD or Blu-ray the only presets you should use for exporting are the specific ones saying Mpeg2 DVD and Mpeg2 Blu-ray.

Neil

[Ann Bens]

Please Neil dont let him use Mpeg2 Blu-ray its a lesser codec.

[R Neil Haugen]

Edumacate me, Ann ... which codec is better, with settings ... ?

I've not done many BluRays ... and this seemed entirely adequate so I just used it. Would be happy to have your advice!

Neil

[Ann Bens]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/R+Neil+Haugen  wrote

Edumacate me, Ann ... which codec is better, with settings ... ?

I've not done many BluRays ... and this seemed entirely adequate so I just used it. Would be happy to have your advice!

Neil

H.264 Bluray.

[Ann Bens]

Thread closed.

[Ann Bens]

This is how you build an iso:

Made this one only a few days ago. With menu.

You can see the menu is set as First Play.

Without menu you set the timeline First Play

Just rightclick on the timeline in the Project Window.

[Chris Sollart]

Since burning a Blu-ray seems to be ridiculously complicated (and not even

necessary in this case), I decided it would be easier to just burn a

standard DVD.

I Exported the sequence from Premiere for DVD, then imported the video and

audio files onto a timeline in Encore CS6 and it seemed to be working fine;

I could play the sequence in Encore and all was working fine. Then I tried

to Build the DVD. Everything seemed to be working fine except that when I

put the DVD in my home player, there was no audio.

What might I be doing wrong?

Thanks!

Chris

[excited_Genie16B8]

I'm just trying to burn a sequence onto a Blu-ray disc for viewing on a home DVD player

There's the error.  You watch Blu-ray disks on a Blu-ray player, not a DVD player.

There's a difference, and it's a critical one.

Additionally, there are some general steps you must follow to succeed.

1.  Prepare BD compliant assets.  Sounds like you've done this.

2. Author the BD.

3. Burn the authored content onto a blank disk.

It's important to note that steps 2 and 3 are very different, and a program designed for step 3 may not be capable of performing step 2 (and vice versa).  You need to understand the difference and use a program capable of each step.

[Warren Heaton]

Hi Chris:

An easier route might be to export a self-contained movie file from your Premiere Pro project and then use an application like Roxio Toast to burn your play only Blu-ray disc.  (Toasts' Blu-ray feature is just drag and drop and click.  It's also Mac only, but if you're on Windows you should be able to find software for Blu-ray burning pretty easily.)  Of course, that means purchasing additional software.  If you already have Blu-ray burner, it may have come bundled with an application for burning Blu-ray discs.

-Warren

[Chris Sollart]

Hi Warren;

I'm using Windows 7 on a PC.

I can burn data onto any disc very easily (I believe it's part of Windows 7) but does that mean I can burn a program onto a disc that can be played on a home DVD player?

Thanks!

Chris

[Chris Sollart]

I am in the process of exporting the sequence from Premiere to a folder on my desktop.  As per advice from cvid01, I downloaded (free) iSkysoft DVD Creator (trial version). 

Once Premiere is finished exporting, should I be able to drop that file into iSkysoft DVD Creator and burn a Blu-ray that can be played on a home DVD player or are there other steps to be taken before that?

Thanks!

Chris