Create DVD from PP 2019

[P.Daguerre]

When it comes to creating a DVD in PP, earlier support describes using Encore. You can't download that program anymore so that is not an option. I have scanned an 8mm film which has an aspect ratio near 4:3. After editing the film I can export it to a file in H.264 for instance that gives a nice film to be watched on a computer with the correct AR. Now this can't be burned to a DVD disk so I try MPEG2-DVD. I expect to find two folders, namely Video_TS and Audio_TS that could be brought to a burning program like in my case Nero. I don't get the expected files but instead .m2v and if that is burned to a DVD I get picture but no sound AND an AR 9:16 even if the program states the output format to PAL 720x576.

So I have tried to export the film to another program (Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate - I know this is like swearing in church on an Adobe forum). From there I can export the film as an .iso file which is what I have done many times before but now I still get AR 16:9 when I play it on a DVD-player and watch it on a TV-screen.

I have my programs on two computers, one static and one laptop, and the result is the same. I made a similar film some 7 or 8 months ago and had the same problem with the AR but I somehow solved it, bit I can't remember what I did! I have checked, re-checked and re-re-checked all possible options concerning output format and now I am at my wits end. Can someone please help!?

[Stan Jones]

Post a screenshot of your export settings.

The VIDEO_TS folder is what is created by Encore or another authoring program.

When exporting from PR, you bring both the .m2v and .wav into the DVD program.

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Stan,

Thanks for your rapid reply!

The sound wasn’t really the big issue, although there is no sound even if I burn both the m2v- and the wav-files.

The real issue concerns why I get 16:9 AR on my DVD although it is output as PAL 720x576 (and played correctly as 4:3 when viewed on a computer).

I have just recieved what seems to be an extensive answer from Warren Heaton, and i’ll dig into that.

Thanks!

Peter

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[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

It sounds like you're looking to author a play-only, full screen PAL DVD-Video.  You'd start with a high-quality video file that the application you choose for creating the DVD-Video supports (like Nero), allowing that application to encode the MPEG2 stream and audio stream prior to multiplexing that to the VIDEO_TS data structure.  In other words, use the H264 file.  (Although, a DV-NTSC movie or Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime is usually a better choice for DVD encoding.)

The web page for Freemake Video Converter describes the process pretty well.

https://m.freemake.com/how_to/how_to_convert_mp4_to_dvd_free/

Freemaker Video Converter may even be a good solution for what you're looking to do.

It would be great if Encore was still around, but it's not.

For what it's worth:

• The VIDEO_TS folder is the end result.  It can be burned to blank DVD media (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) or written directly to a hard drive or other storage media.
• All PAL DVD-Video is 720x576 non-square pixel, regardless of the frame aspect ratio.  The 720x576 picture is flagged to play as Full Screen, Widescreen, Letterbox or Pan and Scan.
• Consumer level DVD creation applications usually accept common video formats at common square pixel frame sizes (640x480, 1280x720, 1920x1080).
• Professional level applications (Adobe Encore, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Sonic Scenarist) accept encoced MPEG2 streams for authoring.
• If you're really looking to dive deep into DVD authoring, the book "DVD Demystified" by Jim Taylor (https://www.dvddemystified.com/ ) is the long-standing industry bible for professional DVD authorging.  It covers far more than you need, but if you're curious it contains almost all of the answers.
• Some video editing applications include an option to burn to DVD.  Lifewire has a pretty good article (6 Best DVD Burning and Recording Software Programs).

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Warren,

Thanks for your reply.

This is weard! This is what I have done:

Burning via Nero:

MPEG2 + Wav => film in format 16:9, no sound

H264 (MPG4) => Burned ok but can’t be played on DVD-player.

Burning via Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate:

Iso-file => Film and sound ok but format 16:9. Played in the computer format 4:3

Burning via freemake video converter:

H264 (MPEG4) => Film useless due to freemake logo, sound ok, format 16:9. Played on computer format 4:3

Earlier I have exported the edited film from Premier Pro as h264 and imported it into Pinnacle in order to make chapters and from there burned the exported .iso file with the desired result, that is with format 4:3

I have made 2 similar DVDs from from scanned 8mm films the last year useing the same equipment apart from a new and faster stationary computer. Before this one I used my laptop and now I have tried that one as well with the same results. I have the same DVD-player and use the same DVD-media.

What the ……. Is wrong?

Yours desperate

Peter

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[rodneyb56060189]

I can't figure out what in god's name this thread is about, and who is trying to be the smartest person in the room for motives beyond the planet I live on.  Is someone asking a question ??

Here's my 2 cents.

A) you can no longer get anything before the last couple adobe releases. I don't subscribe but I'm guessing that is 2018 and 2019.

Everyone just live with it and get on with life,

If you want to burn dvd and bd the ONLY program Adobe made to do that was called 'Encore'.  That was in the creative suite CS6 boxed version ( and probably internet download).I have boxed with serial number. For FUN I JUST installed encore on my little laptop to see what the process was like ( if I could still get it via serial number on box). I DID get the program via adobe tech support. and it was already registered to me and activated.. they sent file that just INSTALLED and everything was fine.

To have more FUN I opened a 60 sec project in Resolve ( 720p, 23.876 fps, mov h264, 4.2.0 ). It is a tutorial from Davinci 15 called 'age of airplanes'.

Davinci doesn't know nothin about exporting for DVD or BD... so I exported as intermediary ( DNxHD) and stuck that into PPro CS6. Then I exported to MPEG DVD. ( note I am going from HD to SD). You will also note that there are certain specs... for NTSC is basically 30fps, lower field first, non square pixels to try and force 16:9, etc etc. )

Anyway, I got the export from resolve, put into PPRo, exported for DVD. THEN opened Encore and stuck that into encore. THEN I didn't want anything fancy... and used basic controls to tell the TV remote control WHAT TO DO if I hit pause, stop, fast forward, etc.

THEN I exported from Encore an ISO so I could go to the PIG ( WHICH HAS A BD BURNER) via thumb drive, and burned a DVD using CD something XP something... The same thing Ann uses.

I THEN put it into my stupid full HD TV ( this is a DVD disk, remember ) and turned it on ….via HDMI...

And it looked wonderful.

Even if I was to offer YOU my boxed version of CS6 creative suite master collection ( wow, talk about a selling point ! ) for FREE, you would probably have no clue how to use it to do what you want.

Time to move on ...

[Warren Heaton]

I wish we could move on from DVDs.  If you do any video for an attorney or for the court system in the US, anything any everything still goes on DVD. 

On the Hollywood feature film side, it's only within the last few years that on-demand started to outsell DVD-Video and Blu-Ray.  So, at least we're over that hump.

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Warren,

A lot of good links and info there!

To keep it short. The problem did NOT lie within PP but instead in some setting in Pinnacle. I haven't yet figured out exactly what but I've found a way to get around it.

Thanks

Peter

[Warren Heaton]

It sounds like you need to find an application that accepts 4x3 source and maintains that when burning to DVD.  Alternatively, you could reformat your 4x3 source to 16x9 (After Effects is very well suited for this).  So, Premiere Pro will get you as far as having the 4x3 source that from first frame to last frame is what you want the person watching your DVD to see and hear.

As far as playing a MP4 burned to a blank DVD goes, you have a few issue to consider.  Most computers with a DVD drive will be able to and if not (probably due to low bandwidth) the user should be able to copy the MP4 file to a local drive and then play it.  Some set-top DVD players might be able to play it.  I had a player that could play MP4 from an SD card, but not from a disc.

Even if you have a VIDEO_TS folder that's been authored to DVD-Video specifications, there's another issue entirely:  Not all set-top DVD players can play blank DVD media.  Even if the set-top player has the DVD-Multi logo on it (a sign that it reads from the numerous variations of blank DVD media that exist), there's a secondary issue of how the black DVD media was formatted (UHF, for Windows, for Mac) at the time of burning.

Is it possible to post the video to Vimeo or YouTube?  If so, Media Encoder can help with that or you can upload the exported H264 file directly.

[Media Editor]

DVD Styler is a free program.  If you create an MPEG2-DVD file in Premiere it will not reincode the video.  The  program, however, will accept almost any format and convert it.

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Warren,

Thanks again for your info.

I have done some testing ( quite a lot actually) and here is my solution to my own problem:

1) When i comes to editing in PP a scanned 8mm film you start a new project and choose file=> New => Sequence

2) Sequence presets should be

          DV PAL (as I am in Sweden)

          Standard 48 KHz

    Settings

          Edit mode: DV PAL

          Time base 25.00 fps

          PAR:          D1/DV PAL (1.0940)

3) Import your film (MP4-file)

4) Mark your imported file and choose : Clip => Modify => Interpret footage

5) Interpret footage

          Assume framerate: 16.00 fps (If that is the framerate of the 8mm film)

          PAR:                        Square pixels (1.00)

          Field order:              Use field order from file (progressive)

6) Click on the changed file and choose EITHER

     a) New sequence from clip

          This will give you PAR 1440 x 1080 (16:9) with black borders on each side.

OR

     b) Drag the new file to the timeline.

         You'll get a warning that the clip doesn't match the sequence but ignore that. Picture will be too big but in "effects" you can zoom               out to the right size. This will give you PAR 720 x 570 (4:3)

Now the interesting thing is that you don't want the film to be played in 16:9 because the picture will be distorted so it would seem natural to choose the "b" option, BUT here is the snag. You should choose option "a". When you export the edited film and bring it into a program that can write it to a DVD disk (in my case Pinnacle) you get just what I want, namely a picture in 4:3 with black borders on each side to fill out the 16:9 screen (Which is the format of most TV-screens today).

If your footage is 16:9 it doesn't matter if you choose option a or b.

Hope this could be helpful to those who might still want to create DVDs. Remember that the old vinyl music LP was doomed several years ago, but it is coming back!

Peter

[Warren Heaton]

Hi Peter:

An important technical note about any workflow that ends with PAL DVD-Video: it must be 576i50 PAR 1.09.  That is to say 720 by 576 with non-square pixels playing at 25 interlaced frames per second.  Anything else is "out of spec".

Your original 8mm film was running at 16 frames per second?  I would have expected 18fps for 8mm and 24fps for 16mm and 35mm.

Regardless, when the 8mm film was transferred to MP4, the telecine process should have conformed the frame rate to 25fps.  The only way to maintain 18fps (or 16fps, but I think that's a typo) would be to use a film scanner (which, I'm 99.2% sure is unheard of for 8mm, but not impossible).  Something to confirm would be if your MP4 is 25p or 50i.  Either is fine, but if happens to be 50i, you would want to de-interlace before changing the PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio) from 1.0 to 1.09.

Your MP4 from 8mm film is most likely PAR 1.0 in which case you need to conform it to 1.09.  If it's already PAR 1.09, you would leave it as is.

You're doing good with steps 1 and 2 above, but abandon step 3,  step 4, step 5 and most importantly step 6.  The only place HD frames sizes and HDV pixel aspect ratios have in a workflow is as source footage being down-converted to standard definition.

So... what are the settings for your MP4 from 8mm?  (Frame Size, frame rate, scan method and PAR.)

-Warren

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Warren,

This turns out to be an interesting discussion!

First about your reply may 21. Can I post my video to Vimeo or YouTube? The answer is yes concerning YouTube, n.p. Haven't tried Vimeo.

Next, I notice that I have written PAR in step 5 and 6 which obviously should be "frame size". I'm sure you understood that.

Then regarding your last answer. 16fps was not a typo. The standard 8mm cameras of that time, and I'm talking about the 50's and 60*s,could often choose different film speed but I believe the "standard choice" was 16 fps. When super 8 mm came it was 18 fps as standard. This I know because I used my fathers Bolex Paillard DL-8 from time to time.

I'm surprised that you haven't heard of a film scanner for 8mm film. I use Reflecta which I think you could also find named Wolverine in the US. The scanned film comes out in 30 fps and that is why I change the clip as described in step 5. The compression quality is not of the best that you can see but you can get quite reasonable results using Neat Video (an add on to PP).  The original film and the scanned version are both obviously progressive so why I should use interlaced I don't understand. Anyway I've done a test clip with PAR 1,09 and interlaced and, honestly, I can't see any difference in the end result!

And lastly the settings for my scanned MP4 file are: Frame size 1440x1080, Frame rate 30 fps, Scan method: Don't know apart from the fact that is done in scanner above mentioned. PAR 1.0

Oh yes. I clarification. The reasons I use Pinnacle Studio to finish up my projects are

1) I can add chapters

2) I can add sound effects and royalty free music

3) I can burn my project directly to a DVD disc.

None of the above mentioned things are regrettably possible in PP.

Peter

[Warren Heaton]

Peter:

Thanks for the extra info about 8mm vs. Super 8mm.  I've only worked with Super 8mm.  When referring to a film scanner, I was talking about a high-end film scanner for feature film work (used with film sizes like Super 16, 35mm and 70mm).

So it sounds like you're going from 1440x1080p30 PAR 1.0 to 720x576p25 PAR 1.09 (but maybe 720x480p30 PAR 0.91).

It's important to note the PAR value as there's HDV 1440x1080i60 PAR 1.33.  If you're using a 1440x1080 file in a DVD authoring application, it's like to assume that it's PAR 1.33 and flag it as widescreen, resulting in the 4x3 picture being stretched 133% along the horizontal.  A way around this should be to transcode to 640x480p30 PAR 1.0 and try that in your DVD application.

As for scan method, I'm referring to how the picture of video is displayed on a CRT television set: interlaced (i50 or i60) or progressive (p25 or p30).  If a DVD-Video is to spec, it's interlaced.

Premiere Pro is great for creating your edited masters for your DVD (the feature film, the bonus features, the trailers, etc.) - even for doing your 5.1 Surround mix, but yeah, it won't get you to a burned DVD or a DDP that can be layout to DLT tape or uploaded to DVD replicator.  (I, for one, will likely never miss DLT tape drives.)

-Warren

[P.Daguerre]

Hi Warren

When I look over this thread i feel like I'm still confused but on  higher level!

No seriously, I've learned a lot of things and I am going to save this thread so I can go back every now and then and refresh my memory.

The problems I had to start with are solved.

Thanks again.

Peter

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[Media Editor]

I no longer create DVD or Blu-ray discs.  All of my videos are H.264.  I send them to my clients through wetransfer.com.  I can send  up to 2 gigabytes for free.  They prefer to watch them on computers, tablets or ipads.  If they have a fairly new television, they can plug a flash drive into the TV  and watch the video.  Many of the newer DVD/Bluray players have a USB port.  The H.264 videos can also be played.