Encore insists on transcoding H.264 Blu-ray encoded file (Blu-ray legal)

[HarpuaFSB]

I have a Blu-ray legal .m4v file encoded out of Adobe Media Encoder as H.264 Blu-ray VBR 2-Pass, maximum render, target 25Mbps, maximum 30Mbps.

My project is H.264, maximum 40Mbps.

Encore keeps listing the video file as untranscoded and wants to transcode it.

I've tried encoding just a portion of the video file instead of the whole thing using the same settings and when I bring this into Encore it recognizes it as Blu-ray legal and sets it to "Don't Transcode".

Can anyone think of a reason as to why this is happening?  I really don't want to sit through another eight hour encode that could degregade pq further.

Thanks!

[Ann Bens]

Jeff: what i meant was this info about what legal BD parameters should be.

I assume the standalone Mainconcept Encoder will not be any different from the one Encore is using (or is there?)

So why not feed Encore the file from avid and let Encore encode.

[Jeff Bellune]

Jeff: what i meant was this info about what legal BD parameters should be.

Ah, I misunderstood.  Sorry about that.    You are correct -- that information should be available to the user.  Adobe assumes everyone will encode with the built-in suite tools, but that's just not the case anymore.

Jeff

[nordental]

Well, in the advanced settings of MainConcept (Standalone) I could not rearly compare the settings with Jeffs infos of the BD-specifications, because I used CBR and not 2-pass-VBR.

Interested in the way how Encore decides if transcoding is necessary or not, I did several tries: I imported a 20sec-sequence, which I had first encoded with my MainConcept Ref.,  all with CBR, but with bitrates 35Mbps, 34Mbps, 33Mbps, 32Mbps, 31Mbps, 30Mbps.

The result of these tries is, that Encore wanted to transcode all these imported files - except the 30Mbps file: Here "Don't transcode" !

Therefore I think / conclude that the preferences in the MainConcept Ref., - which I had never changed -, are not the cause for the Encore limitation.

[Jeff Bellune]

Interesting.  Do all files encoded below 30 Mbps show up in En as DNT?

Jeff

[Matt Dubuque]

Hello, excuse me for perhaps a naive question, but what are the two principal reasons that serious professionals typically switch to the Main Concept standalone vs. the embedded one in AME?

Alternatively stated, are there a few key advantages to the standalone MC (as opposed to the embedded AME version) that attracts discriminating professionals?

Thanks, as always to both Ann and Jeff for being so INCREDIBLY helpful. 

Matt Dubuque

[Jeff Bellune]

I haven't used the stand-alone version, and the MainConcept web site doesn't have a lot of info beyond the fact that their version is expandable by purchasing more modules.  I also don't know if they've tweaked their own encoder to produce better results than their licensed encoders.

Jeff

[Matt Dubuque]

Thanks Jeff.... and lastly what are the two principal reasons that serious professionals might switch to MeGui?

Alternatively stated, are there a few key advantages to using MeGui that attracts discriminating professionals?

Thanks again.  We are so fortunate to have you here!

Matt Dubuque

[Jeff Bellune]

x264 is a superior H.264 encoder.  Period.  The only problem with MeGui is it doesn't have MPEG-LA licensing, which is a huge drawback for serious professionals.  However, the x264Pro plug-in for Premiere Pro does come with an MPEG-LA license.

Jeff

[Matt Dubuque]

Thanks Jeff!  I guess there has been a small delay in releasing x264 for the Mac?  I was reading another thread that said that December 2012 was their target... Hmmmm.

Matt

[gr8bob]

One more guy here trying to get Encore BD compliant files that don't have to be transcoded.

I'm a bit odd in that I'm trying to get more video on the disc, hence I'm telling Adobe Media Encoder (CS6) to do a max bit rate of 8 Mbs -- obviously not caring much about the video quality.  What drives me crazy is that sometimes Encore will accept files as "Do Not Transcode", sometimes it wants to retranscode them -- I really don't think I've changed the Media Encoder parameters.

Hopefully the people with the knowledge are still looking at this thread.

[Jeff Bellune]

See if this tutorial helps:

Bellune Digital Video Services - Tutorials - Adobe Encore – Using x264 To Encode Video For Blu-ray D...

Jeff

[gr8bob]

Tutorial was very nice!  But didn't directly answer my problem.  x264pro maybe be worth the $299, but really seems Adobe should make life easier in this area without it.  Found that if I keep video & audio in seperate streams coming out of CS6 Adobe Media Encoder, Encore accepts without retranscoding, at least for a couple of small samples I tested.  Hate to have a bunch of extra files hanging around though.

[Jeff Bellune]

Thanks for the compliment on the tutorial.

x264 does a better job than MainConcept at encoding H.264 video, and the main point of my tutorial was to show you to use the free tools to get it safely into Encore.

If you want to use the included encoder in Pr and En, then you still want elementary audio and video streams.  It's not a "bunch of extra files", it's how professionals handle their assets. 

Jeff

[Guest]

Jeff, this is a great tutorial. I have followed your steps but i am receiving an error in MeGUI upon opening the application after the frameserving has begun in Pr. Once i open MeGUI, i get the error message "Unable to render the file. You probably do not have the correct filters".

I am using CS5 and the source video is 1080i  29.97 fps. I considered using the x264 Pro trial version but it will not work in CS5.

Really motivated to get this to work the correct way.

thanks,

[Jeff Bellune]

Once i open MeGUI, i get the error message "Unable to render the file. You probably do not have the correct filters".

When you open MeGUI, is it loading a script that doesn't exist any more?  Or a script that references an AVI file that's not there?  Try letting MeGUI build a new script and load it for you, then see if you can continue without the error message.

Jeff

[Guest]

Jeff, i was able to install the  directshow filter and the message has gone away.

But now i have another problem.

Once i complete the encoding in MeGUI and import the raw .264 file into Encore, the video is "green" in the video monitor.

Any idea why?

thanks,

[Guest]

The video is also unstable. Just for fun, i went ahead and created a blu ray folder and viewed the output on my harddrive. The beginning of the video goes forward, then backwards, then forward, then backwards, and on and on... If i fforward thru the video, it then goes black for the duration.

I am using En CS5 .

[Jeff Bellune]

Which directshow filter?  Please tell me it's *not* ffdshow!

Jeff

[Guest]

Jeff, it was. Judging from your question, i guess that was a big "no no". The error message i received was a directshow error message. Please advise.

[Jeff Bellune]

Once i complete the encoding in MeGUI and import the raw .264 file into Encore, the video is "green" in the video monitor.

Does the .264 video import into En with "Don't Transcode" in the Blu-ray Status and Blu-ray Transcode Settings columns?

Jeff

[Guest]

Yes.

Jeff, i  did some further testing. I bypassed  frameserving  and imported my video file into MeGUI and followed your steps. After encoding, i imported the file into En and the video looked fine and stable and the transcode settings were "DNT". I will burn to folder and let you know what happens.

[Jeff Bellune]

I bypassed  frameserving

That may be the best thing considering the issues you've encountered.  I hope the folder burn goes well.

NB: ffdshow is notorious for crippling most video Adobe things.  It's also very hard to remove completely.  I suspect it's corrupting the communication chain between Pr/AFS/MeGUI/AviSynth/x264 at one or more points, and maybe even corrupting Encore's playback and decoding of the .264 files.

Jeff

[Guest]

Jeff, what would have been the correct procedure after i received the error message in MeGUI? If i remember correctly, i initially ignored the message, followed your steps and still encountered the video instability and green video in En.

[Jeff Bellune]

Good question.  I don't have a good answer.  A lot will depend on your system hardware and software configuration.

First place to start -- What format and codec were your source files?

Then -- Did you render previews in the timeline for exporting?  Did you select Use Previews on export (or use the Match Source Settings checkbox at the top of the Export Settings dialog)?

Troubleshooting may get very involved.  If your alternate workflow produces good results, then I'd stick with that.

Jeff

[Guest]

I will. That sounds like a plan. Thanks for your help and great, easy to follow tutorial which came at a perfect time for me.

Thanks!!!!!!!!