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Has anyone ever exported for Amazon DVD "Print On Demand"? I need some help.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 10, 2020
3 replies
1627 views

I want to release a DVD through Amazon.

Years ago, they had a different company running their DVD department. Back then, all I had to do was burn an MPEG-2 DVD from Encore and send it to them in the mail. Everything worked. Now they want everything uploaded as an .iso.

The instructions say, ".iso (folders must contain only .bUp, .iFo, .vob files) AND "Video source files must contain only AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders in the root dorectory."

I have been told by Adobe Support that I should export H.264 in High Quality 480p SD for the best DVD picture quality, & it is much better than MPEG-2. However, the problem is, it looks like I need to use another program to "convert" .mp4 to .vob, and then use another program to wrap it in an .iso.

None of the export options say anything about AUDIO_TS or VIDEO_TS files, and I'm worried if I just blindly try to "convert" to .vob it won't have them. I'm confused.

Bonus question if anyone knows how to create a print on demad Blu-Ray with Amazon. I have a siomilar problem in that my exports never have ALL of the file types they require in their list.

At the very least, I hope someone knows if converting .mp4 to .vob will be good enough to get the job done? I have done everything wrong multiple times trying to just go from MPEG-2 straight to .iso and similar failed attempts. The only thing I have NOT tried os converting to something like a .vob first.

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Correct answer Ann Bens

You cannot export to a video_ts with Premiere which is needed to burn to dvd.

You cannot just convert mp4 to vob. You need an authoring tool (which used to be Encore)

Encore is no longer available through the cloud. You can still use it if you bought it several years ago and have a serial number.

Might want to have a look at TMPGEnc Authoring Works 6 - The Ultimate DVD / Blu-ray / AVCHD Authoring Tool - Pegasys Inc.

M

Media Editor

Inspiring

Cyberlink Power2Go 13 creates DVD's. If you use the AVCHD feature it will not reincode the video. I have used Premiere H.264 videos The quality is as good as Blu-ray. However, the DVD will only play on a Blu-ray player. The program is for Windows only. They have a free version that is available.

neil wilkes

Legend

Hi Michael.

Yes, I know about AVCHD and believe me when I tell you it will not play back on all Blu-ray Set Top players either as it is (drum roll) non compliant to Blu-ray specification.

Sorry.

Quality will also depend on the encoder used, and if you are using the stock Adobe AME H.264 type then it is MainConcept engine based and nowhere near as good as it ought to be (none of the MainConcept encoders are - even my at the time brutally expensive CineVision Pro (a snip at a mere $15,000 back in the day, this supposedly did all variants for Blu-ray (WMA, AVC/MPEG-2) as well as DVD but it did none of them very well at all.

For my money I would trust the following only:

1 - x264 Pro based encoders for Blu-ray (TMPGEnc PPro plugin is now the only real option for the AME as the even better encoder plugin that used to be found on x264Pro.com has gone the way of all life thanks to a-holes cracking it and forcing the developer into administration and making it almost unusable for me now because I cannot renew my license. I loathe software thieves, I really do)

2 - The CCE-SP3 encoder for DVD. Still by far & away a better engine than anything MainConcept have ever come up with.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Yes, I know about AVCHD and believe me when I tell you it will not play back on all Blu-ray Set Top players either as it is (drum roll) non compliant to Blu-ray specification.

Actually it is. Its a bd iso burned to a dvd disk. They call it an avchd disk. About 20 min will fit.

I do admit it wont play on all bd players.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Just to add a litte more information, your ISO image needs to conform to the DVD-Video specifications (which would include a VIDEO_TS folder at the root level of the disk image).

MP4 is a delivery format very much like the MPEG2 stream of a DVD-Video titles is. You would want to avoid MP4 as source for DVD-Video authoring. You wnat to use a mezzanine CODEC (that is, a CODEC that is good for editing). In Premiere Pro, the likely choices are Apple ProRes422, Avid DNxHD, or GoPro Cineform (I'd go with Apple ProRes).

As far as authoring goes, Sonic Scenarist is available, but very expensive (that's what Technicolor and Deluxe use for Hollywood feature films).

I'd suggest picking up a used MacBook Pro or Mac mini, ideally with Final Cut Studio 3 still intalled. That includes DVD Studio Pro 4. Ideally, it would be running macOS 10.9.5 Mavericks. but nothing newer than macOS 10.12 Sierra. Of cousre, DVD Studio Pro is not wihtout it's learening curve.

It mgiht be worth hiring someone who's familiar with DVD auhtoring for the project. While DVD post production used to bring in upwards of $10, 000 per title, it's dwindled down to the point that $600 to $1,200 should get your a feature and trailer encode with a main menu and two scene selection menus with Dolby stereo 2.0 and/or 5.1 audio. A rate that low usually assumes you'll be providing ready to encode assets for authoring.

While DVDs are still around, on-demand has finally surpassed.

Where I still see it enjoying a healthy use is for video depositions in legal cases. Those are on-offs, though, similar but not the same as disc you'd author for retail.

neil wilkes

Legend

Scenarist is nowhere near as expensive as it used to be - you can now get a 'Scenarist Live' monthly subscription license which will keep you fully up to date and supported as well, or else you can get a perpetual license (which is what I have).

If cost is still too high, you can always go get a copy of MediaChance Labs 'DVD-Lab Pro 2' software, and even though this is no longer developed it is a fantastic tool for DVD-Video authoring, and a hell of a lot more user friendly than Scenarist, you will find tutorials at the website detailing how to do the more complex things and it's built-in help files are extremely explicit as well.

On a mac you are essentially screwed - DVDSP has a lot of issues and to be frank once Apple had turned Maestro into DVDSP it became appallingly bad - for example, try to import a 24/96 WAVE file into a project and it will immediately degrade it down to 16/48 yet it does not tell you it is doing this & the asset file still says it is 24/96 even though it has just been butchered - perhaps not surprisingly it will work properly with AIFF Type C files though, but in general you would be wise to completely avoid anything Mac based for DVD work if you are serious about it or of the delivery specs are strict.

You should also get a copy of the donationware tool PGCEdit, which can best be described as a swiss army knife for DVD authors and is literally invaluable - abstraction layer authoring tools (and DVDSP is amongst the very worst offenders here) tend to use a hell of a lot of 'hidden' dummy menu pages that can really be problematic for the novice user, which is where DVD Lab Pro really comes into it's own as you can author with the abstraction layer or not as you prefer, or else even better (for some projects) you can run with the abstraction layer but with the addition of custom VM (Virtual Machine) commands that will over-ride the abstraction layer instructions - there is also yet another tool that will generate these VM commands for you so all you have to do then is copy/paste into the relevant editor - this was free as part of the superb 'Unofficial DVD Specifications' package (along with a couple of equally invaluable PDF files, admittedly wriitten with Scenarist in mind but the VM commands, as well as the SPRM/GPRM tables, are still valid) which has sadly long since disappeared but even so there is a VM editor built in to DLP (DVD-Lab Pro 2) that will give you the right code.

Again there is a learning curve, but the tutorials will get you started easily enough and the price for this is only $90 so you cannot grumble. The sole downside is that it must be fed with DVD compliant assets - it is not an editor for video or audio whatsoever, just DVD - so you must feed it with MPEG-2 or MPEG-1 video & PCM/AC3/DTS audio files. It can import a layered PSD as well as it's own superb menu editor that can pull off tricks I have not seen in any other tool.

Blu-ray on demand is an oxymoron, however, and if Amazon persist with this Sony will shut them down from soing this as BD-R (or 'on demand') must not EVER be sold as Blu-ray or even carry Blu-ray logos as Sony consider this to be non compliant product, and they are right to do this given that the specs for Blu-ray mmandate the use of AACS copy protection - period. No replication means no AACS, which means it is not a Blu-ray disc and should not be sold as such.

Phew - that went on a bit. Sorry about that, but speaking as a DVD/Blu-ray author myself I feel it is important.

Ann Bens

Correct answer

Community Expert

You cannot export to a video_ts with Premiere which is needed to burn to dvd.

You cannot just convert mp4 to vob. You need an authoring tool (which used to be Encore)

Encore is no longer available through the cloud. You can still use it if you bought it several years ago and have a serial number.

Might want to have a look at TMPGEnc Authoring Works 6 - The Ultimate DVD / Blu-ray / AVCHD Authoring Tool - Pegasys Inc.

A

Aaron345Author

Participating Frequently

WOW! Thank you for the info and the link! I sincerely wish things were not so complicated. I'm glad to know that someone knows how this is done. So many people tell me that no one buys DVDs anymore but that's just not true. Even if they are falling off, I'd hate to miss out on any potential income, no matter how small.

Averdahl

Community Expert

I have been told by Adobe Support that I should export H.264 in High Quality 480p SD for the best DVD picture quality, & it is much better than MPEG-2.

Mind you that the media on a DVD per definition is MPEG2. So if you export and feed any authoring application with a H.264 it will be re-encoded to MPEG2 to being able to author the DVD. This means that you will loose quality in the end since the H.264 will be re-encoded to MPEG2. Use MPEG2 for DVD.

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