Thread: Noob Questions but please bear with me - H.264 - DVD / blue Ray

Hi forum and thanks for taking the time to open the post.

My story or question is quite simple for someone who knows.

I bought a canon 600D some time ago and this thing does full HD.
My problem lies in how to get the H.264 MOV files into an editting tool
that allows me to burn it to full quality onto disc to be played in a DVD / Blue Ray player.

Surely I can;t burn full HD onto a plain DVD can I ?

Do I now have to uprate my PC to handle the new format and go get blue ray authoring tools to be able to
export in full HD ?

I have prem pro CS2 and I tried to export to DVD and it took almost 24 hrs to render 25 minutes and the output was pretty low quality
to say the least.

Any links or entry level advise or guidance would be most greatfully received.

Many thanks inadvance.

Rake.

Mm, that does sound far too long Rake, I'm not familiar with Prem Pro CS2, but are you sure it supports your workflow? I know that Prem Pro is on CS5 now, so maybe back then they weren't geared up to accept high quality h.264s.

Are you sending the project to a compression program or are you trying to export straight from CS2 to DVD? If you explain your workflow in detail then I'm sure you'll get more help.

In answer to your question, no you can't burn full HD onto a normal DVD as normal DVDs have a 4.7 gb limit and will display at 720x576 which is standard def, you'll need to burn to a blueray, but I'm fairly sure that you won't be able to do that from CS2 as I don't think blue rays were around way back then .

Video Production Services Company UK London

Hi Dariv,

Thanks for the response.

Workflow is fairly simple.

Footage taken on EOS600D on SD Card -> HDD on PC.

Imported into premier pro CS2 - you are right - no H.264 support - Tried to export to DVD using PAL VBR 2 Pass high Quality but the result was aweful so it beggars the question of how to get good quality using DVD ?


In addition I dont have BD authoring hardware so I thought to play my HD video from a USB stick as an alternative. The object being to get Full HD quality videos onto my HD TV, so went and downloaded a trial of AVS Editor 6.1.

This allowed me to import the H.264 MOV files, edit them and then export to MPEG-2 1920 x 1080 but even then the quality was not as good as I expected so another question is what do I need to do to keep the same quality for the finished file when playing it from a USB pen drive ?

There are a few alternatives available to publish to these are MPEG 2 / AVI / Divx / MPEG-4 but I dont know which would be the best for preserving quality.

I have not been using any compression programe, its straight into AVS / Premier Pro CS2 then to either dvd or pen drive for playback on the PFL6606 which supports formats such as MPEG-4 (H.264 container) AVI and more.

Many thanksin advance of any advice.

Ron.

OK, first off, H.264 onto an SD card is (in my humble opinion) never going to be top quality and definitely won't be broadcast quality HD. Mpeg 2s are basically what we use to export to DVD, for playing back on your HD TV (and again I'm not familiar with any of the software you quote) I would create an MP4 or an AVI, but the key is how much control you have over the compression.

So the quality of your exported file will depend on firstly how it was shot (it is what it is) secondly it will depend on key frames and data rate. So for instance if I wanted to do a nice HD video which only I was going to view, I would use a viewing codec such as one of the Apple pro res codecs, or if I didn't have access to those I would use, as mentioned above either AVI, MP4 or H.264 key frames every at least 150 frames, the frame rate would be as I shot it and the data rate would be up around the 5000 bit mark and of course the size would remain as shot.

As far as DVD is concerned, it is a standard definition format, so it will NEVER look as good as you want it to, no matter how much you tweak and adjust and to be fair there's not much tweaking and adjusting to be done with a DVD. To get a blueray burner and an up to date editing system (and possibly computer good enough to run it) could prove more costly than you're prepared to accept, so keep fiddling around with various compressions in AVS Editor.

The best way to do this is to take 20 seconds of some of your footage that is fairly dynamic i.e. has light and dark, movement, good colour etc. then try various compressions; as it's only 20 seconds the compression should happen pretty quickly and you'll be able to judge what is the best one for you. Just make sure that you keep note either in the file name or elsewhere of what the compressions are.

For now I would just use your prem pro to edit and then export with AVS as the version you're running is just too old to give good HD results.

Video Production Services Company UK London

I do not know about the software you are quoting and do not understand some of the stuff Dariv is talking about. I can tell you how to get blue ray on your TV from your cam however. First load your h264 footage into a PC and then use a video editor like Sony Vegas which will take H264 without any conversion and allow you to edit to your hearts content. Vegas ( from v10 onwards) will give you the facility to burn a Blu-ray when you have finished editing................that assumes you have a blu-ray burner on your PC of course. It is no big deal if you do not have a blu-ray burner. A PC shop will swop your existing optical drive for one that burns blu ray for about £80 in a hour or so. The only problem you have then is the price of blu ray discs! I do not bother with blue ray discs. My blu ray player has a USB port so I use freeware conversion software to convert the Vegas output ( I usually output as a .WMV file) to the format required by the usb port on my blu ray player ( .mkv). So I have all my HD videos on memory sticks.....much cheaper and much more convenient that discs. I keep the .WMV version on an external hard drive so I have the option to play the video on my PC or on the TV. If I want to give someone else a copy I use Vegas to burn a DVD unless they also have a USB port on their Blu Ray player in which case I can simply give then a copy of the .mkv file.( or whatever format their player wants).

Originally Posted by mikerb

I do not know about the software you are quoting and do not understand some of the stuff Dariv is talking about. I can tell you how to get blue ray on your TV from your cam however. First load your h264 footage into a PC and then use a video editor like Sony Vegas which will take H264 without any conversion and allow you to edit to your hearts content. Vegas ( from v10 onwards) will give you the facility to burn a Blu-ray when you have finished editing................that assumes you have a blu-ray burner on your PC of course. It is no big deal if you do not have a blu-ray burner. A PC shop will swop your existing optical drive for one that burns blu ray for about £80 in a hour or so. The only problem you have then is the price of blu ray discs! I do not bother with blue ray discs. My blu ray player has a USB port so I use freeware conversion software to convert the Vegas output ( I usually output as a .WMV file) to the format required by the usb port on my blu ray player ( .mkv). So I have all my HD videos on memory sticks.....much cheaper and much more convenient that discs. I keep the .WMV version on an external hard drive so I have the option to play the video on my PC or on the TV. If I want to give someone else a copy I use Vegas to burn a DVD unless they also have a USB port on their Blu Ray player in which case I can simply give then a copy of the .mkv file.( or whatever format their player wants).

Hi Mike,

Thank you too.

I donthave a BD player either lol. Might be time to invest in one but for the time being USB stick is my only option too.
Its a good job that the TV has a media player that can play popular formats such as MPEG4 and H.264 so I will rely on that first.

As mentioned above, I will try messing with the formats and see what gives the best results.

I mst admit to being a bit confused about frame rates and data rates. The advanced optuions allow me to edit both.
I expect the frame rates should be the "as shot" rates of either 25 30 or 50fps but data rates - will things suffer if I increase them....

I shall continue to learn and try.
I've already learnt alot since posting this question.

Currently awaiting delivery of my new define R3 case for the PC buld to commence....

Thanks once more.

Ron.