Hi John...The defaults do work, but I like to encode at a higher bit rate for some projects. For instance, for my latest project, a demonstration piece which will end up on a website eventually, I wanted to encode the demo for the customer to view at a rate of 8000 instead of 6000, which is the default. MEP has always let me do this in the past, but not now. Leads me to believe there's some setting I'm missing, but I sure can't find it. I left the installation of MEP Pro Plus on my system, as I installed Premium. (I mistakenly thought the Premium purchase was a newer version of MEP. Imagine my surprise to find out they were the same version.) Any ideas?

Regards...Bruce

Hi Bruce

. . . . . generate mpegs through the export file menu selection . . .

Should have asked in my first post - mpg or mp4?

. . . . . a demonstration piece which will end up on a website eventually . . . .

These are some of the things that need to be taken into account:-

• MP4 is the standard, most universal, format for web site video and is the preferred format in the HTML 5 web standard
   
• The viewing audience, ie is it for a specialist small audience, or does does it need to reach the maximum number of viewers on a wide range of devices eg PCs MACs and mobile devices?
   
• Is the hosting to be on the customers own site, or some other 3rd party site eg Youtube, Vimeo with a link to it from the customers website?
  
  If there own site, is the site created using CMS software eg Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress - see below) etc, or software such as Xara Web Designer, Adobe Dreamweaver etc ?
  
  If the site uses a CMS system does it have the necessary plugin(s) to deliver video for the maximum range of devices?
  
  For example, I have a Joomla based site and a plugin which will deliver an alternate version, ie OGV or WEBM format depending on the viewers device. These variants have to be created separately.
  
  If hosting is to be on Youtube, then Youtube will create different resolution versions which will be delivered depending on the viewers Internet connection speed and device the lowest resolution can be as low as 240p (352 x 240 pixels).
   
• The minimum and maximum resolution required for the video?

Of course if the customer specifies a video format and resolution then the above are out of your hands.

HTH

John EB

Hi John...This is just one example of what I do. The biggest use for me is compiling yearly family video on DVD & BluRay. I think video encoded at the 8000 bitrate just looks so much better. I video somewhere between 20 to 40 family events per year involving various family members, plus all the grandkid's sports. I make a separate encoded file for each event and then make up a family member specific set of DVD's with just the events that pertain to them. What is it that all of a sudden won't allow me to create a file with my preferred settings? I can easily go into advanced settings and change the bitrate, but I can't for the life of me figure out why now it won't encode. For my customer, I just wanted to let him see what I had done so he could OK it, sort of a proof. It's for a University provided website, so once it's ok'd, I'll give then whatever format they request. Thanks for the help!

Regards...Bruce

Hi Bruce

. . . . I make a separate encoded file for each event and then make up a family member specific set of DVD's . . . .

I suspect the issue is because the total bitrate, ie video + audio, is exceeding the DVD allowed maximum of approx 10800 kb/s - the norm appears to be not to allow the maximum total bitrate to exceed approx 9000 kb/s.

Are you :

1. setting the video bitrate to 8000 kb/s and increasing the audio bitrate as well, or the total bitrate (audio + video) to 8000 kbs?
    
2. changing the bitrates from variable (VBR) to constant (CBR)

The other factor is if the total disc content is close to or exceeds approx 2 hours running time, then the total bitrate may have to be reduced to allow the movie to fit on the disc. MEP should warn you about this.

I used to recommend using higher bitrates for DVD and BD discs, however a Magix staff member posted that there can be issues, using higher bitrates than those in the presets, with various DVD and BD players which cannot handle the higher rates even though they are supposed to be to the DVD or BD standard.

One thing that does increase the perceived quality, particularly on DVDs being viewed on a HD television*, is adding sharpening to the whole movie - from the menu bar Effects, Movie effects settings, Sharpness tab - I use a value between 45 and 55, I have found that once you start going above 60 - 65 the sharpening can become obvious.

* with this scenario you are at the mercy of the disc player or TV's upscaling capabilities, if they are not good quality up-scalers then artifacts or blockiness will appear in the video reducing the perceived quality, also the image may appear softer, hence the need to sharpen.

IMHO with DVD and BD it is best to leave the presets as they are.

HTH

John EB

Hey John...Here's something interesting. I was doing some experimenting this afternoon. When I was setting the VBR bitrate to 8000, I was moving the maximum bitrate to 10000, only because the default values were 6000 and 8000. As a test, I changed the default value from 6000 to 8000, but I left the maximum at 8000. It encoded fine. Then I used the 8000 bitrate but changed the max to 9000. Still encoded fine, no error. And the resultant mpeg looks fine. However, if I leave everything the same but change the max bitrate to 9999, I get the error. I then performed 1 last test with the max set at 9500. It also encoded fine. In all cases, the audio bitrate was set to it's maximum by default, so all I could do is reduce it. So there you have it! What do you think?

Regards...Bruce

One thing that does increase the perceived quality, particularly on DVDs being viewed on a HD television*, is adding sharpening to the whole movie - from the menu bar Effects, Movie effects settings, Sharpness tab - I use a value between 45 and 55, I have found that once you start going above 60 - 65 the sharpening can become obvious.

* with this scenario you are at the mercy of the disc player or TV's upscaling capabilities, if they are not good quality up-scalers then artifacts or blockiness will appear in the video reducing the perceived quality, also the image may appear softer, hence the need to sharpen

Thanks for that tip John, which I aim to try before burning my next DVD.

HI Bruce

. . . . Then I used the 8000 bitrate but changed the max to 9000. Still encoded fine, no error. And the resultant mpeg looks fine. However, if I leave everything the same but change the max bitrate to 9999, I get the error . . . .

This confirms what I suspected in my previous post - the error settings are exceeding the DVD specification for maximum video and total bitrate.

The DVD standard specifies the video maximum bitrate at 9999 kbps and if the audio rate is set to the default 228 kbps, then this is exceeding the total allowed maximum bitrate of 10080 kbps (not 10800 as in my previous post - missed the typo).

Do note that DVD players may struggle with video above 9800 kbps.

John EB