Encore, why is it Transcoding?

I don't want to even recall the amount of hours I've had to troubleshoot Encore CS4, and I share your pain; Briefly scrubbed through the youtube link and I tell you, I used to go through Compressor(via a Matrox CompressHD card) to output an H.264 file to bring into Encore, however it seemed that Encore did not like the output from Compressor and would retranscode the file; Note, this was the least of my problems with Encore CS4; I'm now on CS5.1, and I haven't yet had to author a blu-ray, but it seems to be a lot more stable and I now prefer to do my encoding in Adobe Media Encoder.

When I was having my issues with CS4 and Compressor created files, I found that in the end I was spending more time trying to troubleshoot the problem(s), and had I just sent it through Media Encoder(CS5.1 it appears is multi-core aware), I would have been finished already. My recommendation would be to send your QT file through Media Encoder and leave Compressor out of the equation.

 

Ive been doing a ton of BD Authoring lately with Encore 5.1. Also one DVD of note.
I pre-encode all my assets in Media Encoder so that I can at least lug around a smaller hard-drive.
The footages originally are ProRes 422 from FCPX.
I have however let Encore encode a few files within the app.
Didnt have any problems except for their so called "slideshow" option.
That option is pretty bunk
All in all the app has grown since I first used it.
Im more of a DVDSP fan but since that cant do BD, I learned to deal with Encore

 

Tips in Encore?
Well for starters do not use their Slide Show option.
It does not come close to DVDSP.
For BD encoding I use MPG2 (I know old school) at 1080i/p using Media Encoder.
I dont use the 1440 crap they throw at you.
If you have to let Encore do it then make sure you select the clips and select the Transcode option (its in the properties window as a drop-down).
I had some issues using the Main Menu buttons.
If your get into pop-up (super cool feature), try to go simple first.
Then you can do multiple so you can do different outcomes.
Some of this might sound confusing, Im trying to write all this from the of my head

 

Hi,

Encore apply very closely blu-ray specs.

Beyond obvious parameters like resolution and fps, Encore force transcoding also when input stream doesn't comply with blu-ray specs.

I found in doom9's forum some informations about these specs, like (for AVC/H264)

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=154533

For example, GOP size or reference frames number are two parameters to check: some weeks ago I must to modify GOP size in MPEG2 HD stream to make compliant with BD specs, modifying GOP from 30 to 15. After this Encore accept input stream without transcoding.

I hope this helps.

Alessandro

 

I dont stray to far from Adobe's apps so Im confident that Encore will be close to BD specs. I havent had a problem yet with Transcode but with certain media, different story.