so what's the deal here?

I start my project for blu-ray MPEG2 (encoding to H.264 for some reason looks bad)

I complete the project just like I would with a DVD project.

I already have my footage in the proper format. Encore says "not to transcode" my footage.

And then BAM! takes forever to build my menus, to import my video footage, and then says it is going take over 12 hrs to build my project.. after an hr it has droped to 1hr and 30 mins.. still a pretty long time.. no idea whats going on

Why does Encore CS3 hate me

Am i doing something wrong.. is the video secretly being transcoded to m2t.

this is really frustrating... well not that bad it ended up only taking like 2-3 hrs

but my issue is still wondering what is going on..

also HOW do i make menus to be 1440x1080
instead of 720x480

This just my take, but 1. When I looked in the library under menus there are several menus labeled HD which are 1920x1080 so I assumed I had to make my menus the same size in Phototshop, and that seems to work.
2. I assume that since the frames are so much bigger, that it takes more time to encode them.
3. For some reason CS3 wants to reincode the footage each time it burns the project.
4. I usually burn either a folder or image and then check them with a player on my computer before burning a disk.
5. I've been burning either the image or folder to regular DVD's with ImgBurn as long as the projects aren't too long. I also got a BD-RE disk with my burner so I can burn the folder to the BE-RE for practice as well.

Would you let me know what your work-flow is. Thanks.
John

JohnR here is my reply with corresponding numbers

1) when i started using Encore CS3 I noticed that NOTHING was loaded in the library section, so I didn't think much of it... I read online that other people just edited the menu in photoshop.. so i did that and created a larger screen. I have as of yet burned a blu-ray with the new screen size.
But i must admit i was pretty t-off when the preview looks fine, but the final product doesn't.


2-5) But why is it encoding anything.. it is set to not transcode my footage. Plus since Blu-ray Discs are so pricey, I am only burning 1 disc at a time b/c of the outrages cost of a disc. I do have a blu-ray rewrite with my burner just not sure where it is..

I really found the library useful, so I would call Adobe and ask them how to get the library. Is your version just a trial and did you get the disk or download your version?

Secondly, you could try burning to a regular DVD +-R per this thread
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=29665
but you will need some type of BluRay player (or you could try testing at Best Buy) to see how your project works. Personally, unless you have a long project, this seems the best way to burn BluRay.

With respect to 2-5 , there is some problem with Encore cs3 and transcoding as mentioned here
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?128@@.3c055bd9
which I have never been able to get around.
I'd be interested to hear how you work this out. Thanks.
John

knowing about PCM audio is very helpful. i hadn't thought of that ..

i am using a BL-RE right now to check out how the menu will look now that i made them 1440x1080

well that failed, got
Blu-ray Error: "Fatal Error", Code: "6", Note:"

telling me my menu is to big *sighI

I guess I didn't know that the Code 6 was related to too big a menu. There are a lot of posts about that error over at the Adobe Encore cs3 forum under the BluRay export forum ie this
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?128@@.59b54715
which suggests it may be related to replacing the assets in the project. That's when it came up in my case .

For what it's worth, I have only been able to successfully create and burn a project was to be careful not to have to replace anything.

In my case, I made the menus 1920x1080 and they worked fine when I played them on my PS3.
John

Here's another thread about Code 6
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=121247

so i made the menu 1920x1080 and BAM! worked! the menu looks right now and things are cooking! Thanks for your help..

i only have one minor error in the project right now. for whatever reason button 2 is selected 1st instead of button 1 even though i have it correctly set to select button 1. But i can over look something like that for the minute.

thanks for all your help it was awesome!

Sounds great!!

Did you try burning to a regular DVD yet?

That business about the button 2 always coming up selected is exactly what happens when I do it, and must be a bug in the BluRay module.

I think Adobe rushed this to the market, but hopefully the next version will be more reliable.
John

One other thing. I would make an effort to get that library. It has only a few "HD" menus, but there are several other fairly neat wide screen ie720x480 at 1.2 menus in there which I enlarged successfully in Photoshop and they look nice.

Some of those widescreen menu's have included motion backgrounds. Unfortunately, they are small as well, but since I have Cineform, I was able to enlarge them. There might be some other way to enlarge them, but I haven't done that.

If somebody else could suggest an enlarging technique (perhaps with Adobe Media Encoder) then you would have a nice resource there for menus.

I wouldn't use Edit in Photoshop, as there have also been some problems with that in CS3 and I've had some to. I just use the "Bridge" to find the menus in the library and import them directly into Photoshop.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b5a7d3/7
John

why would i burn to a blu-ray to a DVD. my project is 19.8GB I am very happy to make my own menus. I make my own motion menu with live footage or w/ AE.

I will just work around the button issue. Make the Main Menu button the number 1 button..

but the one thing is that makes it weird is that on the 1st menu where i have 2 buttons. button one is selected automatically.

does this issue happen after u do so many buttons?

With regard to the number of buttons , what actually happens to me is the first menu I used (set to first play) which has 2 buttons, the button I set as default ie button 1 or Play all comes up selected every time (the second button is Scenes and is linked to the second menu with three buttons for the scenes and "return").

It is the second or Scenes button which always comes up with button 2 selected even though I set the default button as "button1".

I burned a "brief project" consisting on only the second menu with four buttons setting button 1 as the default, and it comes up when I put the disk into my PS3 with the first button selected.
This probably indicates that for some reason, the first menu behaves properly, but not at least 1 subsequent sub-menu.
Interestingly, when I played the folder on PowerDVD on my computer the second button came up selected.
Anyway, it is kind of an annoying, but probably minor problem.
Let me know if you figure a way around this.
John