Kerry,
Mate, I have been playing....
and, fact is I didn't have Sony Vegas 8 so I downloaded a trial. First impression was not great. Nothing was self explanatory at all (at least with me at the wheel!) also couldn't see why it was needed (apart maybe for adding audio). At almost $600 USD get in I think I'll give that a miss.
Don't have or use Adobe Encore either, but I take it it will except the FMPG4 format the H2.64 Tourweaver outputs directly? Or did this need to be processed through Sony Vegas 8 first?
Jeez, life shouldn't be this hard should it? It really should just be export to Video and then render to DVD.
I do have Pinnacle Studio 10.7 Plus but it doesn't deal with FMPG4 H2.64. I also have MOVAVI Video Suite 4.6.3 and again it doesn't deal with FMPG4 H2.64. So I moved onto Stoik Video Converter 2 also no go with FMPG4 H2.64. Downloaded Cyberlink PowerDirector 6.0 nope, no go! So moved onto reading forums - seems Pinnacle Studio 11 with latest patches "should deal with FMPG4 H2.64" but haven't proved it. Read that Ultra MP4 Video Converter was the way to go so downloaded the trial and had some success but! The rendered quality just like before when we visited this topic is crap.
This is after trying every possible way of outputting video from Tourweaver. Changing sizes, changing the input panorama quality, trying customized mpeg1 and customized mpg2 along with H2.64 720x480 and Wide screen 780x450, Pal, NTSC the works.
Just to add some confidence back into my work I went back to my "other" method just to be sure again of the quality and compare with the crap I had been getting.
What I can tell you is that I created a Quicktime movie with a 6000x3000 image and displayed it full screen with DevalVR at 1680x1050 fullscreen and recorded the screen with manual mouse and keyboard driven navigation. It created a High Quality file at 3.4GB at 25FPS (PAL) that runs for approximately 3 minutes converted it to a non-compressed .avi and ended up with a movie 12.8GB (HUGE) for 3 minutes of footage! But high quality using Virtual Dub 1.4 (Free) Software This I could then input onto the stage of Pinnacle Studio 10.7 Plus and render out to DVD "Best Quality" 25FPS PAL (because that is the system used in Australia (England also). If I had been the USA it would have been 29.97FPS NTSC.
The final DVD file size ended up at 124MB and played back on my 1920x1080 HD TV as good as any I've seen. Knowing full well that "normal non HD" DVD resolution is only 720x576 in wide-screen 16:9 format.
So! I get quality DVD playback after a lot of mucking around (simply because of the H2.64 format) and the lack of current support by "most" video software products.
If Adobe Encore or Premier deals with it directly by supporting FMPG4 H2.64 and even perhaps even the very latest versions of other software like Pinnacle Studio 11, Coral/Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus, MOVAVI VideoSuite or MOVAVI Video Converter or the many others out there that is great and will no doubt ease the pain. But why we need to do this leg work first is beyond me? Clear instructions should have been including with support when this H2.64 Codec was introduced into Tourweaver.
To all reading this if you simply need to convert the FMPG4 H2.64 movie that Tourweaver outputs into something usable then Ultra MP4 Video Converter seems the best value at around $29.99 USD.
I would suggest you test and test some more before parting with cash on any of the Video conversion/editing packages.
Good luck, cross your fingers and have fun.
Regards, Smooth
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