I find this to be baffleing.  Why does DVD transcode my carefully prepared VBR video files.  How is it possible that my settings (based on Squeeze's presets) are somehow not compliant with Avid DVD?  Am I missing a setting or preference?

thanks

Kevin

Thanks for the reply.  Right now Avid DVD is running and it says "transcoding video."  So , yes it does transcode.  I am preparing files to author in Avid DVD so these are MPEG2s.  Any ideas?

This is not the end of the world or anything, I would just like to know what is going on.  BTW, the DVD looks fine.

Kevin

File->Preferences, File Control tab, set "File Handling" radio control to "Always ask me what to do".  Although it probably isn't necessary, it doesn't hurt (if you are encoding before importing into Avid DVD) to set teh Quality tab, Effort Control to "Best Quality".

Then...

File->Project Settings, both the SD Transcoding and HD Transcoding tabs, uncheck the "Convert all compliant video and audio files".  Again, while it probably doesn't matter if you are encoding before import into Avid DVD, you may want to set the Encoder set: control to "Medium Quality VBR" in both tabs as a safety net. (This is equivalent to commercial titles you rent from your local Block Buster or NetFlix.)

When you import pre-encoded files that are DVD / Blu-ray compliant, author yout program then burn to disk, you will still see the "transcoding..." message but only breifly.  I believe what is happening in this instance with the settings above and imported DVD compliant MPEG-2 is that Avid DVD is simply re-organizing the MPEG-2 into VOB, IFO, BUF files etc and not actually re-encoding the MPEG.  (It happens to fast to be a full transcode, and using Bitrate Viewer on the "before" and "after", I don't see any differences that lead me to believe the media files are being re-encoded with the above preferences and project settings).

Many thanks for this clear explainiation...printed it and it will be immortalized in my"tips" binder

Kevin

Yeah however it works natively with .m2v files from final cut pros compressor.  makes sense right? lol