Share to DVD or Blu-ray

After you have previewed your movie and are satisfied that it is complete, you are ready to burn the project to a DVD or Blu-ray Disc. Make sure that the disc you’ve selected is compatible with both your burner and player. Also, you must have enough available hard disk space to accommodate the compressed files as well as any scratch disk files created during export. If you don’t have enough free disk space on one drive partition, you can specify a different partition for the scratch disk files using the Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks / Adobe Premiere Elements > Preferences > Scratch Disks command. (You can verify the space needed in the Burn dialog box.)

Depending on the complexity and length of the project and your computer speed, encoding (compressing) video and audio for a disc can take hours. If you plan to burn multiple discs with the same content and quality, you can save time by burning them in the same session, which compresses the project only once.

Disc burn failure

When a disc burn operation is unsuccessful due to a hardware failure, Premiere Elements creates and saves an ISO image. You can then burn the ISO image to a disc, at a convenient time. See Disc burn failures.

Burn to AVCHD | Premiere Elements 2015 and earlier releases

Burn to a DVD folder

If your DVD burner isn’t compatible with Premiere Elements, you can burn the project to a folder instead. This creates a DVD‑compatible file that can be burned to disc using a DVD/ CD authoring program.
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Export as AVCHD and burn to DVD | Premiere Elements 2015 and earlier releases

Use AVCHD if you want to export your video to a high definition format that can be burnt on a DVD. The generated files are Blu Ray compatible and can be played using an AVCHD compatible Blu Ray player.

Alternatively, you can export the generated files to a folder on your computer.

The procedure to burn your project in the AVCHD format is the same as the procedure for burning to discs or folders. For more info, see the associated sections on burning to discs and folders.

Disc burning guidelines and compatibility

If a compatible burner is connected to your computer, you can create a DVD or Blu-ray Disc directly from Premiere Elements. You can play the disc that you create in either a TV or computer disc player. Premiere Elements creates video discs. (It does not create data or audio discs.) Desktop DVD burners use a recordable DVD-5 disc (DVD+/-R), which has a 4.7 GB capacity and can hold approximately two hours of high-quality standard-definition video.

Typically, a Blu-ray Disc has a 25 GB capacity and can hold 135 minutes of high-definition video using MPEG-2 plus 2 hours of standard definition bonus material, or it can hold a total of 10 hours of standard-definition content. Blu-ray Discs come in BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable) formats.

Premiere Elements supports single‑layer, 4.7 GB DVDs of the following types: DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD‑R, and DVD‑RW. It also supports dual‑layer 8.5 GB DVD+R discs. Choose the media supported by both your DVD burner and the DVD player on which you plan to play the DVD. Not all DVD burners and DVD players support all types of DVDs. For example, many, but not all, TV DVD players recognize DVD+R discs.

This format uses write‑once recordable discs, and is compatible with both stand‑alone DVD players and DVD‑ROM drives. DVD‑R discs are available in two media types: General Use and Authoring. Most consumer DVD‑R burners use the cheaper General Use discs, and some professional burners use Authoring discs. You must use the correct media type for your burner. However, once written, the discs should be readable in either type of DVD player or drive. (General Use DVD‑R is designed to prevent backup of encrypted commercial DVDs.)

This non-rewritable format is compatible with most DVD players and DVD‑ROM drives. The first generation +RW burners did not support DVD+R recording, and probably cannot be upgraded to do so. However, all current models of DVD+RW burners support DVD+R recording. Compatibility of DVD+R discs in stand‑alone DVD players is similar to that of DVD‑R.

These formats are similar in functionality and compatibility with DVD burners and players. DVD‑RW and DVD+RW use rewritable discs that can rewrite more than 1000 times in ideal situations. The majority of stand‑alone DVD players play video recorded on DVD‑RW and DVD+RW discs, but the compatibility is not as high as with DVD‑R and DVD+R. Current DVD‑RW burners can also burn to DVD‑R.

Compatibility issues for DVDs

When choosing media and hardware, consider the following compatibility issues:

• The DVD+R and DVD-R formats are compatible with more set-top players than DVD+RW and DVD‑RW.

• DVD-ROM drives are compatible with more DVD formats than set-top DVD players, often because computers can update firmware and drivers easier than a set-top player.

• Older DVD players support fewer DVD formats.

Select the preset for a given format in accordance with the available space on the target medium and the needs of the target audience.

Burn to DVD or Blu-ray or AVCHD ISO image

Burn to Blu-ray or AVCHD applicable to Premiere Elements 2015 and earlier releases

If your DVD burner isn’t compatible with Premiere Elements, you can burn the project to an ISO instead. This creates a DVD/Blu ray/AVCHD-compatible iso file that can be burned to disc using any burn iso to disc software.

Video encoding for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs

Making a DVD or Blu-ray Disc involves encoding your video into the MPEG‑2 format or the H.264 format (Blu-ray only). Compression reduces your video and audio files to take up less storage space. For example, a 60‑minute video in Premiere Elements takes up approximately 13 GB. However, a single‑layer DVD holds only 4.7 GB. (Dual‑layer DVDs hold 8.5 GB.) To maintain maximum quality, Premiere Elements compresses the movie only as much as necessary to fit it on the disc. The shorter your movie, the less compression required, and the higher the quality of the video on the disc.

Compressing video and audio for use on a disc is very time consuming, even on high‑end, dedicated systems. The time required varies depending upon the speed of the computer processor, the amount of available memory, and the complexity and length of a project. A standard video project of 60 minutes may take from 4 to 6 hours to burn. Many DVD and Blu-ray Disc producers burn a project overnight.

Creating discs for different geographical regions

If you are sharing your DVD or Blu-ray Disc with someone from a different country, you may need to burn the disc using a different TV standard. Typically, video devices (from camcorders to DVD or Blu-ray Disc players) conform to one of two TV standards: NTSC in Japan and North America, or PAL in most of Europe and the Middle East.

Premiere Elements can create both NTSC and PAL movies, so you can create movies appropriate for your region and other parts of the world. However, you get the best results if your captured video matches the TV standard to which you plan to export.

NTSC

North America, parts of South America, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan region, South Korea, Guam, Myanmar, and others.

PAL

Europe, the Middle East, and parts of the following continents: Asia, Africa, South America.

Guidelines for successful disc burning

Once the movie includes the editing and navigation you want, the burning process is fairly straightforward. However, incompatible devices and media, or unexpected time factors can affect quality and completion. For a successful experience, consider the following guidelines when burning discs.

• Allow enough time. Encoding video and audio for a disc can take hours. Consider burning overnight. If you plan to burn several DVDs or Blu-ray Discs, burn them in the same session by using the Copies option in the Burn dialog box so that you encode the project only once.

• Update drivers and firmware. Make sure that you have installed the latest drivers and firmware (software contained in a read-only device (ROM), which has instructions for controlling the operation of peripheral devices) for your burner. You can download updates from the Internet.

• Choose a compatible burner. To make a DVD or Blu-ray Disc in Premiere Elements, you must have a compatible burner. First, make sure your system has a burner, not just a CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM drive, or Blu-ray drive. Then, check to see if the drive is compatible with Premiere Elements by looking for it in the Burner Location menu after you choose Disc from the Export & Share panel.

• When burning a DVD, choose quality DVD recordable media and a compatible DVD media format. Not all DVD burners and DVD players support all types of DVDs. However, you can’t burn the DVD unless your DVD burner supports the format of the disc. For example, a burner that supports only +R or +RW discs doesn’t burn to ‑R or ‑RW discs. The same is true for DVD players. Many older DVD players might not recognize some rewritable discs created on a newer DVD burner.

• Provide plenty of defragmented, free hard disk space. You must have enough available hard disk space to accommodate the complete compressed files, as well as any scratch files created during export. The space requirements for your project appear in the Burn dialog box.

• Avoid making unnecessary previews. Previews of your Quick view timeline or Expert view timeline are useful for checking how your finished movie looks and plays, but they take time to create and are not used in the burning process.

• Test your discs. If you make a mistake with a recordable disc, you must use another disc; whereas if you make a mistake with a rewritable disc, you can reuse it. For this reason, consider using a DVD‑RW or BD-RE (rewritable) disc for making test discs and then switching to a DVD‑R General Use disc or BD-R disc for final or extra copies. DVD‑R for General Use is write‑once recordable format that provides excellent compatibility with both stand‑alone DVD players and DVD‑ROM drives.

• Avoid running nonessential computer tasks during export. Turn off screen savers and power savers. Avoid scanning for viruses, downloading updates, searching on the web, playing computer games, and so on.