Encore CS4 - Invalid MPEG Error

Been using the new Encore CS4 for a DVD the last few weeks, and just when I finished the editing and was ready to burn, the program returned an error claiming there was an invalid MPEG.  This happens during the build process (creating the DVD).  Took several days and many wasted discs for me to figure this out so I thought I might share.

Things to check for:

- Red frames in MPEG video.  Even those exported from Premiere can end up with problems.  Sometimes you just end up with a bad file and need to re-render the file.

- Bad Import.  Very sneaky but if you right-click your MPEG file in the project folder and choose Interpret Footage, make sure the settings are correct.  You would assume Encore could determine the correct settings but it claimed my MPEG video had a 1.0 ratio (square pixels) when it was widescreen and had 1.2 ratio.  Hard part figuring thsi out was the timeline and monitor all showed the correct 16:9 widescreen ratio, so really it was just this one setting that affected nothing else but the build process.

One of the more frustrating things is that you cannot refresh or reimport footage.  Remember to rename your clip and then use replace asset.  Usually replacing a bad file will cause Encore to refresh but not always.