Red Laser DVD's with my HD final Cut Pro footage

[phelzer]

Hey,

Does anybody know how to export a HD sequence from FCP into DVD studio pro and burn a regular red laser DVD? When I export from FCP as Mpeg 2 into DVD studio pro and try to burn, it always fails saying the bitrate is too high. Any thoughts?

[VaricamLife]

Can you give us a little more detail as to what your starting footage is exactly and the exact means by which you're making your MPEG-2 with?

It is VERY slow, but I've take both HDV (1080i) and DVCPro HD 720p24N right out of FCP and had Compressor convert it for me as it did the MPEG-2 creation. I've had no problems with the job Compressor did, just again, very slow. So if you give us a more detailed idea of what you're doing then perhaps we can figure out the problem.

cheers.

[phelzer]

Sorry, yes it was DVCPro HD 720p24N and I figured out Compressor as a solution. Indeed it was slow but seems to have worked. However, after successfully burning the DVD it is confusing my DVD player. It works in both my laptop and desktop computers, but my DVD player is having trouble. The main menu plays but the play and chapter buttons, somewhat humorously, blink with confusion and don't respond to being selected. The only thing I can think of is my DVD studio pro 4 is creating a DVD that is beyond the capability of my player. Any experience with this?
Sweet! Thanks.

[VaricamLife]

I have had that issue but never really had time to investigate it. And those DVDs are long gone on my end unfortunately. I normally only seemed to find it with my more inexpensive DVD players though. Perhaps some feature/option that didn't have? Before writing off those DVDs that work in the computers by not your stand alone unit, try it in a friend's stand alone unit, see if another brand or model has any better luck.

Otherwise, I guess another pass in DVDSP would do the trick. If you already have the MPEG-2 though, then it won't take long to whip up another copy. what I would try is use a template, add the MPEG-2/track to one of the buttons and just burn that and see what happens. If that's buggy, then perhaps it is your player or something in the encode. If that works okay, then perhaps when you've changed the settings you've changed some other minor setting that is upsetting the DVD player but the computers are compensating for. Basically, just try and do some trouble shooting.

Also, at the end of the day, DVD-Rs only work so well in stand alone DVD players. Basically is why I hate sending in film festival submissions on DVDs. I always wonder if it will actually play or not. If the client is willing I prefer to have a proper master/press done to help increase playability across the board.

cheers.

[bigbossbmb]

Are you exporting the HD sequence using one of compressor's HD presets? If so, then the problem is that you're trying to play HD content on an SD DVD player. Those presets actually export the full HD and not a downrezzed 720x480 file...the red laser Hi-Def DVD's made by DVD Studio Pro will only work on your computers.