720/30p FCP to DVD/BR

Elmy

Elmy

Well-known member
I have concert footage 720/30p, finished editing everything, color, ect.. =P. Now what I need to do is get it on DVD, I have a MBP so I can't do blu ray. My question is what are the best steps to do, going from the sequence in FCP to the DVD to keep the highest quality possible? I dont want to do 2hours of compressing to find it was the wrong settings. Do I export using Compressor? If so what settings do I use in there then? This is my first time putting footage to DVD that I want as perfect as possible, sad I know =/, and so I'm sorry if this sounds "noobish". I tried finding more information on this but nothing that met what I'm looking for.
 
Try this:

Export about 10 minutes of the timeline self contained current settings audio and video.

Open Compressor.

Drop the video files in it and choose the 90 minutes "Best" setting for video and dolby2 audio DVD.

Take those two files: m2v and ac3 and open DVD SP 4.2.

Import the assets.

go to the graphic view and delete the menu

Set the remaining track as "first play.'

Drop the m2v and ac3 files on top of the track.

then simulate and then burn.

That tests workflow.

The next question is how long is the video in total minutes.

That will be relevant to which DVD preset you use in Compressor.
 
total time is about 33min, I ended up kind of figuring it out, although I should have tested first like you suggested. I exported using self contained, current settings. Then I put those in compressor and used HD DVD 60min BEST QUALITY, took awhile to compress, like 2-3hours I believe. Not sure I slept through it :D. And then put those files in DVD pro, set all the settings to HD stuff, SL Red DVD although, which will be fine since I believe I can't do blue laser since no Blu Ray Burner. I just need to buy the DVD's to burn it, forgot to run out last night.

One question however. When I import the assets there are two audio files. One is the ac3 and another is Quicktime audio, i guess connected to the video file. The ac3 has a much smaller bit rate and size, and in the simulator sounds a lot quieter then the quicktime file, and not sure if its better quality or not since I'm no sound expert, which should I keep?
 
Your process isn't going work except on some Macs and Toshiba HD DVD players.

Do not use the HD DVD encodes. Use the SD DVDs encodes.

And set your project to SD DVD, not HD DVD.

You have to start over.
 
Question concerning the output from FCP. Wouldn't it be the same quality and a much smaller file size to export as a non-self contained QT ( quicktime reference file ) and open that in Compressor for final output....also light years faster to export? Unless of course the intention is to archive the output from FCP.
 
David will the SD output still play 720p in DVD player? Or when I'm making the DVD do I just set the settings to HD with the SD output?
 
and ewilliams, it is faster, i'm really not sure on quality, this is really my first time messing with this stuff, I usually haven't done the compressing and what not, just shot, edit, someone else usually does the rest =P. So learning as I go.
 
David S. gave you some great advice!

I would either burn it as a SD DVD (as David instructed) or get an external blu ray burner!
 
ya no money for external Blu Ray though:(. I want to recompress as SD, although now my Compressor wont work at all and I have no idea. My mac has been having issues lately for no reason...no replacement plan =/.
 
There is a program that will fix that for you. Check your process list.. You should find something like compressor (not responding). Try force quitting that.

I'm looking for the program now.
 
Ya i tried, theres no (not responding) thats what was weird. I figured out the issue though. I have two exports from FCP, one was self contained, one wasn't, the one that wasn't wont load in compressor, im guessing because the files are located on my External HD, which I dont have with me currently, and so the self contained one loads fine but the other doesn't. I'd rather do the non self contained one just because of time issues now =/.

I have so many tiny questions, I wish there was someone, or some website even that could easily help me...instead of having to google my issues and search for hours.
 
ya I know, and I guess it reinforces how much I love this to myself when I find myself up till 5am looking for answers to better my work. Just hate rendering and compressing!!! lol
 
I don't know if this makes you feel better but it takes me about 10-12 hours to render out a final wedding video (approx. 1.5 - 2hr long) from HDV (1080p) to SD DVD.
 
Ya it does actually, this has taken me forever. One question. So I would compress with DVD Best Quality 60min? (since its a 33min project). Thats MPEG-2. I guess my question is, is there no way to get it MPEG-4? I just thought that was the big deal with the HMC150, or am I asking for too much burning from a MBP?
 
well I compressed it with what you said, new problem now, I import the assets to DVD studio pro, set it to first play and all, simulate, then burn, once I press burn my little mac wheel spins, and then dsp just goes non responsive, I thought it was because I had my settings on dsp to hd, so I switched all the settings to sd and 4:3 ( also tried 16:9), it still goes non responsive, even tried deleting the preference file, idk what's wrong but it's really frustrating not being able to just burn this DVD and give it to the artist... Even iDVD locks up but that's even before I import the files
 
I provided a detailed procedure in my first response.

The only differences would be to export the sequence self contained.

Use the SD DVD preset in Compressor

Set your DVD SP to SD not HD.

Then do what I indicated.

You cannot create a blu ray disc in DVD SP.

A good upscaling DVD set top to a plasma or LCD via HDMI is going to produce some nice SD scaling.
 
Ya I followed ur step, thank you btw, but for some reason my DVD studio pro just won't work (set it to sd), no idea, I'll fool with it more later when I get off work but I followed what you said step for step
 
found out what the issue is with my DVD's. MBP's have some weird firmware issue lately where the superdrive cant read DVD's and only long term fix is replacement, I did the short term fix of reseting the PRAM but not sure how long that will work...o well =/
 
Ok so now I'm just stumped. I compressed using High Quality SD DVD settings, like you said, took the .m2v video file, and the a3c sound file and inserted the assets into DVD studio, used the SD settings, did everything you said, and when I go to play it in any dvd player (other then my laptop) The dvd wont play. Tried multiple times, one dvd player says disk is dirty, and one just calls it Mixed Media Project and wont play it.

I'll try starting from my FCP timeline, exporting to QT, just takes so long unfortunately =/. It's ok if I don't do self contained right? Because that makes it take even longer, and at this point I just want to get it to DVD.
 
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