Best Settings for Exporting to Burn DVD

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young_fast_&_scientific

Active member
Hey guys,

So I just finished my demo reel and I'm at the point where I'd like to start burning some DVD's. The problem? They look terrible!

I've tried exporting with the DV/DVCPRO codec and importing into iDVD with the 'best quality' setting selected. The result is something that is full of blocky artifacting that's just unacceptable.

My edit consists of SD 16mm footage captured from miniDV and 720p footage shot with my HVX. I'm exporting from an SD 4:3 timeline that's letterboxed.

I know I'm not going to be getting a perfect image, but there must be some sort of recommended settings for getting a good DVD image out of FCP. Any suggestions?
 
What are you watching it on? A TV? An HD TV? Your computer monitor?

All will play factors.

It's an SD dvd, so look first on a standard def TV. Then... look on your LCD computer monitor at NORMAL size (remember 720x480 and your monitor could be 3x that size).

Then watch on HD tv...

Chances are it isn't the compression.

But let's back up one step anyway -- you should have done... FILE - EXPORT - QT MOVIE (not QT Compression) - CURRENT SETTINGS and brought THAT file into iDVD.

CaptM
 
CaptainMench said:
But let's back up one step anyway -- you should have done... FILE - EXPORT - QT MOVIE (not QT Compression) - CURRENT SETTINGS and brought THAT file into iDVD.

CaptM
Click to expand...

Okay, but what about DVD Studio Pro? Same thing? I have to say I haven't been very happy with the so-called "best" setting for DVD 90 min. 16:9 - a lot of artifacts. Is exporting to QT MOVIE the better quality option? I've read the manual, I've read the Pro Training Series, I've read Peachpit Press, I've read "...For Dummies" and I still don't have an output workflow that produces the results I feel I should be getting.

I've loved FCP and thought it very intuitive when I knew crap, but I'm annoyed and frustrated again now that I know just enough to be dangerous (to myself and to my projects).
 
Not being happy with it and wondering why it looks like crap are two different things. hee.

Hard to say. Personally I never use iDVD anymore... used to... but not anymore. I'll take that QT Movie into Compressor and use it to compress my audio and video tracks. I tend to get better results that way.

Remember too -- what does your film look like? Lots of blacks? Lots of motion? People say too that compressor stinks as a compressor and they like bitwize better (or soemthing like that.)

Anyway - keep working with it.

CpatM
 
My guess is your 16mm footage has a certain amount of grain and gate weave, even if it's barely perceptible, which is very hard on compressors. I'd export it 8-bit Uncompressed and bring than into compressor and use the best quality settings there.
 
You can't invent information after the fact though. Just exporting 8-bit, 10-bit, etc. doesn't really do you much. If you take all your edited, but un-finished cuts to a higher quality codec timeline and then perform all the finishing there, that can at least help preserve the quality on those elements, but your footage is still going to be limited to what you brought it in as in the first place.

I've had good luck using the DVD Best Quality settings for the most part. I can't remember the tweaks, but I've upped bit rates here and there slightly to create some custom settings, but nothing wildly different than the existing ones. I've often used them as is and been fine.

Have you tried going straight from the timeline to Compressor (File > Export > Using Compressor)? With all of the individual cuts in there, that might help Compressor for you. Those that use self-contained reference movies, from what I've heard, often then go back in and add some compression markers before actually compressing out the movie. And I wasn't entirely sure by your wording, but you're not going File > Export > Quicktime Movie and then taking that file into DVDSP are you? DVDSP's internal encoder isn't really too stellar, and that will certainly not yield good results for you.

Capt, the software you're thinking of is BitVice. Ben used to talk about his satisfaction with it quite a bit (before he kind of went awol). Though he felt it was comparable in quality just a lot faster than Compressor.

Its been a while now since the shootout, but back in the day, Compressor ranked pretty good in an encoder review. It was considered amongst the better choices for software solutions; minus Cinema Craft of course which is just in a league of its own. Anyway...

Cheers.
 
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