Compression problems QT to DVD

Hello,

I'm having problems compressing a large .mov file. The end result is that on a DVD the frames look terrible. I'm not talking about jagged lines. Imagine the frame is split into 6 horizontal slices -- those six slices are not always in sync, and I can pause and "catch them in the act."

The original film was on film, then telecined and eventually converted to a large .mov file (DVDPRO Big Endian Codec).

Is there anything I can do to compress it with high quality, or do I need to return to the house that compressed it and ask for a smaller file Compressor can handle?

Thanks,

Mike

Follow-up:
Using Compressor, I've gone to Best Quality 90 min 4:3 and jacked the Mbps as high as they can go and changed the GOP to 6, IPPPPP. This looked better than the preset values, but no better than using a GOP of 15, IBBP.

Also, MactheRipper can't pull it off the DVD I already have. It simply does nothing when I push GO!.

MPEG streamclip tells me the the VOB_1 file is only the first 30 seconds, and it's the only VOB file -- I can't figure out where the rest of the movie went. Is this some weird time-code break on the DVD?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Mike

You may be trying too hard.

I would leave the IPB parade at the default. Really nasty things happen to motion prediction and 2-pass when you muck with those.

Never crank the bitrate all the way up. That, too, will land you in hot water. Never go any higher than 7 for the peak rate and the average rate is up to you. We settle somewhere in the high 5s.

There is no "Do This And It Will Be Perfect" setting. MPEG2 is a series of compromises. There is a perfect setting for rapid motion and a perfect setting for image quality. They're not the same setting. If you try to crank the datarate up too high you will kiss off all the older DVD players that can't handle it.

I feel your pain. We've never gotten Compressor to behave particularly well. We're much more at home in the older MPEG2 Export--which doesn't exist any more.

Koz

>>You may be trying too hard.<<

Oh, man, that's funny. Because listen to what else I did: I went through the entire film (it's 3 minutes) frame by frame and added compression markers all over the place, like 700 of them. Seriously.

And you know what, it still sucked. Every frame that I hadn't specifically pegged, sucked. Boy, did that ever hurt.

So, advice to everyone... um, no need to do this.

Anyway, to put you at ease, I had started with the general settings and only then crawled into the bitrate and the IPB parade, hoping there would be a magical threshold. But desperation leads to desperate acts.

Anyway, I have another solution finally. I have the disk in three forms now, and need to ask the experienced people which version is going to be the best. I'm going to ask it in the "General Editing Question" thread, to keep all the answers in the same place.

Thanks,

Mike