mpeg2 vs m2v

hi guys,
i've sent an m2v (2 pass & 1 pass) to an advertising awards festival canne in france. They are saying that the files dont work and are confused that i cant just send them an mpeg.
Does anyone know how i can export an mpeg from FCP instead of the m2v it exports too?
Any settings which I should be aware of?

Many thanks in advance for any help.
Dom

MPEG-2 may fail to play in QuickTime Player 6 (My QT Player 6.5.2 doesn't play MPEG-2s, even though Compressor and FCP can export them). QT Player 7 might have fixed this. Make sure the receiving party has the proper codecs for playing back your file. MPEG-4 is a pretty accessible format to use, and MPEG-1 is usually a guaranteed play -- though I have no idea which applications can encode in MPEG-1.

I believe in qt 7, MPEG- 2 is a seperate $17 licence. This belief is not encumbered by anything inconvenient like a fact.

Ian

Why do contests do this?

What a pain in the !@#$.

You sent them an Elemental Stream MPEG2 file--the picture without the sound. It's not ususual that they can't play it. I believe what they really wanted was a Program Stream or Transport Stream, both of which have the sound and picture together in the same file.

I think either Toast or Cleaner (I forget) can produce this file. I don't know any way to produce it inside Final Cut, or with any of the Final Cut tools. It's possible it's buried way down inside Compressor, but I've never found it.

We use TMPGEnc on a PC to do contests. That will produce a "System Stream" which, if you dig down, they admit it's really a "Program Stream MPEG2 file."

Have you noticed that nobody can tell you *who* told them to expect a file like that and further, they can't tell you which of the streams they want? I suspect somebody did this in one contest once and everybody went along like sheep.

Koz

Thanks koz,
I like your attitude on this one. What a bloody pain!
Do you know if I can download 'cleaner' on the mac?

Hey crew,
I'm thinking I probably need to get hold of "cleaner pro 4.0 for the following compression settings. Does anyone know any way of achieving these settings without it?
Here goes, the settings are:

MPEG2 Program Stream
Video Source should be kept as its Source Aspect Ratio and Tagged in the Header
MPEG2 4:2:0 Program Stream
Enable the Compatible check box if using Telestream as the Encoder
Video Bit Rate 7500kb/s
GOP 1 B frames Between Reference
2 P frames in Gop

Audio Mpeg layer 2 384 kbps

The resulting MPEG file should have Audio and Video in one file, in the software program 'Cleaner' this is classed as a Multiplex file.

You might try creating the MPEG files with Compressor, matching the settings as close as you can. Then mux the audio to the m2v with MPEG Streamclip (free) or something similar. Might work.



- Justin Barham -

<<<matching the settings as close>>>

Oddly enough, I don't think that's a problem. Because it's a file, it's going to play from a fire-breathing hard drive, not a cramped for space DVD with bitrate problems.

It's the muxing that's going to kill you.

Somebody claimed there was a setting inside Compressor that would do this.

Our software package warns us that even if we're successful with our creation, we won't be able to play it anywhere to check it. Which brings us back to the contest folks. What are they using for playback?

Koz