MPEG-2

Why is it that there is no option to export from FCP5 (or should I call it FCP-Studio) to mpeg-2? My projects are quite long (average of 1.5 hours), so I'd like to do my compressing without having to first export at full-resolution, to have DVD Studio Pro do the compressing. Am I missing something? Thanks for your help, and Happy Easter! Scott

<[www.lafcpug.org];

Koz

just export a reference movie (non recompressed and non self contained). it only takes a very short time and as long as your write the dvd on the same local machine, you can drop that right into dvdspro and youre off to the races...

Thanks for the great information, Everyone. Wayne... that's sounds like the perfect solution to my issue. The only problem is that I clicked File/Export... and then just about everything there, but found no option for exporting a reference movie. Can you expand just a bit? Thanks so much! Scott

Did you see the option for "make self contained"? To leave it UNCHECKED is to make a reference movie.

Scott

Please understand what you're doing. A Self Contained movie will give you a very large file with your whole show in it. This file can be moved to other machines. The process is very stable and there are very few rules.

A "Reference Movie" is a really small file that amounts to a collection and listings of pointers to clips and effects somewhere else on the machine. It's efficient for drive space but it's not the most stable and it can't be moved around or moved to other machines. This process has rules. If you move any of the original clips, you can destroy a Reference Movie.

Those of us with multiple users on one machine found Reference Movies to be completely unworkable.

Koz

yeah scott (T), i can clarify that.

file > export > quicktime movie...

at the bottom of the next window, you will see 2 checkboxes:
1. recompress all frames and 2. make movie self contained.

leave them both UNCHECKED, create a new folder, and save your movie into that.

import that folder into your dvdspro project and youre done - let dvdspro make the mepg for you on the fly. i have found its WAY better that any of the default compressor settings AND saves an ass-load of time.

as koz says, if someone practices sloppy file management on your system, you may have that reference movie left useless at some point, but you can always export another one...

but in my opinion - if someone practices sloppy file management - they should be fired or shot.

<<< let dvdspro make the mepg for you on the fly.>>>

This is me writing that down.

<<<its WAY better that any of the default compressor settings AND saves an ass-load of time.>>>

That wouldn't be hard, would it? Anything you do can save a lot of time compared to default Compressor.

However, given that all the Apple tools are interconnected, it probably calls Compressor in the background. What settings does it use? We tend toward the un-Mac need to know what's actually going on, especially since our QC tends to be much higher than the norm.

Koz

i have tested all the default "DVD-ready" settings in compressor and they are all slow as christmas and the results suck ass quality wise.

maybe there is something that compressor does for the hardcore manual compression-heads that i just dont see, but from all ive seen from compressor its a total waste of time that results in **** quality...

not to mention the fact that the interface/workflow is totally illogical...

i think apple needs to hire the old guys from xerox parc who started this whole "GUI interface" era to redesign everything apple. from a user elegance standpoint, all things mac have been slowly declining since os8