importing FCP into DVD Studio Pro

I have never used DVD Studio Pro before.
Just finished a half hour program for cable and want to make a DVD from FCP-5.

Do I understand this correctly....for SD......

Convert FCP into a QuickTime File then from there go to Compressor.
Then go from Compressor to DVD Studio Pro.
Do I have the basic flow correct?

I have graphics from Apple Motion through out the program.

Thanks / Don B.

#42 - Quick and dirty way to author a DVD

Shane's Stock Answer #42 - David Roth Weiss' Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:

The absolute simplest way to make a DVD using FCP and DVDSP is as follows:

1. Export a QT movie, either a reference file or self contained using current settings.

2. Open DVDSP, select the "graphical" tab and you will see two little monitors, one blue, one green.

3. Select the left blue one and hit delete.

4. Now, select the green one, right click on it amd select the top option "first play".

5. Now drag your QT from the broswer and drop it on top of the green monitor.

6. Now, for a DVD from an HD source, look to the right side and select the "general tab" in the track editor, and see the Display Mode, and select "16:9 pan-scan."

7. Hit the little black and yellow burn icon at the top of the page and put a a DVD in when prompted. DVDSP will encode and burn your new DVD.

THATS ALL!!!

NOW...if you want a GOOD LOOKING DVD, instead of taking your REF movie into DVD SP, instead take it into Compressor and choose the BEST QUALITY ENCODE (2 pass VBR) that matches your show timing. Then take THAT result into DVD SP and follow the rest of the steps. Except you can choose "16:9 LETTERBOX" instead of PAN & SCAN if you want to see the entire image.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

But that's just so cool of you, Shane! Great tip.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Invoke your Favorites bin with Command-6 !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I think you still don't need Compressor in the middle.

You can set the compressor numbers inside DVDSP. And if your movie is well under one hour, select CBR (constant Bit Rate) 6.8 and it will produce a very good disk in one third the time or less.

Koz

I don't completely agree with Koz on this one. While skipping Compressor as a middle step does increase speed and is often less buggy (I've had perfectly good movie files produce MPEG-2s that cause DVD Studio Pro to flunk the burn process, but the movie files themselves do fine in DVDSP when directly imported), I still recommend using it. Compressor does a better job encoding overall, and also speeds up your long-term burn times because a Compressor-produced MPEG-2 takes drastically less time for DVDSP to do the Build step than a straight movie file out of FCP. So if you need to dump the DVD encoding files and redo the Build in the future, you're saving time in the long run.

Also, if you export a reference movie out of FCP, you'll have to keep all your raw media and render files; toss one of them and the movie file becomes useless. And if you export a self-contained movie file, it's a large file you have to keep. So for economizing on storage, there's another advantage to going through Compressor.

But no, you don't absolutely need Compressor. If you change versions a lot, you'd probably want to skip it to save on the hassle.


www.derekmok.com

<<<I don't completely agree with Koz on this one. >>>

I thought you were going to argue with me about the CBR thing. I know that can dramatically reduce your production time with no decrease in quality--if you have a short show. I can also tell you that disks produced that way clear our piece of junk QC DVD player, so they are as unconditionally stable as we can make them.

However, I have no experience with stand-alone Compressor, so it's all you on that one.

Koz