Best DVD format

My FCP 4.5 doesnt have an export to Mpeg -2 . Why?

In this case what is the best format to export to before i bring it to Toast Titanium, for DVD burning?

thanks to all. THis site and forum has been absolutley fantastic !!!!

Dean

Compressor will encode mpeg 2.

Andy

Export a quicktime movie from FCP and then use Compressor to encode an mpeg 2. Then drag the VIDEO TS AND AUDIO TS folders into the Toast DVD-ROM (UDF) Data tab. Then delete any file having to do with "layout" or .LAY files. See Chapter 17, p.474 of DVD Studio Pro for Mac by Martin Sitter. Good luck!

hum ?

"VIDEO TS AND AUDIO TS folder" straight out of Compressor ?

wouldn't a step through Dvd SP be missing ?

I second vigorously the rest:

after JUST "Build" in Dvd Studio Pro (the Hammer icon) delete the "layout" with the DVD Studio Pro Sicon in your VIDEO TS folder and Toast both folders as Dvd-Rom UDf on a -R media

NAME_YOUR_DVD_THIS_WAY



---------------------------------
A Day late & a Dollar-short Productions

Newer versions of Toast Titanium automatically strip the DVD SP ".LAY" files when you drap the VIDEO_TS folder into Toast.

I don't know if this is only true when using Titanium, but I have Titanium 6 and this is the case.

Best,
Pete

I'm pretty sure Compressor doesn't make Video_TS files. It makes the MPEG-2, and then DVD Studio Pro or iDVD would still have to make the VOB files for video-DVD formatting.

I've read a few times on this forum that for the best quality DVD you should output a Quicktime movie from Final Cut then bring it into compressor to make a Mpeg. I've just been going straight from final cut to compressor, using the default Mpeg 2 and Aiff settings and have had very good luck with quality. These are usually projects under and hour long, though. So someone please confirm that making a Quicktime movie then going through compressor for the Mpeg will yield better quality for longer programs.

Thanks

Thanks to all for their advice.

OK , just a couple of things.....

I dont have compressor....

If i export using quicktime, what codec? I have used DV and it seemed to work well. Of course, then Toast has to convert it, but i dont have an mpeg 2 option at this time.

SO i guess the big question is...... which output will give me the best quality event though I am sending it to Toast for mpeg-2 conversion? And please be specific (include all parameters)

Also, under what circumstances do you use the quicktime conversion?

thannks again to alll !!!!!

I get my best results using:

Quicktime
Photo Jpeg
Quality set to max



bob rice
frameworx media

I guess my question was, if I make a Quicktime movie out of FC and then compress that file in compressor, will I get better quality? Seems that approach would be compressing twice?

FC will send Quicktime to Compressor, so you end up with the same end result. Quality will be the same. So, I guess you could say it's getting compressed twice either way.

Where you will see differences in quality is if you export to a noisy or more lossy Quicktime format. I always use Quicktime PhotoJPEG at maximum quality, unscaled. I get the same visual quality as if I exported uncompressed (with a lot smaller filesize). Other Quicktime formats don't seem to work as well.



bob rice
frameworx media

No it's NOT compressed twice. Exporting from FCP as a Quicktime Movie uses the current codec settings that you've been editing with in FCP. This is one of the biggest misconceptions in video editing.

Quicktime is a wrapper. It's just the shell that the video is contained in. Codec (eg: DV/NTSC, Animation, Uncompressed) is the "compressor/decompressor". If you digitized from a DV tape into FCP via DV/NTSC codec, then you didn't compress it further. It was compressed into DV when it was shot, but in FCP it's a straight file transfer.

Creating a Quicktime Movie export (not "quicktime conversion" using the "current settings" setting does not compress it further because the codec remains the same again.

Taking that file into Compressor and transcoding it into mpeg2 will finally compress the movie. That compression is determined by a number of factors in the compressor settings.

Bob is right in saying that sending a file to compressor and exporting a quicktime movie and THEN going to compressor will give the same result. But it will only compress it once in either case.

The reason that most people do that intermediate step is because the "export using compressor" function has been quite buggy at times, but the export to quicktime movie works like a charm.

Andy

Why do you delete the layout files?

just curious.



Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

You delete the layout files because many (if not most) DVD players choke when they find anything in the VIDEO_TS folder that they don't expect. The layout files don't belong there on a final DVD.

Incidentally, when you use DVDSP to make an image file of the DVD (my preferred route), it excludes the layout files for you.



bob rice
frameworx media

Is that why the DVD's I make in DVDSP mostly go straight to hell on older DVD players?

Very Interesting.



Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

Thanks to all for their advice.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice everyone, but this question was never answered

I dont have compressor.... I have toast and fcp 4.5 only without mpeg 2 export so..............

If i export using quicktime, what codec? I have used DV and it seemed to work well. Of course, then Toast has to convert it, but i dont have an mpeg 2 option at this time.

SO i guess the big question is...... which output will give me the best quality event though I am sending it to Toast for mpeg-2 conversion? And please be specific (include all parameters)

Also, under what circumstances do you use the quicktime conversion?

thannks again to alll !!!!!

Are you sure you don't have Compressor? It came with FCP 4.5.

Check your disks, you may just have to install it!

I'm on a 1GHz G4 eMac, 512 MB SDRAM, using FCP 4.5. I do use Compressor for MPEG-1 compressions, but I don't have iDVD, just Toast 6 and an external DVD burner.

Can someone please tell me how to properly compress a DVD and then burn it? Thanks to all.

Jerry, next time, don't follow up on a month-old thread, start a new one.

I don't think Toast can burn a video DVD; it can only duplicate it. You need iDVD or DVD Studio Pro.

yes, vriginia, you CAN create a DVD in Toast!

it;s the absolute easiest way to do it, too, if all you want is a no-frills DVD

choose Video in toast,
drag in the video file, and hit record.
check the settings in the pull out drawer on the left,
and hit record.

you can add more than one video file, and you can "edit" them, or select the section you want to be included.

it;'s easy because there;e no fancy menus.
no detailed chapters. (you can program a chapter every few minutes, i don't know if the FCP chapter markers will work)

have a look, you'll figure it out.

(and yeah, it would have been good to make this a new thread)
nick