DVD Burning

I have about 2 hours of video that i want to burn to dvd with chapter markers and thats it... nothing fancy.
Converting the final cut sequence into a quicktime movie won't work because the file is over 12 gigs, won't fit on a regular dvd. saving as an mp4 won't be as big, but then i won't have my chapter markers anymore. Basically what i need to do is find out how to keep my chapter markers and convert the sequence from final cut into some type of file that will fit on a 4.7 gig dvd. hope this is clear enough to understand. thanks.

> Converting the final cut sequence into a quicktime movie won't work because the file is over
> 12 gigs, won't fit on a regular dvd.

When you're talking about a video DVD, all that matters is the length of your program and the encoding rate. However, you won't be able to use iDVD because iDVD media can't go over 120 minutes. DVD Studio Pro should do fine, though.

Two hours at 13GB? That means you're working in less-than-DV quality. What codec is your media at? I might consider capturing at a higher quality than that to preserve more picture information at the first level so that when you go through the MPEG-2 compression for DVD, your picture doesn't fall apart.

Put your chapter markers on the timeline, not on the clips. On each marker, you need to press M to go into the marker menu, then click on Add Chapter Marker. Do *not* modify the <CHAPTER> code that appears or the marker won't be recognized as a chapter marker. Now go to Export - QuickTime Movie (not Export - Using QuickTime Conversion), and make sure you include Chapter Markers in the export. The resulting movie file can be put through Compressor if you want more control over your MPEG-2 compression, or you can just import it into DVD Studio Pro directly.


www.derekmok.com

First you'll need to grasp some of the basic concepts of DVD like Mpeg2 compression.
Do a quick spin through the DVD Studio Pro manual if you have it.

Short answer though is to
1) export your timeline using the "QuickTime Movie" option (not QuickTime Conversion). Remember to include Chapter Markers in the lower pulldown menu selections. Open Compressor and drag your movie into the Batch window. Select a preset for the video and a Dolby 2.0 setting for the audio and submit your batch. The resulting two files should fit on your DVD. Import them into DVDSP and go to town or
2) Export to Compressor right from FCP. Same results with out the middle step of the huge Quicktime but some people have had problems doing it this way.

For further questions it is advisable to let us know what version of software you are using, whether you have DVD Studio Pro or were planning on doing this in iDVD and what kind of hardware you are running. We can give you a better, more comprehensive answer that way.

ak

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

all my chapter markers are on the time line already...dont really feel like recapturing 2 hours of tape...but willing to deal with not so great quality, at least until i figure out how to do this and change it later if i feel the need.

my problem now is, i've already used the export "quicktime movie" and that gives me a 12 gig file. is that file an mpeg2 or 4? regardless...if i import into DVDStudio Pro will it compress the file for me to fit on a 4.7 DVD? Or do I have to do the compression?

You probably exported it with whatever codec your project was using.

Run it through compressor to get your mpeg2 for the DVD. I suspect that you are going to have to go with a very low bitrate for the compression (<5.0) if you're going to fit the whole thing on 1 single-layer dvd.