Creating a IDVD from a 2hr long FCP fileproject

I need to make a DVD of a FCP project file that is 2 hours long - what are my options to create a qtmoive that will be fast and fairly easy to create onto IDVD. Presently I created a quicktime conversion movie which is saying it will take over 20hrs to complete? Is thier a faster way?

It doesn't matter how you compress it. iDVD runs from program duration. I don't think it will work with a 2 hour long show. I would look that one up before you go any further. Search "Maximum Movie Length."

Produce the highest quality video you can and dump that into iDVD. You can't "help it out" by crushing it ahead of time and the more work you do on it, the worse it will look.

And yes, no matter what you do, a two-hour long movie is going to take a good long while to process in any program. MPEG2 works by being front loaded. It's up to you to do all the work and take all the time and trouble so the client can play it in real time and have it look sharp, clear, and perfect. The more in a hurry you are, the worse the final will look.

Koz

I agree with Koz.

And iDVD is supposed to have a 90-minute limit, but I've made 2-hour DVDs with it. "Best Quality" must be selected in preferences - before you start making the project file. And it will take a long time to encode, that time depending on the speed of the machine.

The source was a QT reference movie from FCP 5.1.4. The project was burned as a disc image to the hard drive for making multiple copies (200 of them), then burned to DVD at half the rated disk speed (ie, 8X using 16X media) for reliability, and verified after burning. Yes, the verification found some bad disks which would have otherwise slipped past. I highly recommend turning on verification.

But in the end, the program looked OK.

HarryD

thanks I went ahead and burnt two separate DVD's of 60 minute length as QT conversion file os on FCP 5.04 recorded at best performance. viewed DV and have numerous fratualizatons square pixel effects on DVD video when thier is movement in the scene. do you know what miight have caused this bothersome error and how I may prevent this in making new copies.

Are you using Sony DVD-R blank disks? Go to CompUSA, Radio Shack, or Staples over lunch and pick up a short stack and try that.

Also, you can check your burner by closing all the applications, put a blank Sony in the drive and OK the opening dialog. Pull 4G worth of any kind of file (doesn't have to be video) over to the drive and burn. Do that three times. If that succeeds, then the burner is OK and you're probably using bad or poor disks.

Koz