Exporting an MPEG file from Compressor and/or FCP?

Hi there, stupid question here.

A campus television station is going to run the trailer for our indy doc that is screening there, and unfortunately they are using stone-age technology and a .mov file will not work for them. They specifically need an mpeg file. Do those even exist anymore in the FCP world? I tried going through all the settings in FCP and Compressor and the closest I can get is a mpeg2 or mpeg1, but I'm pretty sure an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 will not be what I want (don't those make the audio and videos separate tracks and compress the hell out of the file?) although I may try sending them that if I can't make just a regular mpeg. Is there a way to export a .mpg or .mpeg with full DV resolution from Final Cut or Compressor?

I'm running FCP 5.1.4 and Compressor 2.0.1

Thanks,
Ty

MPEG can have embedded audio. Yes, it does compress a lot but once you go above 8000Kbps your stuff looks just fine (or do you usually notice a huge quality difference in TiVo vs. live broadcast?). Full DV "resolution" is going to be a problem with MPEG. Too much data to stream! Stay within acceptable range (below 12K) and your stuff get's aired. BTW, you might want to google FCP Broadcast filter in case you haven't worked with TV -stations before.

Since there is no such thing as just an MPEG video format, then it must be either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.

I would check but most likely they are using MPEG-2 which is the same display format used on a DVD. True, MPEG-2 does not contain audio, so you'd better be sure what they really want before going forward.

There are actually three flavors of MPEG-2: There's the elementary stream, the program stream and the transport stream.

Ask me what the differences are. Go on. I dare ya.

The only vital distinctions are (1) these formats are not the same, and if somebody asks you for a program stream and you give him a transport stream, you may not make a new friend, and (2) elementary streams are picture or sound, while program and transport streams can be picture and sound.

Somebody who says "give me MPEG" is being insufficiently specific. You need to know the stream type and the maximum bit rate before you can proceed.

Thanks for the help and info, I'm just going to send them both mp1 and mp2 and i guess they are SOL if neither of those work

It's really better to just ring them up and ask them for more info. Jeff even told you what to ask them. Don't waste your time and energy guessing and risk having to do it again / missing out on getting on air because they didn't give you enough info.

Well its your trailer mate, so don't forget that its in your interest to have them show it not the other way round. Ask them again for the details on the specific format they want .... and then give that to them.