Crappy Quality

I have a 90 minute program that I burned using compressor. I used the preset 90 highest quality. It took about an hour to burn but the quality is still crappy. Is there something else I should do to get better output quality?

Info needed
What kind of computer etc
What was the original footage....
Bj

I have a G5 Quad with 4 gigs of Ram. The format I'm working with is mini DV. The footage looks good on tape and it also looks good in Final Cut. But when I burn a DVD it's grainy. Looks worse on some monitors than others but none of them are great.

It sounds like you're trying to play it on a computer right? Maybe try it on a stand alone player connected to a T.V. I'll bet you see a better picture then.

Good Luck

If its not your monitoring, then try exporting from FCP as a Quicktime reference movie to Quicktime. Let Quicktime do your MPEG-2 encoding and then import into DVDSP. This generally results in a better quality movie than using Compressor presets (at least for me).

Thanks so much, Tom. (and others who would could offer insight)

My goal is to import assets to DVDSP and output quality audio and video.

When I was working with IDVD -- no problem. I just saved as a Quicktime file and dropped it in -- burned it -- beautiful.

The problem is with DVDSP and me using Compressor.

So you're saying that I should just export from FCP as a Quicktime File and then import that to DVDSP? Like I did when I was using IDVD? (instead of using the Mpeg2 preset in Compressor?) I'll get better quality (although it may take longer to process, right?)

If so, is the audio imbedded in the QT file? Or do I have to export that separately like in Compressor? And I don't have to be concerned with PAR?

I find if I do QT, the audio and video comes together imbedded. Shows up as one file in DVDSP.

But if I export in Compressor I have to do audio and video separately and then see both audio and video files (and PAR) in DVDSP.

So...my question is: If if export as a QT -- I don't need to be concerned with the PAR file or the other audio files because it's already converted to mpeg2, right?

Maybe way too many questions for one post, but all related.

Thanks in advance to you Tom, and any one else who responds.

A little green around the gills,

Shelleyrae

I'm just saying try importing the Quicktime reference file from FCP into Quicktime Player. Then export it from Quicktime as an MPEG-2 file (you choose your quality settings here according to the length of the movie. Keep the bit rates just low enough so the resulting file will not be too big to fit the DVD.)
You will get 2 files, one audio and one video, just like Compressor. Then import those 2 files into DVDSP and create your DVD.
Since your movie is 90 min. you will definitely want to compress your aif audio file to AC-3 before burning your DVD. I do this with A.Pack, but if you have DVDSP4 and lost A.Pack in the upgrade you can re-install it or use Compressor 2 to do the AC-3 compression. This step will reduce your audio file length to about 1/10 th of its original size (while maintaining quality) so that you can have more room on the DVD for your video file (thus you can raise the bit rates in the Quicktime encode for a better picture (less compression).
It just takes trial and error to find the best combinations.

Yes. Makes perfect sense. I will try that. Thanks so much!

To export to mpeg2, do you need to have QT Pro? I can't find it on my regular QT.