Uncompressed video?

If I have a short two minute reel going from FCP to DVDSP2, because the file is relatively small, I'm wondering if I can somehow use an uncompressed export of the edit?

It's been awhile since I last made a disc which was longer and I followed my Magnet Media training DVD steps, and it turned out well, but in this case I'm wondering if I need to bother with all the compression markers, 2 pass VBR, etc.

Thanks,
~Chris

sorry, it's DVDSP 4 if that matters...

As it's been awhile, I forgot that everything gets converted to MPEG2. I'm reviewing my training disc, but if anyone happens to know, what is the best way to retain the highest quality for a shorter file?

I guess this is more a Compressor question, but in case it's of any help to others in this situation, it looks like you have no option for uncompressed. The best quality using compressor seems to be the 60 min high quality encoding using the two pass VBR set between 5 - 8.

If this is incorrect, please let me know :-)
~C

You have posted 4 different consecutive posts that seem to be somewhat unconnected? I am not getting the "uncompressed" thing. Since you are posting to the DVD Studio forum, I am guessing that you need info on DVD authoring or something like that.

No matter what format you bring into FCP when it is all said and done, it gets to MPEG-2 form inclusion on a DVD. Whether the original material was DV or SD or HD, it all ends up MPEG-2 for a DVD.

It all ends up first, as a QuickTime output file (.mov), then gets encoded into .m2v and .aiff files. Uncompressed has nothing to do with it at this point in the workflow.

Compressor only works with QuickTime files, not uncompressed or DV or SD or HD.

Does that make sense ???

Thanks John,

Sorry for the confusion; I was essentially refining/updating my initial query as I was trying to hone in on an answer, which is what I found out and you just confirmed/reiterated.

Regards,
~Chris

Chris: You can't put uncompressed video on a DVD. At least not on a standards based disc you expect to work on DVD players.
One thing that you can do, however, is make your MPEG-2 strean from an uncompressed or slightly compressed source. Not only you "can", but that's what professional encoding usually requires to get that special quality encoding.

Since MPEG-2 is such a heavily compressed format, people sometimes disregard the fact that compression success is very dependent on the quality of the source. If you throw into the picture the fact that DV NTSC has a 4:1:1 color sampling scheme while NTSC DVDs use 4:2:0... that's really a blood bath in terms of color resolution

If your material is mainly DV/HDV, exporting uncompressed won't help. If you have tons of graphics, compositing, text animations, etc., exporting as uncompressed (or with any other, more benign compression) could be a good idea.

Finally, there's a subtle thing: If you export from FCP with different settings from those in the timeline and you DON"T activate the Recompress all frames option... you'll end up with something that is/looks like the more compressed format but has the weight of the uncompressed one. Not nice, it it? The Recompress checkbox means: "Please bypass the timeline's sequence settings and render any effects or transformations from scratch".

Hope this is clear.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Thanks so much Adolfo, I truly appreciate this. You're correct in that I am working with a timeline of clips assembled from different sources, some HD, some SD, etc. with some motion graphic sequences and composite work from Motion, as well as some transition & filter effects from FCP plug-ins, etc.

I'm going to build a DVD through DVDSP, so I have to go the MPEG2 route. Since it's such a short piece, I'm putting in a lot of compression markers to hopefully help keep the quality up.

I'm also trying to figure out how best to deal with the Motion sequences I have edited into the project. I just found out you can check "field rendering" and "motion blur" (going from memory here, so I may have the names slightly off) in Motion exports to help the quality and deal with the ultimate viewing on interlaced TV screens. I just imported the Motion files into the browser, inserted them in the timeline and rendered. Now I'm wondering if I should go back and export them per above, and then bring them in?

Good to know about the "recompress all frames" option as well - thanks again.

All the best,
~Chris

" just imported the Motion files into the browser, inserted them in the timeline and rendered. Now
I'm wondering if I should go back and export them per above, and then
bring them in?"

No, Chris, no need to export anything. The ability to import a Motion project into FCP is absolutely fantastic. It basically means that will be rendered at whatever setting/quality your sequence is in. But you know what? If you export with "Recompress al frames" FCP will have to re-process the Motion files on export, using whatever quality threshold you set on the Export settings.

Field rendering is a really long subject.... A possible short answer could be: if your Motion project has clips in it, you can use it, if it doesn't, it could be a good idea not enabling it. In any case, you have to make sure your rendering order is correct. DV is lower field first. HDV is upper field first. Uncompressed material (as captured from Digi Beta, etc.) usually is upper field too.

Motion blur is a process the simulates a virtual camrera shutter, so that fast paced transformations look more natural by the simulation of long exposure blur. Unfortunately, Motion only allows you to turn Motion blur on or off on a whole project basis, unlike most applications that will allow you to enable it or disable it for each individual item. Projects with MB on will take much longer to render, though.

Finally, as I said many, many times in this forum, you will also have to come to terms with the fact that DVD is a consumer level delivery medium. So your quality expectations have to be realistic in this regard. Sometimes it won't look as good as your master. It depends on the nature of your material, and to some degree, your compression skills too.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

This is great info - thanks again for sharing Adolfo. I'm realistic about the output given the limitations, but it's very helpful to know how to truly maximize them. I've been using these apps here and there over the years, learning bits in piecemeal, and am now at long last "diving in" and feel like I'm on a near software/learning curve overload, so it's really great to be able to turn to these forums for some real world expert advice.

All the best,
~Chris

I'm glad you find it useful!



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com