Compressor or DVD Studio Pro for best DVD?

Hey Guys,

I recently shot some footage on Super 16mm, I got it back from the lab in 23.98, uncompressed, 16x9 aspect ratio. The footage looks really great in final cut, but when I export it out, and put it into DVD Studio Pro, the quality really drops. The movie is only around two minutes and thirty seconds, and when I bring it into DVD Studio Pro it compresses it to like 94MB. I looked at compressor, and the lowest setting for the mv2 file was 90 minutes best quality. I exported the short film (2min 30 sec, 3.34 gigs) out as a Quicktime Movie, make self contained...

1. What is the best way to maximize all the space on a SD DVD to allow my footage to look the best it possibly can on a DVD? Could you go over this with me step by step?

2. I don't really understand the whole Bit Rate, Max Bit Rate thing in compressor/dvd studio pro, could you explain that as well?

3. If I print the short film out to a Mini DV (or DigiBeta, etc), will the footage on the DV be squeezed to a 4x3 aspect ratio? Or will it preserve the 16x9 aspect ratio?

You guys are the best, thanks in advance!

I have looked around on the site and really haven't found anything this specific, a lot of HD to SD stuff that I don't need...right now anyway =0)

Running FCP 2, on a IMAC, 4 GIG MEMORY, 2.44 PROCESSOR.

Frankly, there's a lot of ground to cover from FCP settings to DVD encoding. You are better off either getting a whole bunch of books and start reading/learning, going to classes... OR get a pro to do it.

I'll go into Question 2 today, and go back to Question 3 in the Cafe before I rush off again for the day.

>I looked at compressor, and the lowest setting for the mv2 file was 90 minutes best
>quality.

That's because DVDs have a maximum bitrate limit of around 10.08mb/s. And that includes both video AND audio, and you won't even want to come close to this, as many consumer DVD players won't be able to take that amount of data without choking, stuttering, etc.. Most DVDs are encoded with an average bit rate of around 6.5 mb/s.

>2. I don't really understand the whole Bit Rate, Max Bit Rate thing in compressor/dvd
>studio pro, could you explain that as well?

When you're using variable bit rate (VBR), the bit rate of your video stream can vary. Max bit rates caps the most amount of bits at a specific point of your video.

>a lot of HD to SD stuff that I don't need...right now anyway

The main difference between HD and SD is frame size, which you can also interpret as "resolution". Same goes for your film print. What did you get back from the lab? I gather it's a Quicktime, what codec?



www.strypesinpost.com

Can you recommend a website, or a few books that will cover this FCP to DVD compression workflow, best quality answers that I have?

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michaelpaulucci
1. What is the best way to maximize all the space on a SD DVD to allow my footage to look the best it possibly can on a DVD? Could you go over this with me step by step?

With the runtime you're dealing with capacity is not an issue. SD DVD uses MPEG-2 (or MPEG-1) for video and at the max bitrate you wouldn't come close to filling a DVD with the runtimes you're asking about.

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michaelpaulucci
2. I don't really understand the whole Bit Rate, Max Bit Rate thing in compressor/dvd studio pro, could you explain that as well?

As mentioned you have say 9.8Mbps max total bandwith to play with. (10.08Mbps really as strypes said). But lets use 9.8Mbps.

You then say, "am I burning to recordable media or going to replication". Lets say you're using DVD-R recordable media. You then have to say "I know high bitrates cause problems so what do I want my max total bandwidth to be? You decide 7.5Mbps is as high as you want to go.

Now you have to subtract your audio from the total. If you're using PCM Audio (Aif/WAV) you're looking at 1.536Mbps. 7.5Mbps (Total) - 1.536(Audio) = 5.964Mbps Max for Video with no buffer.

This is why many people like to use Dolby Digital Audio or think that Aif causes issues. It doesn't really cause problems it is just many users have no idea about bandwidth usage.

Now if you use Dolby Digital AC3 audio you will probably use 192kbps-224kbps. This changes things. Lets re-do the maths.

7.5Mbps (total) - 0.192Mbps (audio) = 7.308Mbps Max for Video. Many prefer to be able to use the extra bandwidth for video.

Next you have to decide what average to use on a VBR (Variable Bitrate Encode). Lets examine using avg 5Mbps.

You will want to give Compressor some room to work. The idea is, Compressor will use lower bitrates when there is not much pixel change frame to frame. So in an interview parts of a wall dont need encoding every frame cause nothing has changed in that pixel from one frame to the next so Compressor can get rid of it - reducing the filesize! and dropping the bitrate to 3Mbps.

Then there is a shot of sports and lots of action. Lots of pixel change frame to frame and Compressor now needs to use the Max bitrate. 7 in this case. It has gone -2 below the avg and now +2 above so the avg overall is fine 5Mbps while giving Compressor the room it needs to work.

This is a very simplistic example and there is a lot more to it but I hope that helps you get the idea... Of course if the Max is 7 and Compressor needs 9Mbps for the frame that is where you see Macroblocking type effects. That said encoding too high for no reason can also cause issues for encoders who can't stuff enough bits!! Confused?

If only they invented a "Encode dat dur file gud" button.

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michaelpaulucci
3. If I print the short film out to a Mini DV (or DigiBeta, etc), will the footage on the DV be squeezed to a 4x3 aspect ratio? Or will it preserve the 16x9 aspect ratio?

If you keep your complete workflow 16:9 then it'll be 16:9 on tape.

Good luck,