FCP 7 exporting for DVD, Image problems

Hey,
New here so sorry if I'm a little slow with everything. We shot some concert footage using 4 cameras, 3 cameras shot in 1440X1080 HDV 1080i60 and the other camera shot in AVCHD but was imported as 1440X1080 ProRes 422. I edited the video in a sequence with settings of 1440X1080, field dominance of Upper (odd), and compressor HDV 1080i60. I was trying to find a way to export for SD DVD in the best quality I could and found Ken Stone's site,
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hdv_timeline_to_sd_dvd.html
It's worked for me on other projects. This project is a 2 1/2 hour DVD, so I tested that method on a minute of the footage and it didn't come out well just for one camera. I followed Ken Stone's page and took the sequence and changed the settings to field dominance None, and compressor to ProRes 422. Then I exported using quicktime conversion with settings of ProRes 422 HQ. Once that file is exported I've been taking it to Compressor and using either DVD Best 90 Minutes or 120 Minutes. On the max bitrate I don't go above 7.9 and on the average I'm usually around 6.7 for Best 90 minutes and 5.2 for Best 120 minutes. Whenever I put the footage in DVD Studio Pro, the footage from the 3 cameras shot in 1080i60 look great but the footage originally shot in AVCHD has all sorts of lines and distortion on movement. I'm just trying to find out if there is a better way for me to take my footage from final cut to SD DVD and still get good looking footage out of the original AVCHD footage. I don't really understand why the footage from the AVCDD footage is coming out like that since it was imported as ProRes 422. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Matt

Thanks a lot, this did the trick.
Yeah I'm doing a dual layer dvd, but I'm sending it off for replication so from what I've read it sounds like I have to build and format the dvd, then burn each Layer to it's own dvd. Do you have any experience with this? The break point is kind of confusing me right now because it sounds like just a lot of trial and error.
Thanks again
Matt

Similar Messages

Exporting FCP movie for DVD Studio Pro

I am finished with my movie. I am confused now on the exporting to DVD studio pro. How do I do this? My viewer also would like it to be in widescreen because they had just bought a HDTV widescreen.
So how do I go about this. I have made many with iDVD but this will be my first with Studio Pro.
How do I export for DVD studio Pro?
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The most important thing you can do to help us answer your question is to give us the specs on your project. Open Final Cut Pro and click into your sequence. Then go to the menu "sequence" and go to "settings" or simply hit a command-0 (the number not the letter). Then tell us the frame size and the compressor used. From that information, we can get a better idea on how to help you: it is best to start any post with this information.
To export the best quality, go to file -> export -> QuickTime Movie...
From there, export using current settings, include audio and video, and make sure the bottom two boxes are checked (recompress all frames and make self-contained)
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Premiere Pro to MPEG-2 for DVD Interlace Problems

Hello
I hope somebody can give me advise on this.
I have created many SD DVD's from various edits but I'm struggling with this current problem.
I have an edit in Premiere Pro CC on a progressive HD timeline with H264 footage shot on a Canon 5D.
I also have a front and end animated logo where I have put some a spinning motion on the logo using basic 3D etc.
I need to create an SD DVD, so I export MPEG-2 for DVD with the setting to progressive.
The MPEG-2 that is created to make the DVD is fine with all the footage but it is interlaced on the moving logo.
I have tried moving to an interlaced timelime but it makes no difference.
I have tried upper and lower fields on the logo sequence.
I have tried exporting the MPEG-2 upper and lower and nothing seems to make difference.
The interlacing on the moving logo is also there when you burn the DVD. It is there when you playback though DVD player on the mac and also the same on a plasma TV using a normal home DVD player.
The only place the spinning logo looks normal is on the Premiere Pro timeline or when you export to MPEG4 or Quicktime, it only seems to be a problem with the MPEG-2 export for DVD.
I could really appreciate some advice on this as I need to burn a load of DVD's for distribution.
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Do the spinning motion on the logo in AE.
Export to a lossless codec and import that into Premiere.

Export for DVD with Animation codec without alphas channels not working?

I'm using FCP 5 with DVDSP. My FCP projects consist of quicktime movies that are using the Animation compressor (for lossless quality), and the movies contain alpha channels (thus they were rendered at Millions + colors to preserve the alphas).
This is my problem. I want to now export a quicktime movie to use in DVDSP with animation compression, so it is again lossless quality (obviously to presever the quality through these steps). But I do NOT want to preserve the alpha channels, because what I've learned is that when made into a DVD, the alphas are not preserved and the image looks wrong (as if without the alphas).
So I basically want to "flatten" the video, if there was some way.
I would assume the solution would be to, in FCP, export a quicktime at animation compression, but set to Millions for colors, and not Millions + (I was taught that the Millions + will preserve the alpha info).
Well, what's happening is when I set it to that, it renders, but then I get info on the movie in Quicktime and it says it has Millions + still. And thus, it looks wrong in DVDSP.
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Does anyone have an idea as to how to get around this. The only thing that has worked for me is to export the Quicktime movie with "none" for compression, but that's making the movie SO large that I can't work with it and it doesn't play right when I make the DVD.
I really appreciate anyones help on the matter. Thanks!
Brian,.
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Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display

Thanks for the suggestions. I have not yet tried laying a solid black video track underneath to see what it does, but it seems like a good idea and I'll try it out to see what happens when I get back home.
I'll try to explain what I mean by the image looking wrong.
I'm picking up where another left off, so I'm not sure of how he cut the quicktime movie together; all I know is that they used alpha channels in Photoshop and After Effects to make the image looks the way they want it. This is a drawn character laid on a white background with a black frame around the entire image. It looks the way he wants it to in the quicktime movie, and this quicktime movie is 720x480, animation millions colors +, 24fps.
This movie, along with others of the like, need to be cut together in FCP and then put on a DVD with DVDSP. When I export it and it looks "wrong", what's happening is there is a black block behind the drawn character. The guy that made the movies in AE says that, that is what it looks like when the alpha channel is not working correctly.
To test things, I've changed the quicktime compression settings in the sequence settings. If I set it to anything that is not animation, I get that black block in the viewer. (Note though, that if I set it to animation, millions + or not +, it shows the alpha correctly both ways).
In FCP's user manual it says that if you're passing your movie on to a DVD, to use a high or lossless compression to keep the quality up, like animation or PhotoJPEG. For this reason, I haven't wanted to go to DV - especially with this type of image (graphic drawn shapes), it's easy to see a quality difference.
It really seems like there is a lot of voodoo involved with compression settings. As for now the best "fool-proof" solution I've found is to re-render the movie in After Effects at millions (not+) so that it won't contain the alpha channel info, and FCP seems to like that a lot more.
I just wish I could get FCP to work with the movies as they were because I'm having to re-edit everything to work with these new movies now.
Thanks again for the tips and insight.
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Hi,
Ridiculous question I know but here goes.
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Heya,
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single layer vs. dual layer makes no difference on the total bitrate compression it only means you can fit longer duration of the compressed bitrate. Sending to Compressor and using a customized setting of MPEG-2 compression with 7.5 bitrate for video and AC3 for audio is the best quality you'll get on a standard DVD.
Welcome to the forum.

Best way to export for DVD

Hi Guys
Right, I am exporting to DVD and i want to know the best way to do this at the highest quality, but also, so the DVD will play on most players.
I am shooting in HDV 1080i 60, importing to Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 (the older final cut pro) using the apple intermediate codec.
I want to make the best quality SD dvd. The content is rarely over 5 minute's (kids music videos) but i am preparing a 50 minute show which needs to be put on DVD.
I usually use; export to quicktime movie, with the setting dv pal 48 khz anamorphic, i use DVD studio pro also to make the DVD, but not sure what the best settings are.
PLEASE HELP.

The BEST export method I have found by comparing them all is by exporting using Compressor and the DVD Best Quality setting. Now this setting gives you a few different options for length of your project: 120 minutes, 150 minutes, or 90 minutes. And then with each of these length options comes the option of 4:3 or 16:9. So if your project is 50 minutes, select the DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes option, either 4:3 or 16:9 depending what your project is. After laying your cursor over this option it will open up a list of audio options. What I do is just select the "All" option, which then lists all 3 audio options in your batch window: AIFF, Dolby 2.0, and MPEG-2. What I then do is just delete the MPEG and Dolby options, leaving the AIFF. After waiting for it to compress (make sure you specify a destination for the files so you can find them) it will give you 2 files, an MPEG-2 file which is the movie file, and an AIFF file (looks like an itunes file) that is the audio file. At this point, open up DVD Studio Pro and drag these 2 files into the assets window, and you're good to go from there. Hope this helped.
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Can someone help me understand what that means??
If I were to export the movie uncompressed I might as well give up right now. It's all HD. I won't be able to fit even one of my movie files on the biggest hard drive.
Does anyone know what "the highest quality/bit rate, frame rate" etc. means? I feel like a retard right now.
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Assuming you are using Final Cut Express, your best bet is to create a master DVD and have a good service provider duplicate the disk.
In FCE, do the following:
Make sure everything is rendered:
*Sequence > Render All > Both*
*Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown*
Then save your project.
Export to QuickTime Movie (not QuickTime Conversion)
UNcheck the option called "Make Movie Self-Contained"
Check the option to Include chapter markers (if you have chapter markers in your sequence)
Save
Then import the resulting QT reference movie into iDVD and build your DVD project. Burn the finished project to disk and give it to the duplicators.
If that's not acceptable to them then you should
1) find another duplication house that will do the work or
2) get the exact specifications from them as to what they require; if this is the case you will probably need to get an external hard drive that you can use to save the project for them.
What is the exact nature of your source video? HDV? AVCHD? Something else? Do you have mixed formats in your sequence?

Help Exporting for DVD Output

What is the best way to export my 1920x1080 16:9 timeline for DVD output.
I have tried numerous attempts but the quality on DVD leaves something to be desired.
It looks great when i export it using QT but I also need to have it on a DVD.
Clearly, I am doing something wrong. What settings should i be using?
Sequence Settings
Frame Size: 1920x1080
Field dominance - none
Frames: 30fps
Compressor: ProRes422

First thing you've got to understand is that a DVD is standard definition. It will never be HD quality. That you will lose by encoding to mpeg2.
I'd do the compression in compressor-- try the standard compressions for your length, if those are NG, try duplicating a preset and upping the bitrate. Also, 2 pass vbr with increase the quality, at the expense of compressing time.
This is almost as dark an art as web encoding. Not difficult to do, just time consuming and tedious until you find the correct recipe.
EDIT: I should add that only you and your client can decide what is "good enough."
Message was edited by: Jim Cookman

Exporting for DVD requires extremely low volumes, is that normal?

Hi,
I have completed a project and when exporting to dvd I find I need to lower the master volume by 18 db for it to not cause tv speakers to pop, I try it out on several different tv's with the same result.
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I do this by lowerng the master audio level from 0 to -18.
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Hunt, thanks for the reply!
I do the same, well I use beyer dynamic dt 770 pro headphones for monitoring, then I test the audio out on a stereo and a 5.1 surround setup.
If I export the audio on a cd it sounds great everywhere, put it on dvd and it goes to hell.
Is it possible that audio cd's are at 44100 16 bit wheras dvd audio is 48000 khz?
Doesn't make much sense to me, but the way I see it the irony is this:
Play and audio cd where the audio peaks at 0db through your tv and it sounds great, play a dvd with the same audio on it and it kills the speakers :S
Is it possible that mpeg2 encoding boosts audio levels for some reason and you need to correct it by pushing audio levels down?
I found this link after doing some research:
http://dvcreators.net/discuss/showthread.php?t=25404
Basically this question was asked:
1. *is there a certain db level an audio track should be if you plan to burn to DVD?
amongst others,
The reply was:
Use the audio meters to gauge audio level. Peaks should be at -16 to -12.
Why is this do you think?
-2 db would not work when I burn to dvd, it would kill the speakers of either a surround system or a stereo tv system, including my samung hdtv.
When I export to dvd I first export from premiere the built in Mpeg-2 DVD setting and then use either windows dvd maker or idvd on my mac to burn to dvd.

Exporting for DVD SP?

Ive finished editing my video in FC and have exported using both Quicktime and QT conversion - when I open DVD Studio Pro and try to import the asset - it gives me an error saying the file is not compatible. What file format do I need to export to to create a simple DVD of one video created in FC?

Hi
Export your sequence to *Quciktime Movie* (nos QT Conversion) including DVDSP markers (self contained is my favorite flavor).
OPTION A
Drop that file in DVDSP and let it make the encoding (less control over encoding settings plus uncompressed audio)
OPTION B
Use Compressor with the corresponding Best Quality preset for DVD depending your movie lenght in minutes to get: MPEG2 video and AC3 audio. Import thoses as assets in DVDSP.
Check that your DVDSP project match your movie format: PAL/NTSC and SD/HD DVD.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

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I have a really urgent question that I'm hoping someone in the know can answer - it concerns exporting PAL 16:9 video (with audio) from FCP, in such a format/compression that is acceptable for UK broadcast.
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Here are the settings required by ITV if you're going to FTP your media ... or DVCAM tape?
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Export For DVD Studio Pro

What's the best export setting for an iMovie that I will be including on a DVD-SP project. I posted a similar question in the DVD-SP forum and was told to use MPEG-2 as my export setting under the "Expert Settings" tab. However, I didn't see this as an option. What's the best setting to use for a DVD project. I was under the impression that MPEG-2 is the standard for DVD but don't know what to do to get that quality from iMovie.

Well what -I- would do is a FULL Quality DV export from iMovie then use Compressor to encode to MPEG-2. Compressor gives you a lot more options and (arguably) better quality.
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http://iMovie.danslagle.com

FCP 7 exporting for DVD, Image problems

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