Making DVDs from DVCPRO HD footage

I DVCPro HD media (Panasonic HVX200 camera) in FCP timelines. I need to quickly create DVD's for translation of foreign language interviews - so quality can be so so. At this point, I've been advised to use Compressor, selecting Best Quality 16:9 90 min., and then to use DVD Studio Pro to make DVD's. Is there a faster way - or could it be done with iDVD? Thanks!

There are two conversions happening in this workflow, the framesize frm HD to NTSC, and the mpeg compression for DVD.
If you send the sequence directly to Compressor from FCP, it will re-process all of the original frames, and ignore any pre-rendered material. So if you nest the HD sequence into a SD sequence, don't nother rendering.
Now I have had good results going directly to SD mpeg directly from my HD sequence. However, encode times have been roughly 2 or 3:1 on my 2.66 Intel Mac Pro. That's using 2-pass VBR encoding (best).
Nesting the sequence might increase the amount of time required to encode with Compressor. You might find it beneficial to export a SD Quicktime Movie of your sequence to the finder from your HD sequence. The total amount of time required should be about the same, but you can then drop the SD QT file into Compressor without tying up FCP during encoding.
Hope this helps -
Max Average

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Can't get a decent SD DVD from DVCPRO HD material

We made the jump to HD and started shooting in DVCPRO HD (1080i60). We still deliver all of our final shows on standard DVD. I've been trying all week to come up with a workflow that will make a decent DVD from DVCPRO HD timelines, but I just can't get a decent image. First i tried just using the 2 pass best 90 minutes setting, and the dvd looked awful. Lots of heavy artifacting everywhere. Surfed the forums a bit, and someone recommended that I first convert the DVCPRO HD movie to SD 8 bit, then make the mpegs from the 8 bit movie. That helped a little, but still had artifacting in shoulders, hair, etc... So then I turned frame controls on and used the best setting for the resize filter when going from HD to SD 8 bit. This made further progress, but is still a lot worse than other SD dvd's I make with DVCPRO 50 footage or even mini dv footage. Anyone have a workflow out there that will give me a decent looking DVD? I can't seem to crack the HD to SD code.
I'm using Compressor 3 on a G5 quad.

I still haven't found a way to make this work in compressor, but I have found a workaround for those of you with a Downconverting capture card and a tape deck. I use the component out of my aja card which automatically does a hardware downconvert of my 1080i material to SD anamorphic. I print to tape using my DVCPRO 50 deck, digitize the tape as DVCRPO 50 anamorphic once the tape has finished recording, then use SD DVD presets in compressor as normal. MUCH MUCH better looking DVD's. It's a pain, but the hardware downconversion in the KONA card seems to be light years ahead of anything compressor can produce using software.

Help with making DVD from quicktime movie

I just made a dvd using IDVD of my FCE sequence. I selected make dvd from movie. The FCE sequence was comprised of two parts. The first part of the time line was a sequence I imported as a quicktime movie and the remaining time line was the edited sequence which was the later part of the completed fce project. When I made an IDVD copy of the sequence (after exporting the full sequence to yet another quicktime movie), the only part of the sequence that recorded on the dvd was the first part --the quicktime movie I imported into the full sequence. As I watched the video asset encoding process I saw the 2nd half of the sequence encoding onto the burn but when I play the DVD it only plays the first part of the sequence over and over again and is missing the second part.
Any ideas why this happened?
Karen

thanks, Ronda, for your warm welcome!!!
nope, not yet, no door, no key, no membership card yet…
I think, I should give the folks at Cupertino a few hours… it's way too early…
oh, why do we Europeans don't use PST, or even EST…
nice smiley, Ronda, does anyone remember my old avatar…?
sorry, Karen, for jacking your thread!!!
… but, today, this is … excitin' for me... ;-))

How to create a standard DVD from HD video footage

Hi everyone, apologies in advance if my question has no doubt been asked before. This is my first post and I am desperate for some guidance. I’ve scanned previous questions on similar topics and haven’t quite found the same query (or had the confidence to spot if it was the same problem!). Here goes.
My son recently videoed a family wedding using a:
1. SONY FX7 Camcorder.
2. In HD108i
3. Using mini DV tapes
4. The video included video footage, it incorporated single pictures from another camera and has a musical score in the background.
5. My son used Final Cut Pro to edit the film
6. The finished film is stored on the main memory of his MAC Book Pro and also on a separate external hard drive. At preent it can only be viewed using his MAC linked to the TV directly.
7. The memory used is…wait for it….20GB!
While the quality is first class we are clearly struggling to copy it on to a standard DVD that our relative can pop into their ordinary DVD player. I appreciate that the quality may well suffer if we can do this, but I cannot see any other way of getting copies of the video to those who attended in a friendly format. We will keep the master copy in its original format though.
Assuming that it can be done, would someone please advise me on the procedure? I would be most grateful. I’ve tried Apple technical support, but I might as well be asking for the whereabouts of the lost ark!
Many thanks in anticipation
Huppy

Simple answer: Open iDVD and import the finished movie into it. Let iDVD take care of the DVD encoding for you, choose one of the wedding templates for your menu and burn it.
More complicated answer: Open the manuals for Compressor and DVD Studio Pro and learn how to use those tools to author DVDs.
The 20GB of disk space is completely normal for HDV.
It tells me that your movie is about 100 minutes long. Video takes a lot of space. Hard drives are cheaper than they have ever been.
Good luck with your project.

How to make MPG from DVCPRO HD footage?

I have a DVCPRO HD 720p timeline and looking to make a basic SD DVD (24 or 29.97 fps).
I tried multiple compressor settings (e.g. specify frame rate of 23.98) but whenever I import the m2v files into DVDSP, they always play back a bit stuttered, almost as if i'm watching a bad conversion of 23.98 to 29.97 timebase. All the footage playback smoothly when I view it in FCP. Can anybody specify their preset/workflow in detail?

Hello, digiadam.
Have a look at this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.

Why is Color Washed Out after making DVD from FCP

I took a 3 minute corporate video from FCP (shot SD, NTSC DV) and compressed from the timeline in Compressor (3.01) to DVD best 90 minutes. When I burned the DVD in DVDSP (4.2) and played it in a stand alone DVD player with a JVC production monitor it looked washed out. It looks nothing like it does in FCP or DVDSP.
Any idea what is going on?

Yes to the monitor. I shot the video with a Panasonic HVX200 to P2 cards, downloaded and color corrected on Color. Viewed on two production monitors: A JVC CRT and a new Panasonic 26" LCD (LH2600W) production monitor which is fed from a Kona Card via SDI. My Apple 30" monitor, which I edit on is color calibrated with a Spyder calibrator.
I have played the DVD on the 30" and it looks washed out, even after comparing it to a QT movie from the timeline and played on the 30". Something seems to be happening when the DVD is burnt. The mpeg2 file when played in the inspector in Compression looks good too.
This is weird, since I have never had this problem before, but this is the first use of the new Compression.

Low-quality DVD from SD files

I'm new to Premiere Pro CS5, and I'm having difficulty creating a good-quality DVD from my SD footage. It may be because my video is too long (2 hr. 14 min.), but I thought maybe I was doing something wrong.
I've done similar things (DVDs from plays I've recorded, with the same camera) using different software, and the final quality was better. However, for various reasons, the old software isn't working well any more and I'm making the switch to PP.
I've included some technical details below. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jon
Original footage:
Shot on Panasonic DVX 100B, SD: 720x480 (0.9091), 23.976 fps (24p)
Captured as .avi files using Premiere Pro
Edited in Premiere Pro CS5 64bit (ver.5.0.3)
Total video length: 2h:14m
Sample of .avi footage, original size:
400% magnification:
Dynamic linked to Encore (ver.5.0.0.5)
Added 2 menu screens with a small jpg on each
1st try: Transcoded using Automatic settings
(DVD Transcode in Properties dialog). Quality was awful -- faces very blotchy.
2nd try: Changed DVD Transcode to:
NTSC DV 23.976 Hi-Qual 7Mb VBR 2 pass
Quality didn't improve.
3rd try: Specified a 2-sided DVD to give it more room. (I don't have a 2-sided DVD, but I thought I could burn it onto 2 DVDs). The transcoded file size increased (6.89GB m2v file), but the quality didn't really improve.
Sample of m2v footage, original size:
400% magnification:
It's a 3-act play, and my next thought was to try to do Act 1 as one file, on one DVD, and Acts 2 & 3 (shorter) as a separate project on a 2nd DVD. Blu-Ray isn't an option, unfortunately.
Thanks!

Jeff,
As I just posted, it turns out that Dan's instructions about HC Encoder were the ones that basically got me what I needed. However, I really appreciate your suggestions, and I wanted to post my test results and procedure, in case it's helpful to anyone (or if I need it again).
Regarding your test scenarios, I started on two different sequences: one set up as DV 24P, and the other as DV NTSC. My detailed notes are below -- too much to read, unless you're interested how it all turned out.
Thanks again,
Jon
Test 1: Playing in the Premiere Program Window
A. On DV 24P sequence:
   1. Leave Interpret Footage parameters at current settings. Quality OK
   2. Change just the "Remove 24p DV Pulldown" setting. Quality Terrible
   3. Change just the Field Order setting to Progressive. OK
   4. Change both the Remove and LFF settings. OK, but w/ interlace combing
B. On DV NTSC sequence:
   1. Leave Interpret Footage parameters at current settings. Quite bad
   2. Change just the "Remove 24p DV Pulldown" setting. Worse
   3. Change just the Field Order setting to Progressive. Quite bad
   4. Change both the Remove and LFF settings. Lots of combing
So, after this round, DV 24P sequence was best, either w/ default settings, or making field order progressive.
Test 2: AVI export
Created a split-screen test clip, on DV 24 P sequence, with no change on left, and change of setting from LFF to progressive on right (A1 & A3 above, which were the best after the first round).
Exported to avi files, using:
1. NTSC DV 24P preset, DV (24P Advanced) codec
2. Lagarith codec, progressive
3. Lagarith, LFF
Played avi file on Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player.
Not a lot of discernible difference among the three files.
Test 3: HC Encoder
Created *.avs fils for each of 3 test files (using Dan's directions), plus original avi (captured directly from the camera)
(Note: HC Encoder doesn't like file names with spaces or underscores,apparently.)
1. NTSC: couldn't open
2. Input for encoding OK
3. Input for encoding OK
4. Original avi couldn't be decompressed
So, the lagarith-encoded files work fine with HC Encoder, but I still have interlace combing artifacts - throughout Act 2, and at the curtain call for Sat (when the background is lighter -- is that significant?), and throughout (but not completely) Acts 2 & 3 for Fri (all on one tape). Act 1 either night doesn't appear to have a problem.
Looking at the original captured footage (in MPC and Win Media Player), there is no interlacing problem, so it appears to be an issue with PP.
Previewing the files in PP (before putting them in a sequence), there is no interlacing problem.
When creating a new sequence, I tried: New Sequence, General, Playback Settings button, choose "Repeat Frame (ABBCD)" rather than "Interlaced Frame" (the default).
This sort of fixed the problem -- no more combing, EXCEPT at the curtain call -- the very end of tape 3. The other footage that was combing is now a little softer -- kind of annoying, but I applied an Unsharp Mask filter (default settings), and it helped. (I also tried Auto Color, to see if it would quickly help the color. Not a good move: the color changes sometimes frame by frame, and all black becomes gray static. Obviously, I need to understand what that does next time I try to use it.)
I decided to live with the combing at the end. (It was "good enough" at that point -- not a commercial project.) At least I've learned a lot.
I put the .h2v and .aac files into Encore, created some menus and built it to a folder, to test the files one more time before committing them to plastic. It all looked good. Then, for one more hurdle, Encore didn't like my DVD burner ("unknown error"!) It worked last week! However, I used a different burner, since I had the DVD files already, and it worked fine. Phew!
I'd love to know what the interlace combing at the end was about. My only guess it that it may be because I was using a sort-of-cheapo DV tape, recording over it for the third time. Maybe the tape was a bit stretched or something and the frames got out of synch at the very end. (?) If anyone has ideas, I'd be interested.

How do I make a dvd from iMovie?

I recently bought a Macbook Pro (christmas 2011) for making dvd from home movies. I was working on my first movie and went to make the DVD and now I am stumped. I cannot find iDVD, which was on the kids Macbook. How can I burn the movie to a DVD? Thanks.

Have a read here...
Where is iDvd?: Apple Support Communities

AME renders incomplete output MPEG2 files from my h264 footage

I'm trying to crrate Mepg2-DVD files for output to dvd, from canon DSLR footage, but somhow AME does not render the whole work area an loses the last 30-40secons of the clip on export.
Any help?
MY AME settings are : Codec : Mainconcept Mpeg Video - quality 5
Tv Standard : PAL
Frame Rate : 25
Fioeld order : progressive
Pixel aspect ratio stanard 4:3(1,094)
Bitrate encoding : VBR Two Pass
Min Bitrare 3
Target bitrate: 3.69
Max bitrate : 4
GOP settings : m Frames 3
n Frames 12
Source range : work area
Working on an 3.5ghx i7 an a gtx 670 for cuda ( with the ammended text file for enabling cuda on this card)
MPE with CUDA acceleration turned on.
This happens in both 1 pas an 2 pass vbr, but not when I export to h264 ....this seems to be a bug in AME! Is it possble though? How long has these codecs been around!! ?

Ok, I see this is a Quicktimeplayer mistake .... somehow Quicktime player does not play the wholf of the file. It all seemed fine once I opened it in MPEG streamclip! ^&%$%*$ Half a day waste thinking AME is broken and then it ends up being Apple ... Their software is just getting WORSE!

PAL DVD from NTSC original

Hi,
Just got DVD SP 4 and had a question. I heard from someone that you could make a PAL DVD from NTSC source footage in DVD SP 4 in one easy step...is this true?
I kinda poked around but didn't see a magic button that seemed to do this...
I have a DVD with NTSC footage...it's an auto-play with no menus, just an 8 minute video. Do I need to make a PAL version of the footage outside of DVD SP 4 or is there something in the program that does this for me?
Thank in advance...
Christian Remde

Is this something only available in Compressor? When I export via Quicktime Pro from within FCP4, I can choose to convert to PAL from NTSC or vice-versa and it looks okay to me. Does Compressor do anything special when it comes to format conversion that QTPro doesn't do? The frame-blending (if necessary) and scaling seems to be done in QTPro, so I can't think of anything else Compressor could do to come up with a better result. Of course I'm also one of the many who keep getting the "Unable to connect to background process" error, so I don't think Compressor is an option for me.

Help with getting high quality DVDs from AVCHD footage

Hello,
I know enough about video editing with PE7 to be dangerous, and was hoping someone could help me out.
My question is regarding getting the highest quality standard DVD from AVCHD footage. I have a Sony HDR-SR12 camcorder recording in AVCHD. I am editing footage natively in AVCHD with PE7 on a quad core system. No problem with that. However, when I export to standard DVD the quality of the video goes down drastically. (Yes, I know burning to Blu-ray would give me higher quality, but I am giving this DVD to a friend who doesn't have Blu-ray).
So far I have tried starting my project in both HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:
General
Editing mode: HDV 1080i
Timebase: 29.97 fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 1440h 1080v (1.333)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)
and Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:
General
Editing mode: HD 1080i
Timebase: 29.97 fps
Video Settings
Frame size: 1920h 1080v (1.000)
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
But I see no discernable difference in the quality of my output onto DVD.
This is where my knowledge is lacking...how can I get the best quality output from my AVCHD onto a standard DVD? Is there some format I can convert to first, and then burn to DVD? Also, I am willing to break the footage into a couple of DVDs to improve the quality, but I don't know how or what to do for that.
My footage looks REALLY great when viewing from the HDR-SR12 direct to HD TV with HDMI cable, but not very good on the DVD. My footage is of a ballet recital, and I lose definition in the faces, costumes, etc on the DVD output.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Gina

Hey Gina,
This may be a year late, but as I have been pulling my hair out trying to solve this problem for the last 48 hours I finally did find somewhat of a work around, but it requires Adobe PP CS4.2.
There is a plug-in here:
http://www.mainconcept.com/site/prosumer-products-4/mpeg-pro-hd-7850/features-7861.html
Which will actually output your edit as an AVCHD file. You can then burn this straight to an AVCHD using Nero 9 and keep the highquality level of your clips and not need Blu-Ray. The DVD player will need to be AVCHD capable, but I just bought one of those for $40 as compared to the $200+ of most Blu-Ray players.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
DSW

How do I create a playable DVD from camcorder footage?

Hi, almost total newbie here. My problem is that I'm wanting to create a playable DVD from a video I've made, but all my burns so far have resulted in DVDs which will play back on the iMAC they're created on, but not on my iBook G3. This is a worry, as I'm needing to send something playable interstate, quite urgently, and it needs to be either a Quicktime movie or a playable DVD.
So far, I've managed to get the footage into iMovie, edit the clip length and add the effects I want.
I'm then exporting the finished clip, ready to burn. Problem is, I'm completely confused about which settings to choose. Nothing I've tried seems to give me the results I want.
When I play back on the iMAC, it's fine. When I try to open the movie in Quicktime on my iBook, it invariably stalls or skips frames. Any playback it does give is terribly disjointed. The problem isn't the iBook, as I can play commercial DVDs on it.
The clip is intended for public screening, and I'm on a deadline. I've been browsing the forums and have found a few tips which might help, but nothing that sounds very different from what I've done, or sufficiently clear for a non-techie like me to grasp.
Can anybody clear this up for me?
As a side note, my daughters have been having the same difficulty, trying to burn DVD from animations they've put together in photoshop. Their issues were solved when they selected the Mpeg format to export in, although this did result in some sight loss of quality in terms of appearance on playback. ie the images were not as crisp, edges slightly fuzzy, etc.
After hours of frustration, we're just not sure what to try next.
Thanks.

You should just send ("Share") the movie to iDVD from iMovie.
See the iMovie tutorials (in html and QT movie form) at:
http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/
(Scroll down a bit)
See the iMovie tutorials (in pdf form) at:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieAtAGlance.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieHDGettingStarted.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson1.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson2.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson3.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson4.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson5.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson6.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovieLesson7.pdf
See the iDVD tutorial at:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVDAtAGlance.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVD5GettingStarted.pdf
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iDVDTutorial.pdf

When exporting to a DVD from Final Cut Pro X, what settings are there to make sure you making the highest quality DVD possible?

When exporting to a DVD from Final Cut Pro X, what settings are there to make sure you making the highest quality DVD possible?

There have been a lot of recent reports of difficulties sharing to DVD, but haven't been hearing about unreadable disks. Posibly there was an encoding error. Or it could have been bad media (blank disk).
Does it play in your Mac?
What brand of disks are you using?
Russ

Suggestions on making a DVD from AVCHD?

What would be the best way to get the best quality DVD from original Sony 1900x1080i AVCHD - M2ts files?
Is it better to:-
Convert (or import) the initial files to AVI with another program and make the project with the AVI files in PE9 and share to DVD using PE9 (what other program?)
or
Edit the original AVCHD files PE9 then
         Share to DVD from the edited AVCHD using only PE9
         or
         Share to a HD format file and use another program to reduce and burn the DVD (what other format and program)
         or
         Share to some other format file and burn the DVD with another program (what other format and program?)
         or
         Share to SD and use another program to burn the DVD (what other program?)
or some other better alternative?
I would be interested in hearing others experiences or nasties they might have encountered doing this.
I supppose it gets down to what does the best job of downsizing the original HD.
Some (but not all) of the copies of the DVD may be played on good quality Blue Ray players that upscale to full HD so I want the best possible DVD.
Also it's my grandaughters wedding so I HAVE to make it good! It is likely to be played many years in the future on probably super players on wall sized screens when unfortunately I won't be around to see them!.
In case you think I'm mad, I will also be making Blue Ray copies as well so I will have to use a second option anyway but I would be prepared to make the project again in low def if this would be better.

I am not worried about speed or ease of editing or work flow but rather ending up with the highest picture quality DVD with minimum artifacts and compression.
Are you sayng I will get better video quality using PE9 to pre-convert the HD to SD before editing, then burning the DVD from that as opposed to making the edit in original AVCHD and converting the final edited HD to SD and then burning the DVD?
I also wondered if another program that specialised in converting would be better to use rather than using PE9 which is primarily an editing program.
As an example PE9 does a bad job of resizing any AVCHD. Just a slight increase in size noticably degrades the resolution.

Making Duplicates from DVD not files saved

I have been reading a lot of the discussions and I think I am understanding that after making a DVD from iMovie I can delete all files. I am making movies from stills in iPhoto so I keep the original photos. Can I just duplicate at a later time the DVD for more copies? I do not anticipate making any changes.
I have not deleted anything yet.

Can I just duplicate at a later time the DVD for more copies? I do not anticipate making any changes.
If you are simply wanting to be able to make clones in the future then you can copy one of your finished DVDs using Disc Utility, which has full instructions on http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42724
Therefore keep at least one master backup copy or use Disc Utility to create the disc image and keep it on a hard disc if you have the space.

Making DVDs from DVCPRO HD footage

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