Best DVD Quality Workflow

I'm still trying to figure out how to put a movie on a DVD without unnecessarily compromising quality.
All other factors being exactly the same, I ingested my AVCHD video into FCP and created my movie using ProResLT. I exported a self-contained quicktime movie using the same settings.
One one path, I imported the QT movie to Compressor, chose the best quality settings for DVD, and compressed the audio and video (for hours and hours), and then took finished file to DVDSP Pro, which took it as it was.
On the other path, I took the self-contained quicktime movie file created by FCP and dropped it directly to DVDSP Pro (which took less time to encode than Compressor).
The path skipping Compressor did a far superior job.
This totally confuses me. Can anyone please explain?

Hi Jim,
I don't know what to tell you. When I exported the QT movie, and imported it to Compressor, I used the automatic settings for SD DVDs and chose the 90 minute option since my movies are just over an hour. The pixellation on the TV screen from the finished disk is just awful. Unacceptable. The pixellation and coming are so bad I didn't notice other "artifacts".
It looks worse than my experiment last night at 300% scale: I did a short sequence, same clip, and tried scaling my AVCHD to ProResLT video every 10 seconds or so from 100%, 200%, 300% and 400% just to see what I'd get. I mentioned this in the other thread, which I will link for posterity: https://discussions.apple.com/message/16199144#16199144
I think it's interesting that DVDSP uses Compressor in the background (given my results); Since that is the case, then I obviously don't know enough about Compressor to use it well. But I don't need to right now; if DVDSP does a better job, I'll just let it do the job
It is curious to note that the "footprint" for my really short experiment-maybe one minute-looks like it burned over 1/3 the radius of the disk. I wonder if I use this scaling at 200% on a full hour movie if it will not look as good because the automatic settings that DVDSP uses in Compressor will take full advantage of the available space, and if the video is an hour long there won't be enough room to make it look that good. Hmmmmm. I think I'd better do a full hour test, LOL! I'll let you know how it works out!

Similar Messages

Best DVD quality for 136 minute project

Hello!
I am putting together DVD's for a show from a local theatre. The runtime is around 136 minutes HD video shot with a Sony HDR-HC3.
I did a rough copy to give to the director and used the 120 minute DVD settings in compressor. The quality was terrible and definitely not what i want for the final project. The HD video looks really good, and i've seen HD to SD DVD's still look pretty darn good on a decent TV.
So what is probably by best option for exporting into DVD Studio? If you need any other details please let me know.
Thanks

what frame rate is your original material and what is the frame rate of your sequence? If your original material is 23.98 fps, make sure you maintain that frame rate thru your workflow. Adding compression markers in fcp around sections that have a lot of movement or are particularly complex may help. Just make sure you include compression markers when you export to compressor.
Also, deleting all renders and sending to compressor from within fcp may give you a bit more quality.
And using a dual layer dvd will allow you to compress at a higher quality. Unfortunately burned dual layer dvd's may not be as compatible as replicated dvds.

How do i get the best DVD Quality?

HI,
I'm having trouble like many people, to be able to get the best qualiy looking DVD. How do i get my motion menus looking sharp and the colours to say vibrant and not saturate? The quailty reduces compared to the quality i viewed it in the DVD Pro 4 Simulator. Why is this?? What is the best settings to set up a SD DVD? I used: 7 bit-8 bit max, with Two Pass VBR and best motion. How else can i get my meus to look better? Do i change the menu render setting to software rather than hardware, does this make a difference??
Can anyone suggest the best possible settings for a SD DVD Burn?
Help would be extremly apreciated!
Cheers,
Phil
G5 Quad, 4gb Ram, 500 hard drive Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hi again,
I filmed a timelaspse for the motion background, filmed on a Canon xl1s, mini dv, and then after capturing and editing, i export using quicktime movie, with settings of the compressor set to none and 100%. I can't export using compressor, due to it not being able to connect to the background process. So that is my reason for quicktime movie export. After export i check in quictime player, and it looks fine and obviously the best i can get until i fix the background progress thing.
I understand it will degrade, just not by so much from when i view it in simulator to just an unpleasing unproffesional look.
If i export my audio in quicktime to ac3 what will that to do change my image quality?? And what do you mean by using good quality blanks??
Thanks for replying David
Cheers,
Phil
G5 Quad, 4gb Ram, 500 hard drive Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Looking for best DVD quality as possible - help please !!!

Hello All
I have some footage ( 55min ) recorded on a Sony Z1 - HDV 1080 60i - 16:9 and edit on FCP. I exported the file on the same setting. Then sent to compressor to creat a DVD on DVD SP. I dont wanna let DVD SP encode the files, even because it will not accept files on HDV to autoring a SD DVD.
Whats the best settings I can get to produce the best quality dvd as possible.
What I did is use the DVD Best quality 90 min and raised the bit rate to its maximum - 7.7 or so. Is there a better way to do it or should I choose a different setting.
Hope I could make myself clear.
P.S. - Sorry for English.

Hi
I think that the following tutorial will help you: [Exporting HDV Video from the Timeline to Standard Definition DVD|http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/hdv_timeline_to_sddvd.html].
You need FCP 6 (FinalCut Studio2) ti use ProRes codec.
PS: Sorry for my english ... I'm from Argentina !
Hope that helps !
Alberto
Message was edited by: Silal

Best Sequence & Export settings For Best dVD quality

I Have footage of a wedding shot on a sony VX2000. The quality on Screen while editing looks great, but once i export it and burn it on DVD studio, when viewed the quality turns boxy and grandular on whatever TV i view it on. Are there any suggestions for a good sequence setting and export setting to work well with dvd studio pro and not lose any quality?? Thank You.

of course you're gonna lose quality. compressing already compressed marginal dv25 video to mpeg2 results in extremely compressed video, no way around that.
however, depending upon the length of your video and if you're using single or dual layer dvd media, you can mess with the bitrates to vary the amount of compression. compression is an art of trade offs and constant experimentation. if you're using compressor, start with the high quality presets and start testing. mess with the gop structure, the avg. and max bitrates.
good luck.

Best dvd quality

I have DV taped a live performance captured into computer via firewire- Edited to 45 min. with FC Express. Have 4 other movies to put on DVD also which brings the total size to 65 min. I have exported all to 5 quicktime movies. I have burned a dvd with IDVD and I am a little dissapointed with the quality. It's good but not great. It's a children's choir from Africa and they move around alot. Will I get better quality with DVD Pro and are there settings in DVD Pro that would improve the quality over IDVD.
G4 dual 125 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

One thing you should check is the preferances in iDVD. They have an option to compress, I think. Make sure it's off, I also had an issue like that. The picture came out with lines when ever someone moved. I turned off the compression and it worked fine after that.

Movie with BEST POSSIBLE QUALITY on DVD

Hi,
I completed a short family movie (15 min) in PAL format with Final Cut Express HD. How do I get it from there onto a DVD in PAL format with the BEST POSSIBLE QUALITY?
Thank you in advance for your help,
Thomas
Dual 2.7 GHz Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM

I completed a short family movie (15 min) in PAL format with Final Cut Express HD. How do I get it from there onto a DVD in PAL format with the BEST POSSIBLE QUALITY?
Given the fact your PAL movie is only 15 mins. long in terms of QT playback, here are the settings I'd recommend if you're concerned about higher quality playback:
(3) G4 PM's/(3) S-Drives/Sony TRV900/Nikons/6FWHD's/PS7/iLife06/FCPHD/DVDSP/etc. Mac OS X (10.4.8) My ichatav AIM account is: SDMacuser1 (Please use Text chat prior to video)

What are the best asset formats to optimise DVD quality?

Hi Guys
Some of my clients have been complaining about the DVD quality they received from me, and I wondered to myself how can I improve in future.
I just want to confirm if these are the best formats for each asset:
1) Video - AVI format (as opposed to MPEG2)? The major irritation I find about AVI is that it eats up lots of disc space, and it takes a lot of time as far as transcoding in encore is concerned.
2) Photos - TIFF format (as opposed to JPEG)? Same story as above regarding disc space.
3) Audio - AIFF format (as opposed to MP3)? Same space problem as the first 2. Furthermore, my major annoyance with WAV files is that you have to know which version of WAV files are the best quality.
Now, I do not what TVs most of my past and future clients own, i.e. a normal 4:3 TV like mine or the 16:9 plasma ones (although the trend these days seem to be LCD TVs). What is the best aspect ratio to use that will work on most TVs?
Also, I use a Sony 30g HDD video camera to record events. I like it since these is no hassle about carrying tapes or DVDs around. But, the problem with the camera is that MPEG2 is the "highest quality" it can record events; my still camera can take jpeg's as the highest quality. And the photos on the DVD look - most of the time - OK in terms of quality. It's only in my last DVD that I built that I saw some of the photos having some sort of problem in the slideshow (something like a water effect on the blazers and shirts of some of the audience - definitely unwanted).
To edit my assets, I use:
1) Power director 6 (for my video). I know you are going to say I should use Premiere Pro. I'm still reading the manual for PPro2 and Ppro doesn't have SVRT like PD6 does.
2) Photoshop elements or Fireworks (for my photos). Photoshop CS2 looks very complex for me at the moment - will learn later.
3) Adobe Audition (for my audio).
All I want is to have the highest quality possible. What's the best advice?
Thanks for all your help guys.

Since you raised the question of Hi8 versus DV tape formats, here are a few thoughts intended partly for you and partly for those who (unlike you) may be planning to get their first camcorder and are wondering about the different formats available.
Hi8 is a second-generation analog format that was marketed starting about 1988 to permit better resolution than the original VHS and Video8 camcorder formats. It was superseded about 1995 by the digital video, or DV, format.
Hi8 produced video of decent quality and was a good capture medium for material that was going to be distributed on VHS or SVHS tape. But the quality of DV is better, and DV has enormous advantages for editing and distribution. In particular, DV has absolutely no "generation loss" when transferring from tape to computer, from tape to tape, or from computer to tape, and it permits sophisticated editing using any one of many "nonlinear editing" applications that are available on PC's or Macs. Once you have edited your video using one of these applications, you may proceed to "author" your DVD's (i.e. add menus, etc.) and they will be of surprisingly high quality.
In mentioning Hi8 you may actually have been thinking of the Digital8 format. This is a format developed by Sony as a bridge between the older Video8/Hi8 world and the DV world. It is logically identical to DV but it uses the same physical tape as Hi8. This tape is now customarily labelled "Hi8/Digital8" to emphasize this fact. Hi8/Digital8 tape is less expensive and reportedly more robust than DV tape.
In principle Digital8 is just as good a format as DV. However, Digital8 has been targeted at a lower end of the market than DV, so even the best Digital8 camcorders may not have as good optics, as good sensors, or as many features as the better DV camcorders.
A few years ago, many people would recommend Digital8 as a very practical format for someone just getting started in video, since it was available at lower price points than DV, was identical in quality as regards format and perhaps better in value as regards camcorders, i.e. Digital8 camcorders were less expensive than DV camcorders of the same quality. Above all, Digital8 was ideal for someone who had previously used Video8 or Hi8, since the early Digital 8 camcorders would play back analog tapes and so could bridge the transition to digital. In fact, by buying or borrowing a second Digital8 camcorder, you could play back your analog tapes from one camcorder and record them as digital tapes using the other camcorder, forever after enjoying the advantages of the digital format.
At the present time, however, DV would be a much better choice than Digital8. Most (or all?) recent Digital8 camcorders have abandoned the ability to play back analog tapes. Only one or two manufacturers are making Digital8, and their offerings have dropped to a handful in recent years. This hardware will quite likely cease to be available in the near future, though the tapes will probably be marketed for years. When your present equipment wears out you would not want to be left with a library of family videos in an unsupported physical format.
In the last few years the DV format itself has been superseded by various high-definition formats, especially by HDV, a format that records to the same physical tapes as DV, at the same bitrates as DV, but, thanks to much greater compression, with twice the horizontal and more than twice the vertical resolution of DV.
Another format using even greater and more sophisticated compression, AVCHD, promises similar quality as HDV with even greater horizontal resolution, although the implementations of AVCHD available now are probably not as high in quality as the best HDV, and are certainly much harder to edit.
Despite the emergence of high-definition formats, there are good reasons for some people to prefer standard-definition DV at this time. One reason is cost. A good HDV camcorder -- the Canon HV20 is probably the best consumer model right now -- is likely to cost $1,000 or a bit more, while good DV models cost a few hundred. A second reason is low-light capability. The imaging chips for high-definition have many more pixels than the chips for DV. If the lenses are the same size, then these pixels must be crowded into a sensor about the same size as that of a DV camera, meaning that each pixel must be smaller and therefore less responsive to low-light conditions. So a good DV camera may be much better in low light than even the best high-definition camcorder of the same size.
Camcorders are now available that record direct to DVD (NOT advisable as John Smith said: the DVD medium is not robust for long-term storage and the necessary MPEG2 compression robs your source video of the quality it would have on tape and is much harder to edit).
Camcorders are also available that record directly to hard disk. Depending on the implementation, and your handiness with computers, thes might be just right FOR SOME USES. In particular they permit much more rapid turnaround between shooting and editing, so they might be right for something that is needed quickly but where archiving is not important (for example, shots of a football team at practice). But (as you have undoubtedly discovered with your 30gig Sony) you must download the material from camera to hard drive when the camera fills up, and this is not as easy as putting in a new tape. Also, the file may not be stored on disk in the relatively uncompressed, and easily edited, DV format. Finally, no hard drive is as safe a storage medium as a tape. With a hard drive and especially with a DVD, you risk losing everything to a crash or scratch; with a tape, you risk at most losing a few frames to a dropout caused by imperfections in the media.
Only you can balance all these factors knowing the type of things you will be shooting, how you will view or share your videos, and what you plan to do with them in the future. Note that DV can be edited together with HDV by many editing programs, though either the quality or the size on screen or both will be noticeably different. Also note that the high-definition formats are all in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, like the newer TV's, while DV was originally 4:3 and may be available in 16:9 but with the additional width achieved by stretching the same number of pixels and possibly by using a smaller fraction of the imaging chip.
I would recommend that you search for articles and forums about camcorders to learn what is available. There is a lot of information out there. As for me, I would certainly not recommend Hi8, or even Digital8, at this time. Choose DV if you have a pressing reason for it, such as cost or the need to get good images in low light; otherwise make yourself more future proof with HDV or AVCHD. They will produce high-quality DVD's when "downconverted" when capturing them into the computer or when exporting them from the nonlinear editor or authoring program (experiment to find which method is best). Unless you are using AVCHD, which is not a tape-based format, stick with tape (for now) if you are concerned with long-term storage.
Best wishes!

AVI to DVD, is Toast the best video quality I can get?

I have a bunch of DIVX AVI's, DVD quality, to convert to DVD, I know it can be done in iMovie exported to iDVD. But that takes too long and I don't want a Menu. I've been using Toast on my MINI 1.25 but it takes forever to encode. I've seen encoding take up to, but not limited to 6hrs.
I am not as much worried about the time it takes as I usually do this as I go to bed, in the morning it's done. However, the picture quality is not as good as it was on my MAC, or the camera. I have all settings to best picture quality, taking the most time encoding.
What am I doing wrong if anything? Is toast the best I can get?
When I had a basement Windows Server, I used Roxio's Media Creator 7 and it had a DIVX AVI to DVD converter (also took hours to encode), but at least the picture quality was better if not the same as a DVD.
PLEASE HELP.

Hello shane3547,
Bumping threads is considered very rude.
divx AVI's are highly compressed files and will take as long to uncompress them as it would to have made the divx avi in the first place.
It takes an imac G5 about 6 hours to rip and compress a DVD into an mp4, xvid or divx file.
It takes my 2ghz dual core intel imac approx 50 mins to rip and compress a DVD.
Unfortunately until Roxio bring out a intel native version of Toast you wont see speeds like that converting divx to dvd.
As far as quality goes you wont gain any quality at converting divx back into DVD. divx is lossy compression.
In my opinion it a waste of time and effort converting divx to dvd, it is easier to purchase a DVD player that can play all formats of movies. You can get dvd divx players in the UK for as little as £30.

Best Resolution/Quality Settings For 4:3 Video Going To DVD...

Hello,
I have several old Hi8 tapes that were imported into iMovie 10x and need to find the best export quality for these uncropped 4:3 videos. They will be exported via "Share > File" into an MP4 file format (with H.264) and then sent to a third-party DVD program. So, what resolution and quality settings do I use?
Do I use the highest resolution (1280x720) and then gauge down the custom quality until it can fit on a 4.7GB DVD?
Do I use whatever resolution that can handle the quality of "High" and still fit on a 4.7GB DVD?
Peace,
Dr. Z.

Hi
DVD is as standard - Interlaced SD-Video quality - Whatever Video-DVD authoring program used (e.g. iDVD, Toast etc)
Feeding iDVD Higher resolution and Progressive material - Will not improve the final DVD but decrease the quality as iDVD do a bad job in downscaling.
To get best possibly result I do
- Use a Video-Editing program that can handle - Interlaced SD-Video quality - as iMovie up to HD6 and any version of FinalCut.
iMovie'08 to 11 can not do this in full.
- Export as QuickTime .mov (just straight off) - if iMovie HD6 then just drop the Movie project icon into iDVD (All Quality is preserved)
- Brand of DVD used - I only use Verbatim
- Type of DVD used - RW-DVD usually do not work. R+DVD only works on Newer DVD-players - I use R-DVD
- BURN SPEED - I set as low possibly
- Free Space on Boot Hard Disk (Mac OS/Start-up one) - never less than 25Gb
This should deliver best possibly result.
Good Luck !
Yours Bengt W

Keynote to DVD [best possible quality]

Hello everyone. What's the best way to output keynote presentations for DVD playback? Looking to get crisp text and sharp photos. Is this possible? Thank you. Donnie D.

DVD quality is quite less than computer screen resolution like 1024 X 768.
Exporting to Quicktime (full quality large screen) gave me the perfect, crisp presentation as a "player"
mode. That is, all the funky, wild transitions played perfectly and the user could go forward and backward (using the arrow keys on the keyboard). Exporting to Quicktime is the missing "Keynote Viewer." Everything looks and works the same as it does when in Keynote.
So, if you can send people a quicktime instead of a DVD, that might work better. Besides, most people have found they can only go forward in a DVD presentation, and not backward. Not the case in Quicktime.
Hope that helps,
bkabat

Pls solve mystery about DVD quality

I've read lots of articles about the best settings and workflow for going from FCP-QT Pro-Compressor-DVDSP, and followed the advice. I've also learned why my HDV footage looks pretty bad when seen with my 50" plasma.
Text is especially problematic, with jaggies there even when I use a font like Helvetica and add a drop shadow.
My question is, what do big commercial movie companies do to make their SD DVDs look so much better? Even a 50 y.o. movie like Singin' in the Rain looks 100x better.
Is it because they shot on film, or the quality of the hardware/software they use to master the DVD, or ... something else?

You may already be doing this but here is my work flow:
1. Use ProRes as your codec for your project in Final Cut.
2. Send FC project to Compressor.
3. In Compressor use the: Settings>DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes>MPEG-2
4. In the Inspector Window in the Frame Controls I will drag the Anti-alias slider almost all the way to the right. This increases the time to render out the MPEG file but seems to help the quality.
5. Then use the MPEG file for you video file in DVDPro
I am pretty new to FC and it's family of software, so there might be a better way to do this. But this seems to work for me.

One Step DVD quality

I have been reading the posts about using IMOVIE09 and then using IDVD. I understand the quality is not great because of IMOVIE09 and the way it does the import.
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
Thanks

Hi
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
YES !
else on Quality and iDVD - my notes
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeaskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Exporting to DVD - quality settings

Hello
I am wondering if there are any QUALITY options I need to be considering when exporting a final story in the timeline to a DVD for stakeholder distribution? (the type of quality you see when you play the footage from the video camera direct to the TV with a cable is the quality I am after) - or the highest acheivable.
I have used 'Share' / 'DVD' and followed the prompts - that's it. It asks me to insert a DVD then burns the DVD. I just want to make sure, am I missing anything?
Also, when it comes to producing around 1000 copies of the DVD, what would you recommend would be the quickest way to do this?
If I have the story on my final cut software do I have to use my computer to burn the DVDs or can I somehow transfer the story and have another company burn the DVDs for me?
Many thanks!

If control over quality is a priority, you need Compressor. You can then test various settings to achieve the best possible quality for your movie.
If you 're thinking of 1K copies, contact a replication house – either a local one that you can work first-hand with – or one of the many online disk services. They will have different requirements, which they'll provide you with.
Good luck.
uss

DVD quality

Sorry for my poor english.
I 've made a 94 minutes imovie (ilife 11) project with my brand new retina.
But when I make a dvd from idvd of the imovie project, I get a bad quality film (worse than before with the old imovie).
I try to save the project for a double layer dvd to avoid compression but I get the same bad quality.
Thanks for your help.
olivier

Hi
There are many layers to this Question - May be You find help here
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is interlaced Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
• iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - CAN NOT DELIVER THIS any way know - as they all discard every second line when going from Event's to Project's = Can not be mended.
• iMovie HD6 - Can deliver 100% of what any DVD authoring program needs - and so can -
• FinalCut - any version
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Best DVD Quality Workflow

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