DVD conversion issues.

What is the best program or way to convert all of my dvds, movies and TV series into an iTunes workable format? mpeg4 or .mov preferably.
Will I need to go purchase a program or is there a free/not free one from apple?
Running windows xp pro.

If you don't have the files on the PC, and your combining video files with audio files you need some advanced video editing software.
I don't know too much about quicktime Pro, but if you want to use your video for iTUnes Id suggest going to the link below and overlooking it to see if it fits exactly what you want to do.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/win.html

Similar Messages

Video/DVD conversion problems and questions

I have been using i-tunes for a couple years. The music libary and its functionality is superb however after getting an Iphone I have been trying to fully understand the concept of the required video/dvd conversion before itunes will accept them.
I have used a couple different programs to convert content into Mpeg-4 itunes acceptable format. However when attempt to snyc video to my iphone several issues arise. First I have had content in my movie/video libary that for whatever reason will not transfer to the phone. Sometimes itunes will transfer a specific video and then on a later snycing, it will leave that same content out. Bizarre. I had 4 videos loaded into itunes and at one point I had all of them on the phone. During my last snyc session although they were checked, in the movie libary, they were not transferred.
I have been using the itunes conversion option even after its been coverted into Mpeg-4, is this neccessary ? I have ripped a full length purchased dvd and loaded it onto Itunes, however it will not sync to the phone. Should I be able to load an entire movie if I have the available space or is there a capacity limit ?
Can someone describe a process from start to finish, that will decode/convert video/dvd's into Itunes acceptable format that will also allow snycing to my I-phone without all of these constant issues ?
Thanks !
S ~

Ok folks let's disengage the panic button. This is more of a means of sorting out a movie/video clip snync problem than trying to circumvent legalities and or discuss copyright violations none of which are present.
i/tunes seems to make up it's own mind regarding which vid clips are transferred to the iphone even when all selections are formatted and are checked. No error message, no indicators, some files move while others do not.
Any ideas ?

ITunes for 64bit Windows 7 Driver/CD/DVD/Drive Issues-

Hi There
I am sure that there are many many users out there suffering the same frustration as me in regard to ITunes just not working properly with Windoews 7 (64Bit).
I have been trying to solve the mystery of "ITunes for Windows Registry Settings Warning When Opening Itunes.
I have tried all the recommended actions to correct this problem without any success and I do mean ALL.
Below is a screen shot of my registry, can anyone see anything wrong with it?
In the meantime (Last four months) I have stopped using ITunes and instead have used Digital 7, this will be my very last attempt to get ITunes working properly, failure will mean consigning ITunes to the same place as any other Software that does not do wshat it says on the can.
I hope someone can help.

That's good that it is in device manager, but what about in Computer with the rest of the drivers?
Also, are the drives listed in Computer and device manager or just device manager?
I want to verify if the symptoms are present for a particular software issue before looking at other issues. I really doubt it is a driver issue at this point. If it was, then I suspect the issue would be present from day one.
It could be that the lens has dust buildup preventing it from working properly. They do make CD cleaning kits that have a special CD designed to clean the laser as it passes over the lens. If you happen to have one of these, or access to one, I recommend trying this step to make sure it isn't as simple as dust buildup interfering with the laser.
It could also be hardware failure, but I would like to try a few other steps before coming to that conclusion.
It may be worth reviewing this document as it covers a lot of the most common issues behind DVD drive issues. Feel free to skip any steps you have already tried.
Let me know what happens.
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

I still have Cd/DVD drive issues

The CD is ejected after a short while and never mounted. I have cleaned the optics of the CD drive and reset my PRAM.
Has anybody discovered a complete solution for this problem.

That's good that it is in device manager, but what about in Computer with the rest of the drivers?
Also, are the drives listed in Computer and device manager or just device manager?
I want to verify if the symptoms are present for a particular software issue before looking at other issues. I really doubt it is a driver issue at this point. If it was, then I suspect the issue would be present from day one.
It could be that the lens has dust buildup preventing it from working properly. They do make CD cleaning kits that have a special CD designed to clean the laser as it passes over the lens. If you happen to have one of these, or access to one, I recommend trying this step to make sure it isn't as simple as dust buildup interfering with the laser.
It could also be hardware failure, but I would like to try a few other steps before coming to that conclusion.
It may be worth reviewing this document as it covers a lot of the most common issues behind DVD drive issues. Feel free to skip any steps you have already tried.
Let me know what happens.
↙-----------How do I give Kudos?| How do I mark a post as Solved? ----------------↓

Conversion issue in encoding in PI

Hi,
I am having a problem in conversion issue for encoding. Let's have a detailed look into the scenario first.
Scenario: SNC->PI (through Proxy)->MQ (through Receiver JMS adapter)->SeeBeyond (It's a middleware system).
Here from SNC, data are coming into PI as in UTF-8 encoding, whereas all the systems shown in the above flow are of ISO 8859_1 format. Hence UTF-8 needs to be converted into ISO 8859_1. PI does this conversion in Receiver JMS adapter. CCSID has been set to 00819 which is for ISO 8859_1 encoding. But the beginning of the xml, it remains still UTF-8, like below:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
Whereas the content of the xml has already been converted into ISO 8859_1 by Receiver JMS adapter. Now let's see the problem now.
Problem: After the data been passed in SeeBeyond, the mapping fails in SeeBeyond, since SeeBeyond tries to look at the XML tag from the beginning and it found it's in UTF-8 as per he tag above. Then it tries to map it in UTF-8 format whereas the content is in ISO 8859_1, so mapping fails in SeeBeyond. Please note, here allthe systems except SeeBeyond are just bypassing the data, no mapping been introduced in anywhere in the systems except SeeBeyond.
Workaround: Is there any other chance where we can change the tag header from UTF-8 to ISO 8859_1 in Receiver JMS adapter itself in PI like this:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso 8859_1" ?>
This might resolve our problem I think. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks and Regards
Soumya

Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your reply. I have gone through the link you have specified. Ya, that's the other way to resolve that issue in that case. But here we have asked the receiver system (SeeBeyond) to change the encoding part in their mapping. Because changing the coding part in SeeBeyond is less time consuming than adding a new Bean in JMS adapter. Our problem got resolved by changing the mapping in Receiver end. Thanks anyway for your valuable reply.
Thanks
Soumya

Umlaut Conversion issue in Sender communication channel SAP PI

Hi Gurus,
We are facing issue while conversion.
umlaut Conversion issue in Sender communication channel that is reason channel not able to pic the file from the path.
Sender CC error:
Value of incoming field is too large. Segment:'IMD', Field:'7008', MaxLength:'35', value:'Plssvvkbecher LÃ¼bzer 0,4 (1280Stk p' DESCRIPTION: The length of the field value is too big !
Actually field contains 35 Chars only the value is : 'Plssvvkbecher Lübzer 0,4 (1280Stk p'
We tried with “ISO-8859-1” if the field value is less than 35 characters it is able to converting.
Please help me out from this issue.
Thank you.
Regards,
Jittu.

Hi Jittu,
Have you tried using the codepageconversion bean in the modules under the sender? It would be like:
AF_Modules/TextCodepageConversionBean with a parameter of Conversion.charset and a value of utf-8.
Regards,
Ryan Crosby

Language conversion issue in PI7.1

Hi,
My sceanrio is file to Idoc. Am facing language conversion issues.
For example one of the field in the source file is having the value "Différence sur net". And in the IDOC field the value is appearing as "DiffÃ©rence sur net".
With the same data I have done file to file scenario with and without content conversion and the output is coming correctly as "Différence sur net".
I have enabled Unicode check box in RFC destination also in XI server. But still its coming "DiffÃ©rence sur net" . Please advice how can I get the target field value same as that of the source field vale.
Can anyone help me to sort out this issue?
Thanks.
Dinesh

Hi,
In Channel try with using the File type: text and encoding : UTF-8.
I think this will solve your issue.
Thank you,
Siva

Third party DVD player issues

Recently, I have come across an issue playing back DVD's with
VLC or XBMC. When I start playback of the DVD, it plays the first
segment ( the studio leader at the beginning) and will then just quit.
Apple's DVD Player works fine (quality is crappy and can't get surround
tracks out of it). Yet, when the DVD is ripped to the hard drive and
played from there, it is works just fine.
Also, this happens when the DVD is played back from an internal
or external drive.
Has anyone else seen this issue or do I have a unique problem?

My unit is a 2010 MacMini with HDMI. (see list)
The quality issues with Apple DVD player vs. other solutions are certain
scenes have a graininess akin to noise on old analog tv's that aren't
present on the other players and severe banding in gradients that
do not appear in other players, at least when they were working.
As far as the audio, selection in the DVD's menu itself just makes no difference.
Tried all the combinations of messing with Audio MIDI setup, third party
plugins like Perian, none of which work for Apple's DVD player. This was
the other reason for going to third party players, the higher quality video
was just a bonus.
Your point has been taken that it may be a software issue with the third party players.
Some update at some point may have broken them, be it OSX or their own.
I've beaten the Apple DVD player issue enough, let's just consider the topic dead.
The audio issues with it are spread over many, many threads across the web, with
no silver bullet solution to all.
As for BluRays, play them back all the time on my Mini. Either with
PowerDVD 10 in a Bootcamp windows7 when I want full DTS-HD or
TRUE HD decoding (decodes these to up to 24 bit,192kHz 7.1 since the
Mini chipset does not have the "protected" path for pass through of
these technologies) or a MakeMKV/XBMC combo in OSX. The OSX
solution doesn't give you the fancy menus and all or HD audio if present,
but if I only want to watch the movies it's fine. If I ever do want the other
nonsense, I just use PowerDVD 10. And please note this is BluRay disk
in player, not "ripped" or transcoded.
I do appreciate your help, but was primarily curious if others had issue
as well.
Message was edited by: woodmeister50
Message was edited by: woodmeister50

2.1.2 update does not fix DVD Navigation issues :(

The FrontRow 2.1.2 update still doesn't fix the DVD navigation issues where sub menus on MANY DVDs are not navigable. Using the up / down keys on the keyboard or remote causes the Volume to change and not navigating the menus like it is supposed to.
This is a severe issue as it makes it impossible to play some DVDs or turn on the subtitles.

Yeah, I have experienced this as well. Ridiculous -- how could this issue not have come up in product testing by the time the software has reached version 2.0? The solution on Apple's end should be obvious. All 4 directional buttons must act only as directional commands when using a DVD, and all other functions (such as volume) can only be accessible by hitting MENU first to bring up a list of other options.
I'm all for simplicity, but this is the fault of the boneheaded 6-button Apple Remote. It requires their software to overload buttons with different commands depending on context, which is clearly an unacceptable limitation. They'll have to break down and roll out a proper remote with more discrete buttons one of these days and come to terms with the fact that shoehorning everything onto 6 buttons is not an elegant solution.

HDV to DVD conversion

I've read a great deal of discusson on this site regarding HDV to DVD conversion and how to get the best possible results. There seem to be about a half a dozen marginal solutions but in my opinion and experience no real perfect definitive solution.
This is in the way of a suggestion/plea/request to Apple, to those who run this forum, and to those experts there who deal with Final Cut pro and HDV editing: Could someone please create a definitive expert professional manual/post/procedure on how to do this very straightforward conversion from HDV to DVD with the BEST possible industry quality results.
DF
g5 tower Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Seriously, open the phonebook, start asking who can take a HDV master on miniDV tape, and hand you back a DVD in a day or two, it may be cheaper than buying pro encoder software, and your time to learn how to use it effectively. You should have budget for this, promos / trailer work should be included. Your time costs money. It will also put you in a better position to know what to ask for when the project is finished.
Using the camera down convert is good enough. DVD from DV is fast to make. If you are just previewing it, S-VHS is also good enough, and very quick and simple to produce - don't rule out lower tech, or lower quality options, they will still tell the same story.
In answer to your question, (do you really want to know ?), the colour space of the NTSC DV in camera down conversion is 4:1:1, the colour space of MPEG video is 4:2:0 (search for those terms, until you hit a page with diagrams of boxes), the differences in these structures results in a worst of both colour encoding - if you are shooting PAL, then the story is different, as PAL DV is also 4:2:0, and probably not significantly different from the DV50 method, once its on DVD.
DV50 is 4:2:2, HDV is 4:2:0, but at a higher resolution. When downscaled, I estimate SD from HDV is around 4:2:2 or maybe even 4:4:4, by going via DV50 to DVD you deliver the most DVD's can represent, rather than with NTSC DV where you deliver half the colour space DVDs can show. BUT the in camera down convert is REALTIME, consider the benefit of that before taking the slower route.
Is the DV50 the best SD down convert ? I don't know. It certainly looks very clear, shows no, or little signs of the DV50 codec adding artefacts over the original HDV footage, and produces more quality than the MPEG encoder can represent once on DVD, or at least, the MPEG encoder I have access to. I cannot say the same of the in camera convert. I also played with uncompressed codecs, and the None compression codec, they require huge amounts of disk space, and didn't look better than the DV50 method. However, I didn't test them with your footage.
I suggest a 1 minute 'bake off' between the methods, using your own footage, to see just how much quality you are willing to accept. You may find the in-camera is good enough, and a darn sight easier and faster.
Hope this helps - search around more, trawl through some older threads, or, just pick up the phone and call a post house to make it all go away! By the time you have figured out what works best for you, they would have finished and be on to the next job.

Any solution to DVD drive issue post Lion install yet?

Any solution to DVD drive issue post Lion install yet?

Since installing Lion no DVDs are being read by the superdrive, this is a problem that has been highlighted by quite a lot of people.
CDs are being read fine.
After inserting the DVD there is some noise, sounds like it is trying to pickup the DVD then spits it back out.
Previous posts from other people:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/245917-heads-up-lion-supe rdrive-fake-glitch-possibly.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199297?start=15&tstart=0

Currency conversion issue in SPM. We are getting incorrect results with SPM conversion function from one of the document currency to USD.

Currently we are using SPM 2.0 version and we have been facing currency conversion issues.
Please help me in following aspects.
1) Where actually currency conversion happens in SPM. Is it the global program which does the conversion or other way.
2) We have conversion issue for one of the currency where conversion function is giving incorrect results when converting from one of the document currency to USD. here The respective document currency is considering the 1:1 ratio with Dollar which is actually incorrect.
3) We have verified in both BI side(currency tables) and even ECC side.
Please help me in understanding this issue and let me know if you need more information on this.
Its an production issue and appreciated your immediate inputs.
Thanks
Kiran

Hi Arun,
The following information may be helpful to you.The SSA_HELPER_PROGRAM has options regarding currency settings.
EXCH_RATE_TYPE: This flag governs the exchange rate type which will be used for currency conversion in data management. For example if RSXAADMIN contains an entry EXCH_RATE_TYPE = „ZSPM‟ then the conversion type used for currency conversion is ZSPM. The default value for the exchange rate type is „M‟. More details can be found in the note 1278988.
CURRENCYCONVERSION: By default data management converts all the measures in transaction currency to reporting currency and copies over to the corresponding measure in reporting currency. If the measure in reporting currency is already available in source it might be desirable to disable the currency conversion. To disable the conversion you can make an entry CURRENCYCONVERSION = „ „ in the table RSXAADMIN. This can also be achieved by running the program SSA_HELPER_PROGRAM with the option DEACTIVATE_CURRENCYCONVERSION. The conversion can be reactivated by running the same program with option ACTIVATE_CURRENCYCONVERSION.
UNITCONVERSION: Similar to above. To deactivate unit conversion you can use the program with option and DEACTIVATE_UNITCONVERSION and to reactivate ACTIVATE_UNITCONVERSION. By default both the conversions are switched on
EXTERNAL_CURRENCIES: Normally most of the international currencies are stored with two decimal places however certain currencies do have 0 and 1 decimal place too. For example JPY has 0 decimal places. SAP internal format stores even these currencies with 2 decimal places and at the time of display it changes the value to right decimal places. In case a file from external source is loaded to SPM it might have the format with 0 decimal places in the file. To convert it to SAP standard format post processing needs to be done on this value. If that is the case you can set the flat EXTERNAL_CURRENCIES = „X‟ in the table which will enable the post processing for these values. This flag can also be set and reset using the helper program using the option TURNON_EXT_CURRENCY_FORMAT and TURNOFF_EXT_CURRENCY_FORMAT.
Kind Regards,
John Harris
Senior Support Engineer, SAP Active Global Support

Need some URGENT help with 3 DVD mastering issues PLEASE! :

Hi there,
Firstly, I am running DVD SP 3.0.2 on Mac OS 10.4.7 on a G5 Dual 2 GHz 3Gb Ram plenty of HD space...
I am creating a DVD with: An intro sequence, a main menu, 4 sub menus, and 4 sections with around 12 chapters each.
I am having some big problems, and a pretty stuck. I will lest them separately below, numbered. If you are able to help, please refer clearly to which number you are helping with. Any help is MUCH appreciated! Many thanks!!
1. Each of the 5 menus (1 main, 4 sub) have a background video, and a separate audio track. I added the background videos by simply dragging them to the assests panel, then from there onto the menu editor window. They are created in FCP and are properly encoded. However, when I click the motion button, or use the simulator, the videos do not show up. The music plays, but all i see is plain black.
What is going on?!?!?!
2. I am really struggling with rollover buttons. I have custom created buttons, and I wand them to have a soft red glow around them when hovered over. HOW ON EARTH DO I ACTUALLY DO THIS??
The buttons are in photoshop so can be exported with/without background/glow in any format.
3. Is it possible, once I have got the above rollover working, to have an image to the right hand side of my buttons which changes with the the button rollover. i.e. hover over button 1, see image 1. hover over button 2, image changes to image 2.
PLEASE PLEASE give any help you can, I have a deadline coming up and am quite stumped. Thanks again!!

I am still having problems regarding issue Number 1. PLEASE ANYONE HELP?!
Sorry, I'm not sure about the motion menus. I avoid those whenever possible. But you might click on the menu in the storyline tab (whatever it's called -- the hierarchical view with the disc, tracks, slideshows, etc.) and look at the properties and see if there's anything you have to enable specifically for motion. And be sure the motion button is on on the main display/preview area, but it sounds like you already know how that works.
For your information, here is a screen grab of the menu I am trying to create:
http://www.redhavoc.co.uk/stuff/menu.jpg
I think it is obvious that when a button is hovered over, I want it to glow red, and the image to the right will change to match the respective button.
IS THIS GOING TO BE POSSIBLE????
Yes.
First, your menus have to be layered menus. Unfortunately, there's no way to convert non-layered menus to layered menus, so if you already have non-layered, you'll have to just delete them and create new layered menus. The button (and menu item) to create a layered menu should be right by the normal new-menu item.
Next, the graphical work is all in Photoshop.
Side tip: You may already know this, but I found it's best to use 640x480 for the Photoshop document. When I do text and leave it as a text object in the Photoshop file, it resizes poorly in DVDSP. So this ends up being another 720x480 vs. 640x480 square/rectangular pixel conversion thing. DVDSP plays in the 640x480 world, at least as far as the designer can see. So I keep my images at 640x480, and it doesn't have to resize, and everything looks right.
Moving on... Set up your basic background, the part that won't change (or will have other things covering it, like for your square image).
Then put in all the buttons and images you'll be using, each part in a separate layer. This could have fifteen buttons (you have five buttons, and there can be three versions for each -- inactive, selected, and activated versions) and five or six square images (you said one for each button, and you might want a blank default if, say, you want to add a "back" button on the menu and want some blank or default image for the square when they're on the "back" button).
Sometimes people don't bother with a separate "active" button state, but you usually want some visual feedback that they clicked the button. Also, I usually just build the default (unselected) button into the background; that's less hassle later on, and it will just draw the selected or activated buttons over that when the user is on that button.
Line up all your buttons and images. All the square images lined up perfectly on top of each other, all the buttons in the right places (so you'll have three buttons stacked on top of each other in each spot). Give each layer a short but quickly recognizable name, and line them up in a consistent order. (button1-default, button1-selected, button1-active, button1-squarepicture, then button2-default, ... etc.) Photoshop and DVDSP don't care, but it makes it easier for you later.
Note that earlier versions of DVDSP won't show Photoshop layer effects. (They handle layers, just not the effects, like inner glow, outer bezel, etc.) I don't remember when they changed this, but I think it was version 4.something. So if you're using that method to make your buttons glow, you may have to flatten each selected or active button layer, and you may even need to create a dummy blank layer underneath it first to give it something to flatten onto.
Save the file as a standard Photoshop file (.psd). Drag the file onto your DVDSP layered menu and set it as the background.
Now, in DVDSP, create all your buttons. Just drag boxes over/around the button pictures you have. Feel free to make them extra-big; users won't see the actual area you've selected, and bigger areas makes it easier for people to hit them if they're using a mouse on a computer to watch the DVD. You can point the buttons to their targets now if you want, and set the end jumps on the tracks if you want. (I tend to set the end jumps on the tracks so they automatically select the button for the next track.)
Now's the fun part, since it will actually hook everything up and should be easy if your naming layer order were consistent. Click on the layered menu (in that hierarchical view) and look at the properties window. (Sorry I can't remember the technical names for all these windows; I'm doing this all from memory. So feel free to ask more questions if you can't find what I'm talking about.) One of the properties tabs should have a grid of checkboxes with a list of your layers. Make sure the background is checked for all of the states. Then check the layers you want to show for each button state, as well as the corresponding square image to show for each.
Again, I'm doing this from memory, and I can't remember exactly how things are listed in that grid. But I remember it keeps your layers in the same order you put them in the Photoshop file and shows you those names, so it should make it easy to go down the list and check the right boxes.
And another side tip: You can update the Photoshop file, but once you've put it in DVDSP, if you change the layer order, it will screw up the check boxes you checked. It always shows you the layer names correctly, but it keeps the checkboxes in DVDSP simply assigned to the layer number, so the fifth layer will keep the same checkboxes even if you juggle them so some other layer is now the fifth layer. So if you do juggle the layers in Photoshop, go back and fix the checkbox list in DVDSP.
I put a sample Photoshop file based on yours in
http://dan.black.org/layered-menu-sample.psd
It's quick and dirty, but shows the layer layout, and you should be able to drop it on DVDSP to play with. (I also won't leave it there forever, maybe a few weeks, so anybody reading this in a month or more probably will get a 404 for that url.)
Again, doing this from memory, so feel free to ask if anything doesn't work or doesn't make sense.
G4/dual867 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 2GB/0.8TB

Workaround for compressor HDV to DVD field issue?

I need a work around for the field issue apparent when down-converting HDV to DVD.
The Bonsai method <http://www3.telus.net/bonsai/Welcome.html> will not work, as there is too much motion and a side effect of the "fastest" conversion is that it gives a 3-d ghosting effect on fast motion in the frame.
I can not convert to 720P60 or 480P, as FCP converts it to 30P and then doubles the frames, and the motion is jittery.
I could dump it to camera and then down-convert in camera, but I have heard this is not a great method either.
I have seen in another forum to save the HDV timeline in FCP as a HDV quicktime movie, and then import that into DVD studio pro and have it down-convert, but DVD studio pro says this is an "incompatible file".
How do I get 1080i HDV footage onto a DVD so that it looks acceptable?

I had a similar problem with HDV (1080i shot on Cannon HV-20) footage, looks great in post and terrible when converted (herringbone lines and too many artifacts.) I’ve successfully used the Bonsai method on another piece I did but the footage was shot on a HVX-200 at 720 24p and there were no “action” shots. I wasn’t as successful using the method using 1080i footage and it definitely didn’t help with the fast motion shots. I did a search in this forum on HD to SD and there are a lot of helpful hints and methods. I experimented with a lot of the suggestions but in the end I was able to produce very nice and acceptable results by doing the following:
1] I didn’t create an SD sequence; I exported the footage as a Quicktime movie (self contained) straight from my HDV sequence.
2] I dropped the Quicktime file into Compressor and selected 90-minute DVD Anamorphic Best 2-pass VBR. Running Compressor from Final Cut ties up your system as well as there seems to be a delay between the handoff from Final Cut to Compressor (running the latest 5.x version and 2.3.) Creating a Quicktime file frees your system and it’s debatable if you actually compress faster or take a hit on quality. I’ve tested both from Final Cut and using a Quicktime file and didn't see any real difference in quality.
3] Change the field dominance from Top to Progressive in the tab where you see 2-Pass VBR Best and also in the encoding tab (not in front of my system so I can’t recall the name or order of the icons). In the encoding tab you will notice it says “same as source.” The pull down will show you Top, Bottom, Progressive, Automatic…I tried them all and in various combinations and anything other than progressive in both tabs produced undesirable results.
4] The options for Fast, Good, Better and Best in the other encoding pull down sections are a matter of preference and patience. Selecting Best in all categories takes a really long time to compress (36 hours for a 9-minute piece using a Mac Pro 3.0GHz dual-core Intel with 4GB ram.) I ran tests using different combinations and found that selecting the default settings is decent and stepping each category up to the next level helped but not enough to warrant the long compression cycle to stick with Better across the board. When you do your testing, it’s best to use as little footage as possible or you will find yourself waiting too long to see the actual results. I used a 1-second (29 frames) shot of a girl twirling around, hair flying everywhere, and girls next to her using hula-hoop’s.
5] Use the sliding bar in the viewer to see the impact of your choices before submitting the job. To the right you will see the “original” footage and to the left you can see the results of your selection. You can move the bar across the footage to see (approximately) the end results.
6] One thing I did notice is that no matter what settings I use, the output is slightly darker (reds were deeper, skin tones were warmer and not as smooth), but hey, you are going from HDV to SD so it’s not going to be perfect.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Kenny

MPEG-2 conversion issues

Hi all-
I normally post over at the FCP discussion page, but for my most recent question someone suggested posting over here, since I'm having problems with the combo of FCP and DVD Studio Pro. Can anyone over here point me in the right direction, even for an old discussion page? (FYI I'm running on 10.3.9, so I'm not on Tiger yet. And I have Quicktime 6.5, not 7).
Here's the original post:
I have FCP HD (4.5) and DVD Studio Pro 2. Both are licensed academic versions.
I have repeatedly noticed problems trying to export my timelines as MPEG-2s, to prepare them for DVD usage.
When exporting with "Compressor," I tend to have a high failure rate - generally, only about 1 out of every 4 exports actually succeed. This has been the case both before and after a recent reinstall of my OS and FCP and DVDSP (for other unrelated reasons). In addition, obviously compressor doesn't give you the kind of control over compression, such as CBR vs. VBR, one pass vs. two pass, max and average bit rate settings, etc.
I also noticed that in my DVD Studio Pro Manual, it claims that I should be able to export an MPEG-2 through "Export > through QuickTime Conversion" if I have both FCP and DVD Studio Pro installed. However, when I get to the QuickTime Conversion options in FCP, "MPEG-2" is NOT listed among my possibilities.
According to the DVD Studio Pro manual, I should be able to set my Encoding parameters in DVDSP's "Preferences" panel, and then have those encoding options carry over into FCP. But the MPEG-2 option isn't even present in FCP.
Is there some crucial step that I'm missing or unaware of?

It does sound more problematic than it ought to be.
First off, the QT conversion export option from the FCP time line should be in place - have you tried to re-install QT lately?
Compressor uses the same 'engine' to encode the footage to MPEG2 as QT will, but in fact does give you more control over the process, since you have access to various filters and settings which in QT you just don't - nor, for that matter, are they within DVDSP.
However, if this isn't working then it doesn't matter how many features you have... One thing to keep in mind is that Compressor 1 was/is not a reliable encoder anyway - the files it creates are fraught with problems like 'spikes' in the bit rate which will prevent the DVD from being built. You may want to consider an alternative encoder as an extra tool. I (and many others here) use BitVice and MegaPEG.X regularly on a Mac, or Canopus Procoder or Cinemacraft on a PC. These do cost (of course) and this makes it even more infuriating when Compressor doesn't do the job it is designed for.
This kind of issue is frustrating because it is hard to nail it down - I seem to remember that some folk reported the order in which the apps were installed makes a big difference - have you recently tried to re-install all of these apps?
Finally, the later version of Compressor is far better (IMO) than the first, but to get it you'll need to upgrade to a later version of DVDSP (v4). You don't need to upgrade the OS or QT in order to run it, I don't think. At some level I believe you will need to do some uninstalling and re-installing in order to fix this issue.

DVD conversion issues.

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