Encoding in Compressor for iDVD 7

Is there a way within iDVD 7 to change the burn speed of the SuperDrive? I have not been able to find it. BTW, is there anything I should know about encoding a Final Cut program in Compressor and bringing it into iDVD 7 for the themes and burn?

Much easier and cleaner to use Compressor w/ the pro apps / FCP => DVDSP.
However, it's not impossible to use with with iMovie ..... here's the steps I took under expert settings (and btw there are a few minor artifacts as you pointed out above mainly over fast moving objects). Fred's 100% correct about GIGO....
By sdmacuser at 2007-09-28
By sdmacuser at 2007-09-28
By sdmacuser at 2007-09-28

Similar Messages

Can Compressor be a replacement for iDVD?

As you may know, Apple has (temporarily?) discontinued iDVD.
So, Can Compressor replace iDVD? Could one use iMovie 06 with compressor?
I've had a few friends switch to Windows for their new computer purposes because they claim that Apple had no way to burn a video DVD. I'm trying to keep these people in the Apple camp.

Sorry to say there doesn't seem to be anything temporary about Apple's attitude toward DVDs. The only (relatively) bright spot I see is that one can still buy the boxed edition of iLIfe, which includes iDVD. But I haven't seen anything that suggests they'll continue to develop either iDVD or DVDSP.
Also hard to imagine they'll build real authoring capabilities to Compressor; they genuinely seem philosophically opposed to the physical disk concept. For example, in the new version of Compressor, they eliminated nearly all the DVD presets that were in 3.5. Of course, it's still possible to make your own custom preset and/or to burn a simple DVD (or Blu-Ray) directly from Compressor (or FCX).
Perhaps more third party solutions (other than Toast and Encore) will surface in time.
Russ

What format for iDVD?

I'm using AE CS4. I render out QT with"None" as the compressor for my 2minute motiion graphic. It looks great. Turns out that iDVD doesn't see it! And when I open it in Quicktime the attributes panel says it has no video track! It's got something because it's over a GB.
What is the best quality that iDVD will accept?
Or should I change my process? I want to avoid re-compressing and losing quality. Do I misunderstand something??
Thanks for answering this question
JL
MacbookPro, iDVD 7 (iLife09), AE CS4

The way I've understood the process - the bigger the file the better
looking the outcome but I will gladly try Animation and PNG.
There are many cases where this is true, and others where the file size to quality ratio is not so obvious.
Animation and PNG are identical to "None" at a fraction of the file size, because they use lossless data shrinking techniques while keeping the image quality untouched. People who are concerned with these things, test this by overlaying (say) a PNG-encoded file on top of a None file and check if they are identical when performing a difference operation. This is why Animation and PNG are considered mathematically lossless.
Just to make sure - I need some clarification please - you said:
"They actually loose a rather lossy compression scheme, MPEG-2 video at a rather low datarate."
Did
you mean "They actually USE..." or is there something else ? Your
explanation was so helpful I wouldn't want to misunderstand any of it.
Yes, sorry. I meant they actually USE
That's what happens when you type this fast.

Best settings to use when preparing HD source material for iDVD?

I realize iDVD is effectively abandonware, and that it was never really designed either to run on Lion nor to import high definition content...but nevertheless here I am (somewhat unavoidably) trying to do both and constantly getting the dreaded and mysterious "an error occured during movie encoding" result when I try to burn or export my project to a disc image.
If it matters, I am using a Mac Pro (1,1) with a 5770, running 10.7.5 with 8GB of RAM and oodles of free diskspace. All of my software is fully up to date, including iDVD 7.1.2 build 1158. Several utilities report nothing erroneous with my drives or their filesystems. I have made sure Perian is not installed. I have tried to create and export this DVD using both my primary user account and a clean dummy one I made for testing purposes.
After considerable trial and error experiments, each taking several hours to attempt, I've decided that I'm never going to easily figure out exacty which of my many various source files for this project (holiday videos for family) may be giving iDVD hiccups. Instead, I've decided to take another approach, making all of my content as easy to "spoon feed" to iDVD as possible. Hopefully then I can get this project done.
My question is what, ideally, does iDVD like to be fed?
For starters, I am in the process of transcoding and repackaging all of my content through MPEG Streamclip to be AIC video and uncompressed audio inside MOV containers. In each case I am scaling the video down to be 480 lines tall. Just guessing, but that seems like it would give iDVD the least possible work to "think" about and get confused. Does that sound about right to folks?
Should I be doing something drastic and old school like trying to create DV files? My content is all wide aspect, intended for a 16:9 iDVD project and that seems like it would get tricky (also, this would involve more quality loss than using AIC files).
I am totally open to suggestions here. Just please don't say "dude, use Toast" or something because while I have plenty of other tools that I know would work more easily and reliably, I really want to mimic the holiday discs from previous years that I've created using the same iDVD theme.

I haven't had to wrestle with this problem, but I've followed some of the discussions and here are several ideas and resources which seem reasonable. As background, have you read about better results from using iMovie6? Also, as you imply, DV Stream (.dv) was the native format for iDVD.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16296991#16296991
http://blog.progravix.com/?p=456
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5432
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1611?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
...and don't forget David Pogue's "Missing Manual" series for iMovie and iDVD are excellent resources.
John

Encoding home videos for IPhone, AppleTV and IPod Touch

Hi Folks,
I'm on latest version of Compressor and FCP.
Objective: to encode home video transfers to a format that is suitable for AppleTV, IPhone and Ipod Touch - in an efficient manner (this is key)
99% of the videos would be VHS and camcorder tapes in SD format.
I mentioned efficient manner b/c I tried running and Iphone encode through the presets in Compressor for a 2 hour VHS transfer - nothing fancy, just 12 chapters. I'm on my 2009 quad mac pro with 8 GBs RAM.
The estimator through the 'share' feature said it was going to take over 3 hours before I quit. The other reason I quit is b/c it won't be compatible with AppleTV.
I created DVDs for my client so I tried handbrake using the video_Ts folder and it created an IPhone/IPod Touch file no problem - only 40 minutes. Not bad. I tried the Universal preset and QT gives me an error that the finalized file isn't compatible.
I guess my question is: does it matter quality wise, if I run through Handbrake vs compressor? For this particular client, there are 12 hours worth of videos to compress.
I know about setting up a cluster on my mac pro, but everytime I try more than 1 file in a batch, the subsequent files fail. I can't even set a cluster up with my 2006 mac pro either - yes, I've had discussions with FCP support staff and have tickets. It's a bug
So, any thoughts? 3 hours (at a minimum) seems awfully long to compress.
Of course, I would be charging my client for these videos, but at that length of time, I'm not sure what a feasible cost would be for both sides.
Cheers,
keebler

If you are send out self contained movies to be processed in Compressor with Standard Presets (no adjustment to frame controls) you should be getting decent speed. If you want I can try encoding a two hour DV clip. How far did the encoding get before you stopped it? The estimates are not necessarily accurate at the beginning.
Also if you can get the Clusters working (disregarding the size of the batches for a moment) should help with speed. I run into limits of around 20 per batch so make multiple batches. Not the most optimal way, but could be worth it to get them all going. Set them up for overnight and it should be done in the AM.
Creating off the Video_TS folder is compressing compressed material, so it could (should) reduce quality when compared to encoding original source material, though based on the quality of the source it may be more academic...
I would try to get the Compressor end working myself. (Ignore using share, just open Compressor and put movies into it.)

Compressor to idvd

I have a video that is 1hr and 15 minutes long. I need to compress it so that it will fit on a single layer disc so I bought compressor. The problem is that when I bought final cut pro x it didn't come with any dvd studio pro, so all I have is iDVD, and it won't recognise the compressor version. Is there any way to get a good quality, single layer DVD using iDVD? I'm getting a bit desperate at this point.

Just to follow up…
Here is a screenshot of a show I recently finished…note the size, nearly 29 GB.
The screenshot above is of the QuickTime Inspector, before importing into iDVD.
Here is another screenshot…this time the iDVD project info window after importing into iDVD. Note how much space it takes up on the DVD after the video and audio compression: 976 MB, including 36 MB for the menu.
Hope these images help clarify why your movie will be fine for iDVD.
Russ

Preparing my FCP Quicktime movie for iDVD

Hi out there, can someone please explaine in detail what I have to do to a FCP Quicktime movie to prepare it for iDVD. Its 12 minutes long and 4.8GB. I tried putting it as is into iDVD and burning a DVD and the quality was bad. I presume I have to put it through Compressor?

How did you export the movie in the first place? Did you choose Quicktime Movie or Quicktime Conversion?
jk

How do I prepare a FCP Quicktime movie for iDVD?

Hi out there, can someone please explaine in detail what I have to do to a FCP Quicktime movie to prepare it for iDVD. Its 12 minutes long and 4.8GB. I tried putting it as is into iDVD and burning a DVD and the quality was bad. Do I have to put it through Compressor? Or, should I make a different kind of Quicktime movie?

Compressor is a program and you want to use it to convert your movie into an mpeg file and an ac3 file. 2 files to drop into your DVD program. Now, I haven't used iDVD so i don't know what it's asking for but. DVDSP is really easy to use if you just wan tto make a DVD without a menu. this requires an mpeg2 file and ac3. this you can make in compressor. in FCP have your timeline with your sequence in it active. FILE>EXPORT>USING COMPRESSOR. in compressor you can use the DVD 90 minute setting to make these two files. you have to check the manual cause it's different on how to do this with diff versions.
once you have your files drop them in DVD SP asset box then drag them in the timeline. delete the menue blue box right click the green track box, select 'first play' build/burn button at the top and you're on your way.
sorry if this seems confusing, but dvd technology is funky. idvd is great for making easy template menus but if you want to just make a playable dvd wihtout menus, DVD SP is the way to go.

Encoding in Compressor 4 - has it improved?

I'm about to encode two documentary films for DVD release. One is 30 minutes (1000 duplications), the other is 80 minutes (1000 replications).
To my naked eye Apple Compressor 3.5 does a decent job encoding. But I'd like to get some expert opinions before I get started:
-- Has Apple improved VBR and/or CBR encoding in Compressor 4 (2011)? In other words, has Apple's MPEG-2 codec been rewritten for Compressor 4?
-- For a short 30 minute film would you use "CBR" or "Two pass VBR Best"?
-- Also, will an expensive third party codec (like Cinema Craft CCE-MP) be worth purchasing for a documentary mainly shot in SD NTSC with archival material?
Thanks!

My experience is different from Michael's. We get our best results using CBR. The old chestnut that FCP places "compression markers at every edit point" is misleading and you might want to research that more carefully. How do you make sure tose markers pass to Compressor? Are the markers the same for an edit point where a super starts to fade in as they are for a cut? If you're using two pass VBR, what does a compression marker actually accomplish for you that the two passes does not? Can Compressor get confused? How many frames does it take for a variation in the bit rate to happen?
bogiesan

2 movies AVI (each 600MB) = too large for iDVD? 6+ GB? Whats going on?!?!

Bottom line, two avi files, I add to iDVD and it starts encoding but somehow makes it larger than it is.
I go into PROJECT and I see now its a whopping 6+GB!
Is there something better or is there a setting I am missing? I just want to make a DVD with the existing AVI files and don't want it at 6GB.
Am confused.
Thanks

There could be whole host of issues here. It could be as simple as trying a different blank disk (Verbatim is one of the "preferred" discs). I imagine however that the answer will be a bit more elusive. It all starts with your source material... which at this point we don't know what it's format is. Once you know that, I would do a Google search on converting that format to a DV file- this is what iDVD expects. Depending on how compressed the original file is, determines what kind of quality you will get when it's converted. Once you have the "proper" file for iDVD, you can try to burn another DVD and see how successful that is.
In general, compression is achieved by throwing away redundant frames. By converting and re-compressing, we are tossing out frames, inserting new frames and then tossing them back out again.... not the best scenario!
To troubleshoot further... the DVD itself, via Apple's DVD player plays successful on you Mac but not on a tabletop DVD player? If so, have you played ANY home burned DVD movie on the table top player?
Mike

How to lift a segment of a song for iDVD menu

how to lift a segment of a song for iDVD menu
I do not want to lop off the end-- I want to lift a middle segment of a piece of music and loop it on the menu page for iDVD
Help?

Try adjusting the start and end point in iTunes Info window for that particular track:
However, before committing to a disk burn save it as a Disk Image and play it with DVD Player to make sure the edit in iTunes was carried out in the final product. It doesn't in some instances.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
OT

Encode 5.1 for apple tv

what are the settings to encode 5.1 for apple tv. I tried both quicktime and compressor.

Alley_Cat wrote:
You're correct it can pass them through, but it doesn't officially support them.
AC, your statement seems contradictory.
The Apple TV does indeed support correctly encoded DD or DTS files. Whether that support is "official" or not is not all that important, in my opinion. It still works if you have a correctly encoded file.
You can download one of the files from this web site http://www.diatonis.com/downloadsdtsac3.html sync it to your Apple TV and if you have a DD or DTS capable A/V receiver it will play correctly. Otherwise you'll just get static.
The problem is that QuickTime does not currently support DD/DTS encoding for audio in video. Once QT supports those audio encoding formats then Apple TV will play them.
Message was edited by: Michael Allbritton -- Fixed a typo.

Is 800 MHz G4 enough for iDVD disk image?

The specs for iDVD 5 say 733 MHz G4 minimum. I have an iBook without SuperDrive, but would like to create a DVD and save as a disk image to transfer to a Mac that does. Is an original 800 MHz G4 iBook capable of doing that or am I cutting it too close on the specs?

Thanks, Len.
I went ahead and installed it and created a project for three of my iMovies of my travels. They are all 3-1/2 to five minutes long and all have chapter markings.
I did see the spinning beachball briefly when switching some menus, but the encoding worked fine and didn't put a drag on the actual creativity, like moving buttons, changing fonts, dropping in photos, etc.
Going to make a disk image later for transfer to a Mac with a SuperDrive
Anyone else have any issues with this speed of Mac and iDVD?

Fastest iMovie Video Import Fromat for iDVD Processing

Which iMovie video import format will end up being converted the fastest when I export the final result into iDVD?
Should I use DV? MPG4? Or one of the others?
Just what format DOES iDVD convert iMovies into? Seems to take a REALLY long time, even with my iMac G5. If I could initially import the raw video into the same format, seems logical it would take less time for iDVD to do its thing.
Thanks!
iMac G5, Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

DV is the native format for iMovie and iDVD. Encoding contents to mpeg2 is a looong process in iDVD.
Of course authoring a DVD in an app like DVD Studio Pro with mpeg2 files would be a time saver, however unlike DVD SP, iDVD does not except mpeg2 files. (it only encodes to mpeg2).
I usually bring my iMovie project into iDVD as a flatten project.
Meaning all the A/V tracks, transitions, effects, titles, etc. comprising a iMovie project is shared/exported as a DV file(s) into a new project.
I check to make sure the DV file(s) play correctly in the new project and just add chapter markers save and close iMovie. Open iDVD, import the iMovie project, author the DVD and wait for it to finish.
I find iDVD works more efficiently/faster encoding when it doesn't have to deal with mulitple audio tracks, transitons, effects, titles etc.
It also reduces the number of encoding errors that can occur in iDVD.

Importing & encoding dv assets in iDVD 6 - also 16:9 mix with 4:3

This could go under iDVD, or iMovie or Final Cut Express, choices, choices...
Will try to be clear & succint in the scenario:
Making a quick DVD containing several discrete movies.
Just upgraded to iLife 6. Did the edits in this.
Saved out individual movies (3 to 12 min ea) as full quality *.dv to optimize space for the movie projects.
Now I am ready to assemble several 3 to 12 minute movies into the iDVD project.
iDVD4 would show you encoding of files as I recall, a progress bar - while converting the dv into appropriate format. Not sure this is happening anymore -
I don't seem to be getting feedback that indicates progress. I hear the drive cranking away, but it may just be rendering my theme motions, ad infinitum.
This is what I need clarified - does iDVD6 auto encode dv files to the appropriate format? The sizes when adding the *.dv files indicates that it is NOT compressing them as expected. Any ideas or comments?
Furthe complication: I have lost my chapter markers when I exported as *.dv - so I need to bring it into either iMovie6 or Final Cut Express2 (or iDVD6?) in order to add few, so that one can skip through the movies.
Was hoping to do this in iDVD, so I don't need multiple re-renders. (?)
I want to use the new themes in iDVD6 - that's the 2nd of my questions - can I make the theme 16:9 & the actual films as 4:3? (how they were shot).
Some of the "friendly" features of the newer version have confounded me a little. I am in the middle of a project, editing a few more small films – quickly maxing out on room, so its not conducive to involved experimentation.
Help!, Mr Wizard!!!
g5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I think I can answer some of these:
Saved out individual movies (3 to 12 min ea) as full quality *.dv to optimize space for the movie projects.
You will need to go back to iMovie to add chapter markers.
Was hoping to do this in iDVD, so I don't need multiple re-renders
Everthing is already rendered, so no re-renders will happen. After your original export, iMovie treat every fade, title, transition, etc., just like plain DV input, since it has already been rendered.
does iDVD6 auto encode dv files to the appropriate format
Yes, but you have to have your preferences set to "best performance" to do this. I usually use "best quality", where iDVD does NO encoding until you hit the burn button. If you want background encoding, then set your iDVD prefs to Best Performance.
To "see" the encoding status in iDVD6 (when set to best performance) look for "project info" under the project menu in iDVD 6.
can I make the theme 16:9 & the actual films as 4:3?
Sure but there are 4:3 settings for the new themes too....again look under the Project menu in iDVD.
john b

Encoding in Compressor for iDVD 7

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