Export FCP seq in a way that will work on Windows Media Player (good grief)

Question

Hello all (again).
Before getting down to business I wanted to thank “FxDude,” TopoTone,” and “governor” for their assistance to my recent posts. By the way- (to all) sorry for the double postings. I was in a time crunch and kind of panicked.
With that said- here’s my deal…
I’ve created a short (5min) commercial for a community college. The project was “dirty work” (which I think is the industry term for taking low quality video from multiple sources, cameras, and formats, and turning it into a single decent looking video). If it isn’t the term- perhaps it should be. Note to self – wow, that was way more work than I ever want to do again. Anyway, I digress. The video is done and looks great as a DVD playing on TV’s or projector etc. Cool? Cool.
Now, although the school will be using the DVD (in most cases) via the mediums of TV and projection, they have also informed me that in many cases, they will be playing the DVD on their various PC laptops and PC desktops alone – aka viewing the DVD on their actual computer screen. Of course, being a community college in California- it’s all PC and all Windows Media Player for them. Further, being a community college- they all run basic versions of WMP with no QuickTime or any other plugins that would facilitate many of Mac’s avi codecs, and they’re not allowed to download such things (at least on the machines owned and operated by the school). Poop I say… POOP!
Of course, as we all know- (in general) most “dirty work” SD videos formatted for NTSC look like dog crap when played on a computer screen (especially full screen modes) mainly because of interlacing etc etc. Since I worked my butt off trying to make crap look decent and succeeded, im sure u can understand my desire to not move back to crap.
What I need- (what I think I need?)
1. I need a version of the video that will play easily on a standard PC via a standard version of Windows Media Player.
2. I need it to look as good a possible.
What I know so far- (what I think I know so far)
1. I need to export a deinterlaced version of the original FCP timeline (sequence).
2. I need the final version to be .wmv file
What I don’t know- (pretty sure I don’t this)
1. What’s the best method of achieving the above? Currently, (based on what I do know and what I have loaded on my mac) I have three
options for achieving the above. FYI- I have a working version of the plugin flip4mac which offers a wmv export option in both my QuickTime conversion window as well as my compressor.
a. Export using QuickTime conversion > choosing wmv, and messing around with the settings to get the best quality.
b. Export using Compressor > choosing wmv, and messing around with the settings to get the best quality
c. Convert a high quality version of the video (perhaps h264 or some other good looking avi using mpeg streamclip to wmv.
My questions- (bless all of you for reading this far- good grief)
1. What’s the best way to do the above?
2. Is there a way, workflow, codec, setting, or religion I can use to get this done in the least amount of steps?
3. I’ve been told that there are some codecs that are by their nature deinterlaced- h264?, is this correct?
4. Based on my issue, what do you think I should do?
My Specs
Sequence Settings
F = 720 x 480, AR NTSC DV(3:2). PAR= NTSC – CCIR 601 / DV (720x480), Anamorphic Checked, FD= Lower / Even, ET= 29.97,
Comp.= DV / DVCPRO-NTSC
Advanced Seq Settings
All same with the addition of quality set to Highest, Scan Mode = Interlaced, and AR set to 16x9.
Clip Settings = same as Seq settings
Once again-
Thanks you guys (as always) for you time-
Terry

Answer 1

Hey Terry
in the corporate world wee have to contend with clients who are all windows based and prevented from installing anything on their systems.
I use Flip4Mac, Studio Pro HD, with the following mix of settings;
Open clip in QT, I do also use compressor but for some reason I like using QT for exporting to WMV.
File/Export
Export:movie to windows media
Use: One pass VBR, Presentation (high), 16:9
Options>
Advanced... input type: interlace Lower field first(DV), output type: progressive
Coding method: Two pass VBR
Give this a shot and then tweak to suit your needs, oh and you can save your settings as a preset for QuickTime.
Within Compressor there is no export to WMV, so you have to start with another setting and create your own saving it for future use.
Tony