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Hello -
For years now, I've been downloading my Canon AVCHD home movie footage to Final Cut Pro (first 7, now X) and then burning the resulting project to Bluray via Final Cut's "Share" command.  The resulting blurays looked stunning.  As of late, however, I have been moving from burning to bluray  to burning to hard drive (for an XBMC home media server) and the resulting footage is always, for lack of a better term, muddy.  Does anyone know the settings I should use to retain the crisp high-def look I see on the original footage and the blurays?  I have tried exporting to 1080p devices, h264, and ProRes 422 (LT).  I hasten to use Master File because the resulting files would be humungous.  Ideally I'd want to keep the resulting projects around the same size as the blurays (around 25gb for 90 minutes) which doesn't seem unreasonable.  Any help appreciated!!!

Answer 1

Here's what I have done in the past.
In iDVD, use the "Save as Disk Image" (under File menu)
Then drag that disk image to Disk Utility (in your Applications folder under the "Utilities" folder)
Select that disk image, then click Burn up in the top left of the window. It will prompt you for a disk, insert disk, then it will prompt you for your burn speed. Select the slowest burn speed.
You should be in business.
Other things to keep in mind are labels can be murder. I know that but I still use them - I just can't send a presentation out without one - so I use the ultra thin labels you can get from Target - they are High Gloss DVD/CD labels from Neato. They seem to have fewer problems. Also make sure you buy good -R's. Maxell gets the highest rating, there are even websites dedicated to helping people track down the best current manufacturer, as sometimes labels (like Sony, Maxel, Fuji etc..) will change manufacturers and lose their quality.
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
Hope this helps!