Exporting For DVD Quality

I have a project I want to burn with iDVD. But I am clueless about the quality settings. What would be the best setting for burning to a DVD? Thanks ahead of time.

Exporting to QuickTime Movie. iDVD does the compression.

Similar Messages

Best export for dvd quality using final cut express hd?

hey guys
i have final cut express hd...what would be the best export settings to get nice highquality dvd?
i am going to put about 25, short 5 minute clips in the dvd..will it be able to fit and all be a nice quality?
any suggestions?
thankyou!

Yes, provided you use dual layer DVD-R and your burner supports this newer media.
Otherwise the most you can burn to DVD-R SL media is 120 mins. (but keep in mind menus, titles, photos, etc all consume space as well thereby reducing the available amount of run time / QT Playback.

FCP 7 exporting for DVD, Image problems

Hey,
New here so sorry if I'm a little slow with everything. We shot some concert footage using 4 cameras, 3 cameras shot in 1440X1080 HDV 1080i60 and the other camera shot in AVCHD but was imported as 1440X1080 ProRes 422. I edited the video in a sequence with settings of 1440X1080, field dominance of Upper (odd), and compressor HDV 1080i60. I was trying to find a way to export for SD DVD in the best quality I could and found Ken Stone's site,
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hdv_timeline_to_sd_dvd.html
It's worked for me on other projects. This project is a 2 1/2 hour DVD, so I tested that method on a minute of the footage and it didn't come out well just for one camera. I followed Ken Stone's page and took the sequence and changed the settings to field dominance None, and compressor to ProRes 422. Then I exported using quicktime conversion with settings of ProRes 422 HQ. Once that file is exported I've been taking it to Compressor and using either DVD Best 90 Minutes or 120 Minutes. On the max bitrate I don't go above 7.9 and on the average I'm usually around 6.7 for Best 90 minutes and 5.2 for Best 120 minutes. Whenever I put the footage in DVD Studio Pro, the footage from the 3 cameras shot in 1080i60 look great but the footage originally shot in AVCHD has all sorts of lines and distortion on movement. I'm just trying to find out if there is a better way for me to take my footage from final cut to SD DVD and still get good looking footage out of the original AVCHD footage. I don't really understand why the footage from the AVCDD footage is coming out like that since it was imported as ProRes 422. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Matt

Thanks a lot, this did the trick.
Yeah I'm doing a dual layer dvd, but I'm sending it off for replication so from what I've read it sounds like I have to build and format the dvd, then burn each Layer to it's own dvd. Do you have any experience with this? The break point is kind of confusing me right now because it sounds like just a lot of trial and error.
Thanks again
Matt

Emergency questions exporting for dvd studio pro (ntsc and pal)

Hi,
I'm under a tight timeline and would appreciate any help possible. I'm experimenting with outputs/burning today so the real thing can happen tomorrow.
I have an hour long project that was shot on two different kinds of cams -- a sony hdv V1U and pan dvx100b. The first shot mostly in 16:9, the second squeeze 24p. We imported all footage as non-hd though, because the V1u has had problems syncing properly with hd settings with final cut. The issue/question now is this-
I don't know what file format (I'm assuming mpeg-4 for DVD studio pro, but using compressor or no?) or settings to use -- I'm used to mpeg-4, but for some reason it is coming out all grainy/pixelated and I'm not sure if I need to adjust the settings. Also, once exported into a usable/high quality format, I need to burn a ntsc dvd but also a pal dvd -- I've burned pal dvds on dvd studio pro before and know adjusting the settings is just in preferences, but I'm assuming the video will need to be converted into a different kind of file. Or no?
My sequence settings are 1440x1080 (16:9), quicktime video settings compressor hdv 1080i60. When I export as a quicktime file the conversion is great and no problems, but that isn't workable in dvd studio pro.
I would appreciate any advice you could offer,
Thank you,
Tenzin

Thank you, I'm trying that -- someone else just mentioned it needing to be an mpeg 2 file as well. The trouble I'm having now in compressor is it isn't converting when I press submit -- nothing is showing up in the batch monitor. I've tried this directly exporting from fcp using compressor, as well exporting quicktime from fcp and then using the quicktime file in compressor.
I'm not used to using compressor so I'm thinking I am not doing something properly in this process? Thank you for the suggestions, they are reassuring. Do you know if the same file produced by compressor can be used for the pal dvd?

Exporting for DVD

Hi,
Ridiculous question I know but here goes.
I have a 2 1/2 hour show that I videoed on MiniDV and have edited in Final Cut. The image quality is as good as I want it, not perfect but fine, but when I export to use in DVD Studio I loose quality. I'v used Compressor and converted it to MPEG-2, but is there any way I can just export straight from Final Cut Pro without loosing image quality, keeping all the settings and so on I used in Final Cut Pro?
Im burning on to Dual Layer DVDs so space isn't really an issue.
Does it have to be MPEG-2? Is there a different, higher quality format I can use? Or is the only thing I can do to try keep the quality raising the bitrate?
Anyone with an insight to share with me can treat me like a luddite and use baby speak
Cheers

Heya,
All DVD's are authored to MPEG-2 format. You must compress the file to MPEG-2 in order to play on a standard DVD player. SD MiniDV is roughly 13gigs per hour. So for 2 1/2 hours of footage you're looking at around 30 gigs that needs to be compressed to fit onto a DVD.
You should also take into consideration the bitrate of MPEG-2 compression. Considering that the audio is compressed to AC3 a safe bitrate compression for DVD video is around 7.5 mbp/s. A bitrate higher than that may cause errors during playback on some DVD players.
single layer vs. dual layer makes no difference on the total bitrate compression it only means you can fit longer duration of the compressed bitrate. Sending to Compressor and using a customized setting of MPEG-2 compression with 7.5 bitrate for video and AC3 for audio is the best quality you'll get on a standard DVD.
Welcome to the forum.

Best way to export for DVD

Hi Guys
Right, I am exporting to DVD and i want to know the best way to do this at the highest quality, but also, so the DVD will play on most players.
I am shooting in HDV 1080i 60, importing to Final Cut Pro 5.1.4 (the older final cut pro) using the apple intermediate codec.
I want to make the best quality SD dvd. The content is rarely over 5 minute's (kids music videos) but i am preparing a 50 minute show which needs to be put on DVD.
I usually use; export to quicktime movie, with the setting dv pal 48 khz anamorphic, i use DVD studio pro also to make the DVD, but not sure what the best settings are.
PLEASE HELP.

The BEST export method I have found by comparing them all is by exporting using Compressor and the DVD Best Quality setting. Now this setting gives you a few different options for length of your project: 120 minutes, 150 minutes, or 90 minutes. And then with each of these length options comes the option of 4:3 or 16:9. So if your project is 50 minutes, select the DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes option, either 4:3 or 16:9 depending what your project is. After laying your cursor over this option it will open up a list of audio options. What I do is just select the "All" option, which then lists all 3 audio options in your batch window: AIFF, Dolby 2.0, and MPEG-2. What I then do is just delete the MPEG and Dolby options, leaving the AIFF. After waiting for it to compress (make sure you specify a destination for the files so you can find them) it will give you 2 files, an MPEG-2 file which is the movie file, and an AIFF file (looks like an itunes file) that is the audio file. At this point, open up DVD Studio Pro and drag these 2 files into the assets window, and you're good to go from there. Hope this helped.
-JP

Exporting for Web VS exporting for DVD

So here's the story:
I am pretty familiar with exporting my movies for the web and stuff like compression, etc but I was just asked to burn some of my movies for DVD distribution. As stupid as I am, I sent those guys the files that I use for web distribution and of course I get a reply that goes something like this: "This isn't DVD quality. We need the full movie file, highest quality/bit rate, frame rate, de-interlaced versions of the movie."
Can someone help me understand what that means??
If I were to export the movie uncompressed I might as well give up right now. It's all HD. I won't be able to fit even one of my movie files on the biggest hard drive.
Does anyone know what "the highest quality/bit rate, frame rate" etc. means? I feel like a retard right now.
Thanks for your help!

Assuming you are using Final Cut Express, your best bet is to create a master DVD and have a good service provider duplicate the disk.
In FCE, do the following:
Make sure everything is rendered:
*Sequence > Render All > Both*
*Sequence > Render Only > Mixdown*
Then save your project.
Export to QuickTime Movie (not QuickTime Conversion)
UNcheck the option called "Make Movie Self-Contained"
Check the option to Include chapter markers (if you have chapter markers in your sequence)
Save
Then import the resulting QT reference movie into iDVD and build your DVD project. Burn the finished project to disk and give it to the duplicators.
If that's not acceptable to them then you should
1) find another duplication house that will do the work or
2) get the exact specifications from them as to what they require; if this is the case you will probably need to get an external hard drive that you can use to save the project for them.
What is the exact nature of your source video? HDV? AVCHD? Something else? Do you have mixed formats in your sequence?

Exporting and dvd quality

I have built an hd project in premiere using the AVCHD settings. When I go to export my project, I export it using the h.264 export templete using CBR at 8 to 9 on the sliders and everything else I leave as is. My exported video is great on my 23" LCD monitor being played through media player. It covers the entire screen and is crystal clear. When I go to build my dvd in encore, I let encore select the best encoding option and build my dvd. When I insert the dvd in my players, the result is not near the quality as my computer playing it in media player. It doesn't fill the screen nor is the quality there. I have played it in a Toshiba HD dvd player as well as a Panasonic Blue Ray with the same results. I thought maybe it was something encore was doing in the conversion, so I used TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 to build my dvd. The quality was somewhat better, but still had the black letterbox around the video.
What am I doing wrong or is there something I can do different?
I am using CS5 premiere and encore.
William

Hi William,
I would have to ask why you are exporting to H.264, if intending to make a DVD? Then you are creating an extra compression step in the process, taking an already compressed file and then recompressing to MPEG-2 for DVD.
From Premiere, use Adobe Media Encoder and choose an "MPEG-2 for DVD" format, with "NTSC Widescreen High Quality" preset (or PAL, as applicable). If working with Progressive source footage, then of course choose a Progressive preset.
Set the data rate according to program length, with your choice of CBR or VBR, and be sure to check the "Maximum Render Quality" button at the bottom, as this helps with the downscale quality. Rule of thumb is 560/minutes=data rate, not to exceed 8 for video stream. Maybe round result down just a bit for safety margin.
In Encore, use "Import as Timeline" and import the resulting .m2v video and .wav audio files. Any chapter marks in Premiere will also come in automatically.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Help Exporting for DVD Output

What is the best way to export my 1920x1080 16:9 timeline for DVD output.
I have tried numerous attempts but the quality on DVD leaves something to be desired.
It looks great when i export it using QT but I also need to have it on a DVD.
Clearly, I am doing something wrong. What settings should i be using?
Sequence Settings
Frame Size: 1920x1080
Field dominance - none
Frames: 30fps
Compressor: ProRes422

First thing you've got to understand is that a DVD is standard definition. It will never be HD quality. That you will lose by encoding to mpeg2.
I'd do the compression in compressor-- try the standard compressions for your length, if those are NG, try duplicating a preset and upping the bitrate. Also, 2 pass vbr with increase the quality, at the expense of compressing time.
This is almost as dark an art as web encoding. Not difficult to do, just time consuming and tedious until you find the correct recipe.
EDIT: I should add that only you and your client can decide what is "good enough."
Message was edited by: Jim Cookman

Exporting for DVD SP?

Ive finished editing my video in FC and have exported using both Quicktime and QT conversion - when I open DVD Studio Pro and try to import the asset - it gives me an error saying the file is not compatible. What file format do I need to export to to create a simple DVD of one video created in FC?

Hi
Export your sequence to *Quciktime Movie* (nos QT Conversion) including DVDSP markers (self contained is my favorite flavor).
OPTION A
Drop that file in DVDSP and let it make the encoding (less control over encoding settings plus uncompressed audio)
OPTION B
Use Compressor with the corresponding Best Quality preset for DVD depending your movie lenght in minutes to get: MPEG2 video and AC3 audio. Import thoses as assets in DVDSP.
Check that your DVDSP project match your movie format: PAL/NTSC and SD/HD DVD.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Exporting for DVD? Please help, I'm going nuts.

Hi all,
Pretty huge issue at the moment. I have a deadline to meet and I can't export my movie out of Final Cut to a DVD. How can I export the timeline for a DVD quality finished product? I don't have Compressor installed and I think this is a major issue. I tried printing to tape so I could bring the project over to Adobe Premiere and use Encore to publish the DVD, but every time I try to print to tape it constantly drops frames and it's hopeless.
If anyone has any suggestions at all please help me!
Thanks,
Daryl

thing is, I don't have FCS...I have FCP. I had my software installed where I bought my mac from, and I've came to realize now that I have nothing else but FCP installed...there is nothing else there that came with FCS. It's not really a huge problem because I can take my mac back whenever I want to get the owner to install any software I need, but that's kind of an issue at the moment considering I have deadlines. I can't afford to have my mac sitting at their office for a day or two at this point.
If I can just figure out how to print this thing back to tape so I can bring it into Premiere on my PC and use Encore to make the DVD everything will be golden. I'm just having HUGE issues trying to print this to tape...which shouldn't be a problem in the first place. (that I have encountered anyway).

Export for DVD with Animation codec without alphas channels not working?

I'm using FCP 5 with DVDSP. My FCP projects consist of quicktime movies that are using the Animation compressor (for lossless quality), and the movies contain alpha channels (thus they were rendered at Millions + colors to preserve the alphas).
This is my problem. I want to now export a quicktime movie to use in DVDSP with animation compression, so it is again lossless quality (obviously to presever the quality through these steps). But I do NOT want to preserve the alpha channels, because what I've learned is that when made into a DVD, the alphas are not preserved and the image looks wrong (as if without the alphas).
So I basically want to "flatten" the video, if there was some way.
I would assume the solution would be to, in FCP, export a quicktime at animation compression, but set to Millions for colors, and not Millions + (I was taught that the Millions + will preserve the alpha info).
Well, what's happening is when I set it to that, it renders, but then I get info on the movie in Quicktime and it says it has Millions + still. And thus, it looks wrong in DVDSP.
What is going on? Is this a bug in FCP?
Does anyone have an idea as to how to get around this. The only thing that has worked for me is to export the Quicktime movie with "none" for compression, but that's making the movie SO large that I can't work with it and it doesn't play right when I make the DVD.
I really appreciate anyones help on the matter. Thanks!
Brian,.
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 30" Apple Cinema Display
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display

Thanks for the suggestions. I have not yet tried laying a solid black video track underneath to see what it does, but it seems like a good idea and I'll try it out to see what happens when I get back home.
I'll try to explain what I mean by the image looking wrong.
I'm picking up where another left off, so I'm not sure of how he cut the quicktime movie together; all I know is that they used alpha channels in Photoshop and After Effects to make the image looks the way they want it. This is a drawn character laid on a white background with a black frame around the entire image. It looks the way he wants it to in the quicktime movie, and this quicktime movie is 720x480, animation millions colors +, 24fps.
This movie, along with others of the like, need to be cut together in FCP and then put on a DVD with DVDSP. When I export it and it looks "wrong", what's happening is there is a black block behind the drawn character. The guy that made the movies in AE says that, that is what it looks like when the alpha channel is not working correctly.
To test things, I've changed the quicktime compression settings in the sequence settings. If I set it to anything that is not animation, I get that black block in the viewer. (Note though, that if I set it to animation, millions + or not +, it shows the alpha correctly both ways).
In FCP's user manual it says that if you're passing your movie on to a DVD, to use a high or lossless compression to keep the quality up, like animation or PhotoJPEG. For this reason, I haven't wanted to go to DV - especially with this type of image (graphic drawn shapes), it's easy to see a quality difference.
It really seems like there is a lot of voodoo involved with compression settings. As for now the best "fool-proof" solution I've found is to re-render the movie in After Effects at millions (not+) so that it won't contain the alpha channel info, and FCP seems to like that a lot more.
I just wish I could get FCP to work with the movies as they were because I'm having to re-edit everything to work with these new movies now.
Thanks again for the tips and insight.
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display

Quicktime Pro Settings for DVD Quality Streaming to TV?

Hey All,
I have a lot of home movies I've made on my SD camcorder shot in widescreen. I have them all saved in as individual iMovie Project files. In the past I exported from iMovie as Full Quality then went to QP pro and exported them to stream on the web using Video and Audio settings I like.
Now I have connected my Xbox360 to my mac and want to go back into QP and export the files so they can be streamed to my Xbox360 and have DVD quality. I can already watch the videos but they are pixelated because they are obviously in the wrong format.
What QP export settings should I use under Options for Audio and Video on a 16:9 display?
I want DVD quality. On average my videos are 2,3 or 4 minutes long. I assume this solution would also transger over if I ended up getting an Apple TV.
If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

I would still use the save as method to change the file extension. The default "open with" application for .m4v is iTunes, not QuickTime Player and not all users have installed it. Viewers know what a .mov file is. A .m4v may confuse them.
Use the Export to iPod settings (nearly foolproof) and test the file so you're sure it plays in QuickTime and the iPod.
Next use the Movie Info window to add "Annotations". These can be things like changing the "title", adding copyright notices, artist names and dozens of other things.
Also set the movie "poster frame". This special frame shows as an image when, or if, you decide to use RSS feeds or Podcasts for the file.
Now that you've edited the file you need to save it. A "regular" Save may not preserve the fast start properties. Using "Save As" will restore the fast start feature.
Your viewers can either watch the file in the browser window or click on your other link and choose to save the file to their computer.

Export for DVD festival exhibition copy

my ~7 minute (7'18" to be precise; includes smpte leader) DV short was accepted to a festival and I need to submit an "exhibition" quality DVD for festival projection. Footage was shot on Sony PD 150. Digitized directly to my hard drive (unaltered). Edited on FCP 5.1.2 (universal). I want to export the best quality version I can (max. 4GB, as you know) because I realize that the format I used originally is only standard video quality and I am afraid that projection is going to pixelate terribly. One export I did created a file size of 503.3 MB; 720 x 480. Can I do better than this and improve image, maximize all the data from the original source, or is this as good as I can hope for?
FYI: I exported the movie uncompressed and it turned out to be around 8GB, much too big and, honestly, the image didn't look any better when I played it back on my monitor (flat 20" imac). In fact, I'd say it looked worse. Am I trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear (speaking of image quality, not content quality, of course...I'm not bashing my own movie!!)?
I hope I am making sense. Forgive me if I have not. I will gladly clarify, if needed. Thanks in advance for any help. Festival is in a few weeks, so if there is anything I can do, I can still get it in in time.
iMac4,1 Mac OS X (10.4.8) Core Duo; 2GHz; 1 GB RAM;

The best quality DVD you can make will be the highest quality MPEG2 file you can create from uncompressed DV material, simple as that. So it's all down to the work you do after you go File > Export > Quicktime Movie from FCP. That'll be the best quality you can get from your timeline, given that it's DV-rez material.
No matter what you do, you won't fill that disc with data, as the maximum size MPEG2 is likely to be only a couple of hundred megs. But MPEG can look really good. Many swear that Compressor is not the best compression system for MPEG. Many also swear by the app known as BitVice Encoder - seek it out and try it out, though it's not free by any means. Use a high bitrate but be careful to not go over about 7Mbps, as your disc could choke in the player on the big night. Use ac3 audio so you can save the max data rate for the pictures. Note that anything above about 6Mbps really is barely noticeable.
I saw a feature screening last week on the big screen in the DGA that came from DVD and I was pretty impressed with the quality really, considering the mangling that MPEG does to video.

Export For DVD Studio Pro

What's the best export setting for an iMovie that I will be including on a DVD-SP project. I posted a similar question in the DVD-SP forum and was told to use MPEG-2 as my export setting under the "Expert Settings" tab. However, I didn't see this as an option. What's the best setting to use for a DVD project. I was under the impression that MPEG-2 is the standard for DVD but don't know what to do to get that quality from iMovie.

Well what -I- would do is a FULL Quality DV export from iMovie then use Compressor to encode to MPEG-2. Compressor gives you a lot more options and (arguably) better quality.
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ
http://iMovie.danslagle.com

Exporting For DVD Quality

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