Exporting from FCP to DVD

Hey
Just wondering if I can get some advise. I need to export my project from final cut pro to DVD but just wondering what the best way to do this would be to get the best quality DVD. (This is for a company to take out to potential clients to sell what the company does - so it needs to look good!)
My project is no longer than 5 mins
1920 x 1080 - 1080i (16:9)
Field Dominance: None
frame rate 25
I have Final Cut Studio latest version.
I'm trying out a few options at the moment using compressor - best quality - so we'll see what these look like, but I'm not sure what all the settings should be set at.
Any advise on what you think will be best would be great.
Thanks

Wouldn't use Quicktime conversion - no need. Just export from FCP as Quicktime Movie at current settings.
In my experience, changing the field dominance from interlaced to progressive can cause stuttering particularly in motion graphics - this might not be an issue if you're laying to tape for broadcast but when you convert back to interlaced for SD DVD it can look very ugly.
In any case, at the very least, you need to be using a Kona card or IOHD to do this type of conversion properly - and really, if you want progressive you should shoot progressive.
Message was edited by: Dynamicworm
Message was edited by: Dynamicworm

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What's the best compressor setting to export from FCP to DVD Studio Pro?

I am exporting an 11 minute video from FCP Studio 2 via compressor to go to DVD Studio Pro. It's DV PAL 720 x 576 and I intend the final DVD to be 16:9 so I'll be choosing 16:9 letterbox in DVDStudio Pro.
As my video is only 11 minutes am I losing quality by selecting Best Quality DVD 90 minutes?
And is the way I described above the best way to go about it?

You should try the setting as a start, though there are many tweaks you can do if you do not like the results. One of the biggest tweaks is the frame controls (adds more time but can help.)
You should send out to a preset for 16:9 (or make your own setting with aspect ratio of 16:9) then flag the track in DVD SP to 16:9 Letterbox
Some links
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_7.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/faqs_3.php
And a quick Compressor (2 but same principles for 3) movie here
http://dvdstepbystep.com/qc.php

Export from FCP directly into DVD studio pro?

Is it possible to export from FCP directly into DVD studio pro? If not, what is the preferred file format because my exported quicktime files come up as "incompatible format" when I try to add them into my DVD project. Any help is appreciated.

You need to encode audio as well from Compressor. You'll have 2 files - audio and video.
Here's a tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFgJpd7DEWw
Message was edited by: Eric Pautsch1

Conversion settings from fcp to dvd studio pro?

i have a seven minute short subject that i need to burn to dvd using dvd studio pro. before i export from fcp, wanted to double check my fcp export settings with anyone who's been there before.
here's my choices: export with quicktime conversion, under standard video compression settings choose none for compression, select best quality and choose millions of colors. also no compression for audio.
i've got to burn six of these suckers for festival screeners and require the best possible quality so i'd appreciate someone letting me know if i'm heading the wrong direction. btw... the dvd burn on a file this size without a menu seems pretty straightforward, but if there's a pitfall i'm not seeing please let me know that as well.
muchas gracias.

Dear Wolfman51
From my personal experience, I find it's much more efficient to export using QUICKTIME MOVIE, a dropdown menu will ask you these questions: SETTING, current settings; INCLUDE, audio and video; MARKERS (up to you)
uncheck MAKE MOVIE SELF-CONTAINED.
save it where you can find it. It will do a quick export. Open COMPRESSION, drag this file into the COMPRESSION FOLDER, check your settings (MPEG2) and let compressor compress.
Then drag this MPEG2 into your DVDSP.
You can skip using compressor, and drag the uncompressed QTIME straight to DVDSP, it will automatically compress. I found DVDSP doesn't compress it cleanly, therefore chose compressor to compress my movies before importing them into DVDSP.
I hope this helps, I look forward to reading more postings, perhaps I'm going thru too many steps.
Kchen

Undesired cropping from FCP to DVD Studio Pro?

I start with a QT file exported from FCP 6. The settings are 16:9. The problem is the resulting DVD program I create in DVD Studio Pro plays in regular DVD players with the program-image cropped about 5% at the bottom and 5% at the top. I've tried other settings in DVD Studio Pro, such as using 4:3 or 4:3 pan-and-scan but, obviously, I get warped images (smushed horizontally) or cropped images.
Any ideas where things are going wrong?
Shanked

Are you aware of safe area? If not it sounds like you're seeing the effects of overscan. If you watch the dvd on your computer monitor does it still crop the image? If so at what point are you seeing the cropping? ie does the frame look right in the simulator in dvdsp, how about if you look at the file you've exported from fcp?
You need to post the fcp capture (clip) settings, sequence settings and the method you're using to export from fcp (ie compressor, qt movie, qt conversion) as well as the encoding settings in dvd sp if you're just doing a qt export from fcp.

Finishing From FCP to DVD STUDIO..... should it be really simple????

I'm trying to find a way to to editing my DVD with surround because i'm more of a logic user
and i so all my surround editing and everything in logic
but for some strange reason i'm finding it had to take my project from FCP to DVD studio
to do all the chapters and menus and all the other things you get on most DVD
i know iDVD is the easiest way to go
but its limited abit
so can anyone give me a tip on how to import or open a FCP project in DVD stuido without exporting FCP project as DV or Movie and importing it into DVD studio
thanks in advance
stash

If you want it to be simple and don't need surround, just export a reference movie of your timeline from FCP and import that into DVDSP.
A reference movie is quick to export, as long as your timeline is rendered. It also doesn't take up much space, as it's simply a reference to all your render files.
Once you bring that into DVDSP, it will compress it and you can add your menus from templates, add chapter markers, and burn.
Those of us who do critical work prefer to use Compressor because it allows us control over every setting of the compression process and we can tailor our compression to the project at hand. But for ease of use, just import that reference movie into DVDSP and burn.
Also, set DVDSP to encode in the background, not encode on build. That way it will start compressing as soon as you import the file, so it's working while you're working on menus, etc. Otherwise it won't start compressing until you hit burn.

From FCP to DVD Studio Pro

When I export from FCP then use compressor to create the mpeg2 file for DVD and then burn a DVD in DVD Studio Pro the video is then hot. I don't know if I'm not seeing it right w/my monitors or where the problem is. Would appreciate any trouble shooting techniques or what steps need to happen to get everything correct.

I am having the same problem I think - See 'Colour/luminance shift from FCP to output DVDSP Problems' which I posted.
Has anyone an Idea? It seems to me that FCP is not showing the footage correctly. Or its doing something to the gamma which when once outside of you machine ie DVD's it looks Brighter and burnt out.
Have you tried looking at your footage in Quicktime Player. Then going to the 'Enable Final Cut Studio color compatibility' tick box in the prefs and turning that off. Does your footage look 'hot' as you describe? (I assume when you say hot you mean brighter). If it does then whatever that button does I want Compressor to do the same to footage I put through it.
Hope that makes sense to your problem, I hope you have found an answer or directions I could try...

What should I use to export from FCP to DVDSP?

I'm sorry if this question is too basic, but I've searched past discussions and read the manual, and can't seem to find the answer. I am trying to put a nearly hour-long movie I made onto a DVD, in order to have hundreds of duplicates made. I'm using DVD SP, and I had been exporting my movie from FCP to a Quicktime movie file, then importing the Quicktime file into DVD SP. Then recently I came across something online that said you should actually be exporting from FCP to Compressor, then to DVD SP. I've never used Compressor before, so I have no idea what to do, or if I even should be doing it. The video was fine when I exported to Quicktime, but I of course want to have the best video quality possible.. so if there's a way to keep the video at the highest quality possible (higher than when using Quicktime), please let me know (and if it could be explained as simple as possible, I would appreciate that).

Hi Ryan,
I'm relatively new to this too but you're on the right track. I would export to Compressor.
There are various settings i.e. mpeg2 fast encode, high quality 60min, 120min, widescreen, 4:3 etc and all dependant upon what you want your end result to be.
You'll need to choose your format - I suggest mpeg2 - 60min High Quality Encode > your destination for both the video and audio > 'submit'.
You should end up with a file that resembles *My Movie.m2v*
Then import that file into DVDSP into the assets pane and you're away.
Good luck!
-Chuck

Problem exporting from FCP using compressor

Out of the blue - I'm getting batch failures trying to export from FCP for use in a DVD. Immediately after selecting compressor for export, I get an error reading "That file already exists", and a new tab appears in the media browser with a lengthy character string. Compressor opens fine, and I select Best Quality 4:3 encoding for video and aiff48 for audio. When the batch is submitted - it promptly fails and blames FCP for generating an error.
Did all kinds of restarts and work arounds to no avail. The promising news is that this error seems to occur only when exporting from FCP through Compressor.
My work-around is to export a QT movie of the piece, quit FCP, launch Compressor, and then import the QT for batching.
Hope this helps anyone else in similar situations
Martin
G5 PPC Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCP 512 post production

Hi:
How long is your movie?
The best workflow is FCP > Compressor > DVDSP.
You can encode your timeline directly to get MPEG2 video and Dolby 2 (AC3) audio files. Then import those in DVDSP and author your DVD.
Using Compressor you control the full encoding process. You can test with small parts of your movie (those where you got problems with iDVD) and find the best encoding options fopr your footage.
Of course the DVDSP learning curve is longer than iDVD but once you learned ir you probably never go back. Like iMovie and FCP.
To give you detailed info about what encoding settings to use you must post some info about your FCP project.
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Newbie question: How to share large QT movie files exported from FCP X?

Well, I've navigated through FCP X for the first time and I now have 16 QuickTime movie files I have exported from FCP X. Each file is a song from a live band performance. The files are:
- Apple ProRes 422
- 1920 x 1080
- 24-bit
- Frame rate 29.97 fps
Now I need to share these files with the band members. They will use them for two purposes:
- Watch, as feedback on their performance. In this case, I'd like to preserve the quality as much as possible
- Put some of the movies on YouTube, where quality will be lost, of course. They may post only short clips from the songs.
These 16 .mov files total 115GB. The smallest is 6.5GB, the largest is 13.9GB.
The quality of the movies is fantastic, both video and audio. I cringe to think about degrading the quality............but I have the practical problem of how to get the files to five different band members.
I normally distribute audio files I've mixed in Pro Tools via DVD-R discs, but the files are much smaller.
What are my options for sharing the files?
Do I need to use an application like Compressor to compress the files (ugh) to get them onto multiple DVD-R's?
I would assume this is a common problem that all FCP X users deal with.

I strongly recommend you to use Compressor. It is easy to use and there a lot of presets.

Need quick solution! QT Movie export from FCP not right, client breathing down neck...

I am working on a project in FCP 6.0.6. The footage is ProRes, 1920 X 1080, and runs about 50 minutes. Some graphics but minimal. Plays back great in timeline. I export a QuickTime Movie (reference movie) but when I play it in Compressor, the video suddenly jumps ahead about five seconds at the 36:00 mark. The audio continues as normal, but now, of course, audio and video are five seconds out of synch. Made multiple attempts to export from FCP, but I keep getting the same result.
I have a feeling this may be a QuickTime compatability issue, but I can't compress for Web or DVD until I figure this out. Not finding anything in discussions at Apple or Web.
Other pertinents:
24-inch iMac, 2.4 GHZ
4 GB RAM
OS 10.7.5
Assistance appreciated.

Thanks for your comment, Michael, but I actually solved the issue last night. Shane had asked earlier about whether I had any H.264 clips, and I did not. But last night I remembered that when I first created the sequence, I had dragged in an H.264 clip before I converted them all to ProRes. So I realized that although my clips were all ProRes, the sequence itself might still be set for H.264. Checked settings, and sure enough, compression was on H.264. Changed it to ProRes, re-rendered, and I'm rolling again. Thanks, Shane, for planting the seed on that one.

Best way/settings to export from FCP to DVDSP

Hey - I have a program I need to export from FCP to DVDSP.
It is approx. 1hr 15min long.
What would be the best settings to use to maximize quality?
I also want to include chapter markers for importing into DVDSP - is it better to create these in FCP or Compressor???
This is a very important showreel and quality is a major factor...
I am using: FCP 5.1.4 DVDSP 4.1.2 Compressor 2.3
Thanks for all your help in advance!
PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi:
<< What would be the best settings to use to maximize quality?>>
You didn't mention your movie codec. Assuming you are using DV, if your FCP projects has graphic elements and heavy filters like Color Corrections, etc. you must get the best quality exporting directly from FCP through Compressor.
If your movie is basiclally DV video with no graphics, you probably will get same quality and shorter encoding times exporting as QuickTime movie, self settings (self contained is my favorite flavor!) and using this file in Compressor.
In Compressor use the DVD: Best Quality 90 min preset as starting point taking the MPEG2 and the Dolby 2 (AC3) presets. You most probably will get the best audio level changing the followings parameters in the standard AC3 preset:
- Dialog Normalization: -31
- Compression preset: None
Using uncompressed (AIFF/PCM) audio in DVD-Rs is a major cause of playback problems and/or building errors because the high bitrate, and takes a lot of your disc space.
If you encode inside DVDSP (using the Quicktime movie file directly in DVDSP) you'll get AIFF audio. DVDSP doesn't encode your audio to AC3.
<<This is a very important showreel and quality is a major factor...>>
To save encoding testing times, take a short part/s of your movie and make some encoding test. Select some parts of your footage with fast movements in the image and/or heavy transitions to check the final result.
<<I also want to include chapter markers for importing into DVDSP - is it better to create these in FCP or Compressor??? >>
Allways create your chapter markers in FCP or Compressor. That way you can set the exact frame where to locate it and DVDSP will preserve that position. If you add a Chapter Marker in DVDSP it will be moved to the nearest GOP boundary, not in the exact frame you decided. Check this tutorial about Chapters and Compression Markers .
Don't forget to post your FCP movie codec/settings.
<<StirFry..>>
I think that a bitrate of 7.9 Mbps with uncompressed audio (DVDSP doesn't encode audio to Dolby 2) is too high and can cause some encoding/playback errors in some DVD players. Someone else can post his mind about this ! ;D
Hope that helps !
Alberto

Everytime I export from FCP using comressor I am lose my audio, any ideas as to why this is happening. Or do I have somthing turned off and I am just missing it? Dual 2.7 Ghz PowerPC G5 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Everytime I export from FCP using comressor I am lose my audio, any ideas as to why this is happening. Or do I have somthing turned off and I am just missing it? Dual 2.7 Ghz PowerPC G5 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Exporting via Compressor may be recommended but it is slow and doesn't fully support all available filters, etc.
Try exporting the timeline as a QT Movie (the "normal" export) using Current Settings and them submit the resultant clip to Compression. Works for me...

5.1 from FCP to DVD

I have mixed the audio in Vegas, then exported the 5 wav files (L,C,R,LS,RS,LFE). Those files are then added to the timeline in FCP and the video editor cuts the video and audio.
After that is done, how do you send all the tracks to compressor to create a 5.1 AC3 file?
thanks,
~Jay

In FCP there is a setting for the sequence to monitor 5.1 if you applied the channel grouping properly then an export from FCP should result in a channel grouped audio track with the quicktime file (reference file) when you put it into Compressor there are preset setting there for 5.1
TonyTony

PAL files exported from FCP don't display

This is a strange one... SD PAL uncompressed files exported from FCP 6.03 won't display, you just see black. HD files are fine, as are SD PAL files exported a while ago - prior to a recent pro apps or QT update possibly? As a workaround, if they exported via compressor instead of by 'export quicktime' in FCP, they work fine. Shake is 4.0 since 4.1 doesn't want to display via a decklink.
Any ideas? This seems to be a new one.

Does the computer your using to view this video have Final Cut Pro installed?

Exporting from FCP to DVD

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