Out put quality after DVD authoring is less than .mov file that fcp source

Question

Anyone know why I would be getting a notable drop in quality after i make a dvd?
going from HF11 Cannon shot at 17 mbps into FCP. then out to compressor and using the high quality dvd setting.
then when i play my dvd i notice for example jaggies on some objects yet if i look at the .mov file that was ignested into FCP that has almost no jaggies. is there some setting i'm missing?
everything was set at 16:9 1080x720.
I'm up to my pits in information overload.
Someone with some idea or experience please help me out. thank you so much.

Answer 1

Here are some of your options as you look toward HD encoding.
Using Toast, Encore, or FCS 3 you can move toward blu-ray authoring and encoding. In Toast and FCS 3 you can make AVCHD disks which are blu-ray disks put onto single or dual-layer DVDs which is a huge cost savings. Your encoding is limited to 17 Mbps, but in h.264 that will still allow for decent quality. Encore will let you design a complete disk but it doesn't make AVCHD disks - you'll need to jump through some hoops in order to take an Encore project (but it can be done). Here's a workflow for that. As a side note this workflow is for using Final Cut Express - in FCS you have the added benefit of being able to work with 23.98 fps timelines.
Your other option it to move toward digital outputs. You can use something like an AppleTV to playback HD content (it'll be reduced to either 960x540 @ 30 fps or 1280x720 @ 24 fps. Or you can use one of the various media streams on that market now (SlingCatch, Western Digital WDTV, etc.) Personally I'm a big fan of the WDTV from Western Digital. It's affordable (around $100) and plays back all kinds of formats in HD up to 1080p. Plus it reads from flash drives or hard drives via USB. You can encode MP4 files for these types of devices in QuickTime, export from FCP, MPEG Streamclip, Compressor, etc.