Timeline settings and transferring to DVD Studio Pro

I'm currently trying to get my demo reel finished, and I'm going through the long and tedious process of checking almost every setting in the Timeline settings to see which gives me the best quality.
Part of the problem may be that this is coming off of a DV tape. But I'm hoping to try out all my options before I settle on lower quality.
Does anyone have any suggestions on settings I can use (even if it's somewhere other than the Timeline settings) to get the best quality. I'm moving it in to DVD Studio Pro to finish out the reel, if that is crucial info. Thanks.
One other quick thing: I'm also trying to upload this to a video service. Any body got any suggestions on Quicktime settings I should use?
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Work in DV all the way, that will give you the best quality unless you want to add graphics. If you have complex graphics to add then make the timeline 10bit.
For DVDSP render out a self contained movie then either use compressor or DVDSP to encode the file. There are many settings in DVDSP, take a look at which ones are best based on content duration.
Peter
MacPro 3G 6G RAM FCP6 M3 FxF1.06 Mac OS X (10.4.9) XSR Decklink & loads of cool new plugins, Gaggia TD auto

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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.
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I just finished making another DVD and I now recall the exact command. In DVDSP, right-click the movie file after it is placed in a track and select "Add embedded markers". If your movie file has chapter markers in it, they will appear.
Sometimes when I add a movie to a track in DVD Studio Pro, the embedded markers automatically appear and sometimes I have to manually add them with the above command.
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DVD studio Pro discs still will not play

Hi Folks,
no matter what settings I change in DVD studio pro they will not play on computers or any DVD player I try.
If I print a copy off with a consumer platform like toast they play it fine....
what are the settings I need toadjust to ensure they are compatible on ALL dvd players, computers....blue ray players??
Sorry for the repost, I thought my question was solved yesterday.

Hi
My thoughts about this (for what it might be worth)
• Brand of DVD matters - Memorex, NoName etc cheap brands use to work as Data-DVDs BUT NOT FOR VIDEO !
I only use Verbatim (but would love to try Tayio Yuden)
• Type of DVD used.
DVD-R plays on even older DVD-Players - DVD+R not so and especially avoid DVD+/-RW as they use to NOT WORK
• BURN SPEED - Faster ====> More Burn Errors !
I set it down to x2 or x4 at MAX - this use to be the problem when DVD doesn't play on PC ore even the Mac who burned it.
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SO BD-Player must be able to play it
- Cheap Samsungs DO NOT
- PlayStation3 CAN PLAY them !
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DVD Studio Pro Newbie Needs Help!

I have a presentation deadline approaching and I need help desperately. I created my presentation using Keynote 3 (800*600 slides) and exported it to a Quicktime movie using H.264 compression at 29.97 fps (high quality settings). I then proceeded to use iDVD 6 and imported the Quicktime movie and created a simple menu using the templates provided.
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Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have any reading material pertaining to this matter please provide link.
~Eddie~
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

You can use a mov file that contains both audio and video. DVD Studio Pro will compress the mov itself. I am not overly familiar with the codec H.264 but either way its a codec that compresses the video, and if I am right that codec is used for compressing video to web based file sizes, which means heavy compression. When I create DVD material I use M2V format which is what DVD SP wants anyways so it cuts time and drive space in half. If you export an mov and import it into DVD SP, DVD SP compresses the file again which is M2V. Now you have two files, with twice the compression time. When creating M2V the only thing that you need o be aware of is the bit rate, which needs to be adjusted pending the duration of the video. Use 29.97 if you are NTSC and full frame rate, which you should be.
If you can not create an M2V file with associated aiff audio file, than export your QT file as uncompressed or as a QT Movie. The file itself will be huge but DVD SP will compress it properly.
I hope this helps

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Hello,
I have 40GB of MOV files and they all have this specs:
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Is there any plugins or that sort of things that can HAVE the option of lower than 2000kbps bit rate constant on DVSP4?
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iMac 20" - Intel Core Duo 2GHz, 512MB RAM, 128MB ATi Radeon X1600, 1TB of HDs Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hello,
As always, thank you for helping me out. The thing is, I already used compressor. For instance, I encoded a 14MB MOV file in compressor to MPEG-2 (M2V) and Dolby (AC3) and the file was about 8MB (M2V Video File + AC3 Audio File = about 8MB), in a bit rate of 2mbps, and the wuality was terrible! I oculd see the pixels everywhere, it had a terrible quality. So, when I imported the MOV file (14MB) to DVSP4 without using compressor, the size it took on the DVD Project was 8.8MB and the quality was the same as my MOV file, perfect quality, great, I loved it. And look at this, my DVSP4 preferences was set for 2000kbps bit rate encoding, and with a great quality. That is why I wanted sooo much to find a way to encode my videos to DVSP4 in a lower bit rate, so I could put all of my 40GB of Home videos in about 2-4 DVDs... but now I will have to put it all in about 6-7...
Any advices? I dont want and I cant use Compressor because the quality DVD`is realllly poor. Ive searched everywhere for a encoder that can actually encode my videos to a MPEG-2 format (that means the format DVSP4 uses for DVD Video Encoding) but I simply cannot find one!! Ive tried to PCs and Macs... none of them has worked.
Please help, thank you...
G

Is it necessary to use Compressor for DVD Studio Pro*

I am making a FCP X movie and when it's finished I want to put it on a DVD using DVD Studio Pro. I have done this before but now I'm wondering if I should first export it to Compressor 4 and then to DVD Studio Pro. I understand that if I was puting it on YouTube or an iPod device I would need to Compress it however why would I need to go to Compresss 4 first if ultimately going to DVD Studio Pro? Would I get a better Codec quality then what I get from exporting in FCP X using their default Compression format i.e. Quicktime? Should I use an Apple ProRes Compression from Compressor 4? I guess I really don't understand the encoding quality options very well however I do want the best quality on my finished DVD. The DVD or Sequence is somewhere around 20 - 25 minutes if that makes any difference in your response.

The following applies equally to both C4 and C3.5 (which you have, if you have DVDSP). There is really very little that C4 can do compared to C3.5.
Bring your movie into Compressor as the source file. Drag the MPEG2 and Dolby Digitlal presets into the Batch window. Set the destination where you want your output file to be saved to.
If you are using HD material, open the Inspector>>Frame Controls and activate Frame Controls. Set Resize filter to Best. (If your source file is SD skip Frame Controls.) In the Encoding section, click on Quality and in mode change to CBR. Set your bit rate to 7.0.
Test a short representative section of your movie by marking a range in the Preview window. Submit.
Take your test file and drag it into the DVDSP asset pane. Do your build. Open it in DVD Player and see what you think. If you like the results, proceed with your project. If you're not satisfied, tweak your settings and test again.
Good luck.
Russ

Is Compressor 4 necessary when sending from FCP X to DVD Studio Pro

I am making a FCP X movie and when it's finished I want to put it on a DVD using DVD Studio Pro. I have done this before but now I'm wondering if I should first export it to Compressor 4 and then to DVD Studio Pro. I understand that if I was puting it on YouTube or an iPod device I would need to Compress it however why would I need to go to Compresss 4 first if ultimately going to DVD Studio Pro? Would I get a better Codec quality then what I get from exporting in FCP X using their default Compression format i.e. Quicktime? Should I use an Apple ProRes Compression from Compressor 4? I guess I really don't understand the encoding quality options very well however I do want the best quality on my finished DVD. The DVD or Sequence is somewhere around 20 - 25 minutes if that makes any difference in your response.

People will tell you that encoding in Compressor will give the best quality, but that assumes you are using a suitable preset and for your length of video the ready made ones are unsuitable and will waste time as they are all 2-pass with variable bit rates (VBR).
For DVDs under 70 minutes long the best quality and fastest encoding times are achieved using a constant bit rate (CBR) of around 7.5mbps.
For your short DVDs you should achieve the highest quality and fastest processing by simply exporting the project from the timeline as it is, drop it into DVDSP and set DVDSP to encode and burn it at the specs I gave above.
Returning to my opening comment, you will frequently find that the theoretically best solution to a problem results in no discernible improvement but often entails a lot more work and time-expenditure.
P.S. You might get marginally better quality by raising the bit rate to 8mbps but you run a slight risk that some old or cheap players may not be able to keep up, resulting in dropped frames.
Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Should I use Compressor 4 before sending over to DVD Studio Pro

I am making a FCP X movie and when it's finished I want to put it on a DVD using DVD Studio Pro. I have done this before but now I'm wondering if I should first export it to Compressor 4 and then to DVD Studio Pro. I understand that if I was puting it on YouTube or an iPod device I would need to Compress it however why would I need to go to Compresss 4 first if ultimately going to DVD Studio Pro? Would I get a better Codec quality then what I get from exporting in FCP X using their default Compression format i.e. Quicktime? Should I use an Apple ProRes Compression from Compressor 4? I guess I really don't understand the encoding quality options very well however I do want the best quality on my finished DVD. The DVD or Sequence is somewhere around 20 - 25 minutes if that makes any difference in your response.

This is (at least) a triple post. It's best not to ask the same questions multiple times in multiple forums.
Russ H

Using a .WMV file in DVD Studio Pro

Hello All,
I'm so dangerously close to having this whole thing down, that the challenges are becoming excrutiatingly painful.
I've completed my edit.
I've exported my FCP edit to Quicktime.
I've downloaded Flip4Mac
I've exported a version of the FCP to a WMV file format.
Now I want to import both assets (QT and WMV) to DVD Studio Pro. I'm trying to make it so there are two seperate versions on the DVD.
As I attempt to link a button to the WMV file, I get the rainbow wheel turning, and it never stops.
So, I guess there are a few questions:
1. How can I force the rainbow wheel to quit. Until now, I've just shutoff the computer (not a good idea).
2. Is it possible to combine the QT and WMV files on the same DVD?
3. Am I totally confused?
Thanks.
DG

Hi
She can't play it on her PC, nor can I at home.
Ussually it's a DVD player software matter. Windows Media Player is not intended for DVD playing. Did you use it when it failed? Try with the free and cross plataform VLC Player.
Some threads in DVDSP forum about PC compatibility (USe the search feature and you'll find a lot of them):
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6020916
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6095226
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6374894
EDIT: SOMETHING ELSE
* DVD Authoring/burning tips thread *
Alberto
Message was edited by: Silal

AVI Files in DVD Studio Pro come out with no sound

I tried putting some AVI files through compressor and then into DVD Studio Pro only...no sound. I've been told I should convert the files but I was wondering if there was any other way I could go about making DVDs out of these AVIs that would play on any player. Why is there no sound? How I make sure there is sound? Totally lost in this instance and any help would be appreciated. Thank you all.

My guess is that you may have the sound files, but not spotted them...
When you encode your video with Compressor it splits out the sound form the video, making 'elementary' streams for DVDSP. This is perfectly normal. In compressor, if you apply a standard preset for encoding you get to choose what sort of audio you want. If you didn't set up your audio encode then you may only have the video after all.
If so, go back to compressor and re-encode and make sure you get the audio out - in AC3 format. Bring that into DVDSP and all will be well.

DVD STUDIO PRO JUST QUITS OR FREEZES

I have 3 firewire drives attached and when in DVD studio Pro 2.0, sometimes the programme freezes or simply quits when I am building a DVD
This problem has previously never occurred when on my PowerMac G4 when I had less memory installed.
Should I upgrade to a different version of DVDSP? Or is this simply a matter of having too many external drives attached?

If you qualify, you must upgrade to the Universal Binary version of DVDSP.
http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/
Otherwise, it's a full price upgrade

Timeline settings and transferring to DVD Studio Pro

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