Using Compressor for broadcast quality?

Question

I apologize for posting this question here, but I did a search and found in one thread that nobody goes to the Compressor forum and they all post here.
Are there any online tutorials on what the best steps are to preparing a broadcast safe MPEG2 file? There are so many options , and I honestly have not used this part of FCP much. We've got a computer playback system now and it's something I am going to utilize more often now.
Or if anybody reading this has a suggestion to steps I could take I'd appreciate it greatly.
Thanks for any help

Answer 1

From what I can gather, it won't be as easy as creating a file with Compressor. For starters, you will probably need to "mux" (that is, mix the video and audio together) so this automatic system will play the program when you provide it to the server. This will need to be done in a program like DVD Studio Pro. Below are some VERY BASIC step-by-step instructions. If they don't make sense, pull out your manuals and start reading. I've left out explanations and alternatives as time and space doesn't allow for everything. That's why they have manuals. But here goes otherwise:
Export the final FCP timeline out as a Quicktime file. You can do this as a self contained movie but it's faster if you don't. Place the resulting file where you can readily find it. (Note: you can also export directly from FCP to Compressor. This is a long way to do it, as FCP has to first encode it out to Compressor.)
Open Compressor and drag your new QT file into the Batch window. Look over to your right in the same Batch window under Settings and using the pull-down menus, choose something like "MPEG-2 60 min High Quality Encode". Choose "All" in this situation because you'll want to go ahead and encode your audio too. You should see two entries: one for audio and one for video. Note the Destination tab (where the file will end up). In this regard, I suggest you use the pulldown menu and choose Source. This will place the resulting file(s) in the same location as the QT file. Click Submit to begin encoding and sit back, have some iced tea and wait a while.
When it's done, open up DVD Studio Pro. (If you don't have Studio Pro, then you're really stuck because -- again-- you have to provide it as a format that the player, be it server-based system or disc based, can read). But let's assume you have DVD Studio Pro and when it opens, import up the two files into your Assets (bottom left corner). When they import, drag the video (the one with the .m2v suffix) over into the Tracks timeline. Since they both have the same name, but different suffix, the audio file should follow over and sync up with the video. You can test it by playing the Timeline. Now go to the top left hand corner of DVD SP and click on the disc icon within the By Type window. Over on the right of the interface, in the Disc window, you'll see the name of your disc (probably Untitled) and under it, a pulldown menu again. Holding it down, choose Track 1. Save your project under a name, like the name of your video. Click on the little hammer, or Build, icon near the top middle of the DVD SP interface. You'll be asked where to place the results. Create a new folder and name it-- and decide where it will be placed. Click Build and sit back. This too takes a while. When done, you can upload the resulting folder (with the two folders that will be inside labled VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS) to your server. How your "juke box" player system will locate your file is beyond me but I'm sure there is a way to make it locate the folder. When it does, there are instructions written in the DVD standard so the player can play the program.
Once again: this a very basic explanation!! But you didn't really ask for details. If you get stuck, try some of the tutorials in FCP/Compressor and DVD Studio Pro. Good luck!
Oh yeah, as the others have written, "broadcast quality" is a very loosely based term these days. When providing programs to media outlets as "DVD quality", it usually means as good as a quality you can get with the amount of space on a DVD. This all depend on your bit rate and the length of your video. There are bitrate calculators out there that can certainly help!
http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm
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