Which is the right compressor?

Question

I've been producing television for quite some time -- one of the problems I run into on a fairly regular basis is which setting to use when I'm ready to deliver. Since tape seems to have gone away, most of my clients request delivery on a DVD. I'm looking for the definitive answer to which setting is the right one? My products air on local stations via our cable provider. I've used a number of different settings -- sometimes I hear nothing (indicating satisfaction), others end up telling me that they can't open the files or run the DVD (everything seems to work fine for me).
Today I got a call from a client that said the files I gave them were "too small" to run on TV. I don't know what that means and don't really care -- I just want them to be satisfied. The settings (which are a major mystery to me) that I have used recently and have worked are:
MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 1-pass.m2v -- now this is apparently too small
I've tried a number of different settings and always get different results. They have asked for .mov files -- I've tried that, but DVD Studio says that is an incompatible format. If I just drag the files to a blank DVD, they say they can't open the files. I'm confused and looking for a standard I can go to every time. Please help?

Answer 1

If the client wants a copy, give it to them on a tape. For one, tape is certainly not dead. DV tape is going the way of the dodo, but other tape formats will be around as long as people still need tape for delivery.
If crazy Mike wants a DVD he can watch, get a cheap DVD recorder and go from a deck, or the timeline, directly to a DVD-R. Don't use DVD+R. For the broadcast station, ask them for a spec sheet. Every station has one, and they aren't all the same. It depends on how they deliver the content to the channel. Some need an mpeg2 program stream, some need a transport stream, a few might need uncompressed, most can work with a DVD, but you have to author it correctly.
If you don't know how to author a DVD, then you probably shouldn't deliver that way. You'll only spend more of your time learning how to do it. Unless you can bill them for learning, which, in my opinion, isn't ethical.
Most likely, you could deliver an mpeg2 program stream with mpeg 1 layer 2 audio. Depending on their sever, they can probably work with a file anywhere from 6 to 15 mb/s. Make sure you give them a full size file, meaning if it's 720x480, don't give them 320x240. You have to check every setting in the compressor preset. But you have to check with the station. They may have an old server, and I know ours won't play a 15mb/s file.