Best quality DVD export from Final Cut Pro

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dan Stubbs] “What is the best way to get the highest quality DVD results when exporting from FCP.”

From FCP you simply Export > Quicktime Movie > Current Settings. UN-check “Make Self Contained Movie.”

You then to into Compressor and choose High Quality 90 minute DVD and simply raise the quality sliders. There is a trade off on maximum quality and DVD player compatibility. If you raise the data rate up too high, some DVD players will stutter on playback. I generally just raise it up a few notches for anything under 60 minutes.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

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[Chris Poisson]

Dan,

Getting the best quality and maximizing space are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Quality on a DVD depends greatly on data rates, the higher the better, at the expense of space, and unfortunately, playability across different machines and computers.

As a rule though, start with the best quality material going in, uncompressed is better than DV, and let Compressor encode a bit less than the default rates, say an average of around 5 and high of 7. The lower these numbers the more stuff you can fit on the disc. Test this of course to check footage with lots of motion and of your transitions. You can easily do a few test burns.

Some say the best encodes with Compressor come from going there direct from the FCP timeline, as it reportedly skips a step of compression, but this method is SLOW and ties up your editor for the whole time.

Another thing you may want to try is Episode Pro, of late it has been my encoder of choice for DVDs, just super clean all around. I use the 5Mbit setting.

Have a wonderful day.

[Michael Sacci]

If you want the very best encodes go from your timeline and Export to Compressor. Use CBR 7Mbps instead of any VBR preset. Even though you don’t need the room compress the audio to ac3, it will playback with less issues on a wider number of players.

When you can get the bitrate up past 6Mbps using VBR is counter productive. Using CBR also shortens the encoding time.

This does tie up FCP while encoding but you asked for the best method.

BTW, if you have any effects UNRENDER them before sending the timeline to compressor.

As stated the better the original footage/codec the better the encode but this will always give you the best with what you have.

[John Pale]

[msacci] “BTW, if you have any effects UNRENDER them before sending the timeline to compresso”

I don’t think that is necessary. If you use “Export to Compressor”, note the entire timeline “redlines”. None of your FCP renders are used…all effects are rendered directly to MPEG-2.
This is why the encoding time is many times longer using this method (especially on older computers).

[Soreyrith Um]

I’m curious, why is VBR counter productive over 6Mbps?

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[Dan Stubbs]

Thanks for all your advice everyone, ill try a few things and see what gets the best results.

Cheers.

Dan.

[John Pale]

[sumfun] “I’m curious, why is VBR counter productive over 6Mbps?”

The point of Variable Bit Rate is to allow lower bit rates when the image is not complex. This is useful on long projects that need to fit on a 4.7GB DVD. If your video is short enough that you can do the whole project at a bit rate over 6, then its kind of pointless, and may even result in degrading some images, as your bit rate will go down in some spots.

VBR also works best when there is a wide spread between the min and max setting. If you are setting your VBR with a range of 6-7mbs, its kind of pointless. Setting the max to 8 is risky, because you will often have spikes that will choke DVD players and cause stuttering.

Maybe msacci can explain it better. He’s the man on DVD matters.

[Michael Sacci]

Just to add another way of looking at it, the benefit is also the shortcoming. Whenever it goes above the average it has to go below the average in another place, plain enough, but when it does this is not always the best times. one example is blacks and fade up from blacks always seem to suffer with VBR, it see this as simple video when it is in fact it is one of the toughest to get a good encode.

But if you have a high average, you really don’t benefit from VBR because you have the space to “over” encode the simplest parts of the video so a constant 6-7Mbps will always bet a 5mid – 7high VBR. It is also the fastest encode so using it above 6Mbps is a win-win situation.

If you read through the threads on DVDSP forum I will bet big time on anyone complaining about quality if using VBR.

[Peter Dewit]

VBR also takes a heck of a lot more time. I’ve never had bad luck using Compressor’s basic setups though the High quality 2 pass VBR settings are downright painfully slow. It seems like in the new FCS it’s gotten even slower too.

[Chris Borjis]

[msacci] “When you can get the bitrate up past 6Mbps using VBR is counter productive.”

This is not true.

If you author discs that get really close to a full capacity VBR is the difference between getting it done and not having enough space.