bread and butter export quicktime codec q

[Michael Peele]

Are you going to author the DVD on the machine it was edited on? If yes, just export a reference file (that is a non-self contained movie). Export audio and video (of course) and leave the settings as “Current”. Reference files are very small but require the original/render files to be accessible for playback.

If you will be authoring this DVD on another machine, export a self-contained movie at current settings. If you are working in DV a 10min file will be approximately 2GB (self-contained). 10min of uncompressed 10bit media would result in an 18GB file.

In either case, you do not want to use File->Export->QT Conversion as this will result in a recompression.

Mike Peele

[Benjamin Rosen]

Thanks Mike-
2 followups:
What is preferable, referencing the media, or self-containing the media? And just to be clear, in either case we’re talking about exporting a “final cut pro movie”, right? And if that’s the case, there is still the question: what quicktime codec is optimal? DV/DVCPRO NTSC, VIDEO, MPEG2, etc?

[Michael Peele]

I just realized that you said you are going to DVD SP, not iDVD. DVD SP needs MPEG2 files, so you will need to export using compressor. This will open the compressor application, in which you should use the DVD compression presets to encode your video.

If the encoding and authoring will be done on a seperate machine, the you will want to create a self-contained QT Export of your timeline.

Go to File->Export->QuickTime Movie.

Settings: Current Settings (this sets the codec to whatever your timeline is set to)
Include: Audio and Video,
Deselect Recompress All Frames
Markers: None (These can be useful, but that’s another topic)

The only choice you have to make is whether or not to create a self-contained movie. A self-contained movie is just that. It is a fully independent piece of media that can be given to anyone on any computer. It is roughly the equivalent of dumping to tape and recapturing a single file. As such, it can be quite a large file, especially if you are editing uncompressed or HD.

A reference file is not self contained. It requires access to your original captured media and your render files. If you took a reference file and emailed it or burned it to a CD, it would be useless. Essentially it is a list of pointers to other media. As it doesn’t really contain any media, it is typically very small.

Essentially:
If you are doing the DVD authoring on the same machine you are editing on, you will need to go to File->Export->Using Compressor. In compressor choose the DVD encoding presets – for a 10min movie, you should choose the highest quality preset. I believe in compressor that there are a few different presets – choose the one for the shortest length DVD (60min?). That preset will have the highest data rate.
If the DVD authoring is to be done on another machine, I would recommend creating a self-contained movie. If you are working in DV, a 10 minute program will be about 2GB and could be burned (as data) on to a DVD to give to someone else. Alternatively, you could put it on a FW drive or transfer over a network. If you are working uncompressed, you will need to put it to FW disk or transfer over a network.