Burning my finished film to DVD studio pro

[dan crouch]

I have finished my film, exported to an mpeg 4 via MPEG Streamclip to make it smaller.
But I can’t burn the DVD. It will only import 1 layer of audio, no video layer,

The file is 3.1 gigs, codec= H.264, AAC Dimensions 2048 x 1152, bit rate 6,008, It’s 1hour and 30 mins.
Can anyone help with this please?

Thankyou in advance.
Dan.

[Kylee Peña]

DVD files are not mp4. You need to go back to the original file and drop it into Compressor and use a DVD preset (best quality 90 minutes) to make an m2v and ac3. Those will work in DVDSP.

[David Roth Weiss]

Files are encoded to MPEG 2, not MP4, for DVD creation. There are innumerable posts detailing the method using Compressor and DVDSP here on this forum if you do a search using the search feature.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[dan crouch]

Great, thanks guys, v helpful. i shall re export it.
Do I have to go back to original or can I re export the mpeg 4 to a DVD codec?
The original is so big, 160 gigs and takes hours to export.

Thankyou.
Dan.

[Kylee Peña]

DON’T use your mp4 to make the DVD!

Go to FCP, export a self-contained Quicktime (now you have your archival file), put that in Compressor. You can also export a Quicktime reference file (by un-checking the self-contained box) which would probably be quicker and smaller, but this is basically just a list of instructions that point to your footage so it’s easy to break the links, and once you move your files around to archive the project, it becomes worthless. But I do occasionally use them for quick DVDs.

I would really follow David’s advice above and look up DVD creation on the Cow and understand it better. You could end up wasting a lot of time otherwise.

[Craig Alan]

I’d start over. Turn off virus scans and other background stuff and auto sleep and let it cook overnight.

here’s one link that talks you through hdv to dvd. very detailed. not sure what you started with. But it covers a lot of steps even for other types. and as mentioned do a search.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hdv_to_sd_dvd.html

OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[David Roth Weiss]

Kylee’s advice is 100% on the money…

Good job Kylee, it’s easy to see you’ve been paying attention. You’re hired… 🙂

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[dan crouch]

Here’s the thing. I’m in London, the original film is 2 hours away at home. I can do it at the weekend when i get back, but is it possible to convert what I have now, ie my 3.1 gig mp4, into an mpeg 2 or something my dvd pro will recognize?

Sorry to persist, awesome advise for when I get back to FCP at home.
I’ve got fcp on my laptop here if that would help?

Thanks.
Dan

[Kylee Peña]

I’ve been doing an awful lot of DVD authoring lately. Too much.

Sweet, when do I start? 😛

[Kylee Peña]

I’ve honestly never tried mp4 to mpg2 and knowing the nature of mp4 files, seems like a very bad idea. If attempting to have it done now is more important than quality and sanity, go for it. Otherwise I’d wait until the weekend.