Export HD from FCP X to get the best results on DVD

[Craig Seeman]

[Rowan Banks] “full HD (1080i HD, 25i) and is showing as Apple Pro Res 422 on the timeline.”

I’m not sure what you mean by this. The timeline supports ProRes 422 regardless of source.

[Rowan Banks] “DVD…” both use MPEG-2 compression which creates a fair amount of nasty artefacts in the finished film.”

DVD video is MPEG2. It doesn’t inherently cause artifacts. That may depend on source and settings and how good Compressor is at encoding MPEG2 (there are better encoders).

[Rowan Banks] ” Not to mention I have little to no control over the DVD menu and Chapter markers.”

That’s true for sure. DVDStudio Pro would be the way to go for authoring DVDs.

You’d still have more control over encoding the MPEG2 Elementary Stream in Compressor. DVDSP can encode but it’s simply using the same engine with fewer user controls.

[Rowan Banks] “It just seems there is so much info about encoding HD/SD, DVDs, etc out there I feel a bit overwhelmed.”

The single biggest issue is doing a good downconvert. There are as many formulas as their are compressionists so it seems. There’s a couple of good articles about this by Alister Chapman.

https://www.xdcam-user.com/2011/03/getting-good-sd-from-an-hd-camera/

https://www.xdcam-user.com/2009/11/getting-sd-from-hd-and-the-problems-of-oversampling/

[Rowan Banks]

OK, cheers for getting back to me Craig.

I have managed to achieve a high quality result overnight, here’s what I did:

FCPX – Share>Send to Compressor – Setting Apple>ProRes 422. Imported the Chapter List .txt file and submitted. It created a 114GB .mov file which I thought would be a problem, but I simply imported that into iDVD and the chapters came through with it.

Changed the iDVD settings to Dual Layer and encoding Best and off it went.

The results were the best I’ve seen in the week or so I’ve been fiddling. And although the iDVD menus aren’t as nice as DVDSP, at least I have a suitable product.

I think previously I was using compressor/FCPX to get a MPEG-2 file which iDVD/Toast/DVDSP would then compress to MPEG-2 all over again.

Pro Res is obviously the best way to get the film into a suitable file for these programs to recognise without losing any quality.

Seems quite obvious now, but I really struggled to find this process anywhere.

Anyway thanks for your help and I hope others find this useful.

iMac 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 27″, 16GB DDR3, 10.7.1, FCPX

[Craig Seeman]

[Rowan Banks] “I think previously I was using compressor/FCPX to get a MPEG-2 file which iDVD/Toast/DVDSP would then compress to MPEG-2 all over again.”

Absolutely a workflow to avoid in iDVD. You want a heavily compressed file to be compressed again. It is possible to hand a well compressed file to Toast or DVDSP without it begin re-compressed.

[Ai Zad]

Thanks Rowan for sharing his workflow… i was facing the same thing before, not knowing what settings to export out from fcpx..

What i did before was just exporting current settngs from FCPX then putting that .mov file into toast and i get poor noticeable final product in DVD..
i was searching everywhere in the net for a proper workflow and i finally read your post..yes, we cannot get the same quality since its in dvd format but its much much better and suitable end product.

The only problem was the exported ProRes 422 took up a lot of space in my hard drive.. lol

If there are others out there who are willing to share their workflows in creating a DVD final end product with less trouble.. pls share.. 🙂

Anyway Rowan thanks again..im settling with this workflow tho its filling my harddrives and ittakes much longer time to encode in idvd( mine is 3hrs plus for full single layer burn) mind sharing how long it took yours??

thanks again..

[Rowan Banks]

Hey Ai Zad

No problem, glad to share.

It does indeed take up a lot of hard-drive space, and takes a long time for iDVD to produce the final disc, but at the end of the day that’s just a sacrifice I’m willing to take t ensure my finished film is as good as I can get it.

I’m investing in more external hard-drives now 😉

iMac 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 27″, 16GB DDR3, 10.7.2, FCPX

[Ai Zad]

hey rowan,

Good day to you ,
just checking… did you create your markers in compressor or fcpx? if you did it in fcpx .. you mention importing markers text list/files.
if you dont mind can you share with me how you do that??

thanks again.

[Rowan Banks]

Hi again

Nah, infuriatingly FCPX doesn’t support chapter markers….at least, not yet, anyone know if they have been added in 10.0.3?

Assuming Apple still haven’t sorted this, then the process I outlined in compressor is probably the best….

With them adding in MultiCam and various other functions into FCPX recently, I’m confident that they will get round to this and perhaps looking at the DVD authoring side of things over the next few months (at least I HOPE so!!)

Glad to help.

iMac 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 27″, 16GB DDR3, 10.7.2, FCPX