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Exporting 24p Source Material to DVD
Hey all!
I recently aquired a DVX100a and shot a short mockunmentary on it. The editing process was pretty smooth and it’s finally ready to have some screenings by the cast/crew and close friends to get some feedback.
Anyways I’m having difficulty getting it out to a DVD. As you can probably guess by the camera, I shot it in 24p. I’ve exported it out of Final Cut since and it looks great on computers and in computer DVD players.
The problem comes when I attempt to burn it to DVD using Toast. I first just exported the video using the option “As Quicktime Movie…” and just used no compression or anything. On a DVD player going into a standard defination television the picture looked horrid as soon as there was even a modicum of movement. I figured this might be the Toast DVD encoder. So I used Compressor to export as MPEG-1 for DVD. For some odd reason Toast would switch over to PAL whenever I tried to make a DVD with those video and audio files.
Naturally I’ve got the built in burning software for OSX, but I had been using Toast up to this point successufully, of course I wasn’t using 24p source material. Naturally I also have iDVD, but I haven’t tried that yet as I’m sick of spending a good hour to export from Final Cut Pro and then endcoding and/or burning, so I figured I turn to you fine folks who are actually knowelegdable in such things, as opposed to myself who is learning as I go 🙂
Here’s my specs in case those will help:
Apple Powerbook G4 1.33 GHz
512 MB of RAM (I know I need more 🙂 )
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-825If you need any other information please ask and I’ll give as best I can! Thanks so much in advance!
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4 Replies
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Dexter,
DVD video as we know it uses MPEG-2 not MPEG-1. So, you might try using Compressor to output to MPEG-2 so Toast won’t have to recompress the video again.
DRW
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Ah! Thanks much! I’ll give that a try ASAP!
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Be careful using Compressor to output Mpeg2, there have been isssue with 2 Pass VBR, it looks like crap.
What works for me is to install the Mpeg2 Codec that come with DVD Studio 2 or some other application. Once that Codec is installed, you can export from FCP and choose that Mpeg2 Codec, configure the setting to 5.5 Mbit Target Rate and 7.5 Mbit Max Rate and make sure it is set to 2-Pass VBR.
that works well, looks good and you don’t have to figure out Compressor.
Kalagan
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I may just give that a try, some of the shots that had digital effects on them, such as croping, freeze frames, and typewriter text still had some issues.
Overal the MPEG-2 compression in compressor worked well for me, but I think I’ll have to do a different cut between a copy for a DVD and a copy for the web, since the TV safe area does most of the cropping I need for me. There were a couple spots where the Cinematographer played to lose with the head room and I cut it down a bit. On the televisions I view it on, it seemed to cut off the tops of their heads 🙂
Thanks for the advice again guys, CreativeCow rocks!
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