HDV shortcut for compressor?

[David Roth weiss]

David Roth Weiss’ Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:

The absolute simplest way to make a DVD using FCP and DVDSP is as follows:

1. Export a QT movie, either a reference file or self contained using current settings.

2. Open DVDSP, select the “graphical” tab and you will see two little monitors, one blue, one green.

3. Select the left blue one and hit delete.

4. Now, select the green one, right click on it amd select the top option “first play”.

5. Now drag your QT from the browser and drop it on top of the green monitor.

6. Now, for a DVD from an HD source, look to the right side and select the “general tab” in the track editor, and see the Display Mode, and select “16:9 pan-scan.”

7. Hit the little black and yellow burn icon at the top of the page and put a a DVD in when prompted. DVDSP will encode and burn your new DVD.

THATS ALL THERE IS TO IT!!!

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

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

[Sherry Daniel]

Hi David,
Thanks for sharing your “quick and dirty way” to print a dvd. You’re right, it does seem like the simplest approach to use.

In the interest of learning, is the QT method a time-saver over compressor?

And the reason to utilize compressor would be better quality output?

p.s. any guesses how long it would take to generate a QT mov for a 2 hour HDV sequence?

Many thanks for the help!
Sherry

[David Roth weiss]

[Sherry Daniel] “In the interest of learning, is the QT method a time-saver over compressor?”

Yes.

[Sherry Daniel] “And the reason to utilize compressor would be better quality output?”

Yes.

[Sherry Daniel] “p.s. any guesses how long it would take to generate a QT mov for a 2 hour HDV sequence?”

No. If you were using an iFrame format such as ProPres it would probably take half an hour, but HDV may take longer.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

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

[Rich Rubasch]

A two hour sequence is barely going to fit on a standard DVD. You might end up waiting a couple hours for it to encode and end up with files too big to burn. Compressor would at least let you adjust your bitrate to ensure it would fit on the DVD.

Do you need to output the sequence to tape anyway…like an HDV master of the program? Since you have to do that anyway why not just upload the full clip as DV and encode that. Then you have a DV version. Not the most efficient, and only if you would normally output an HDV master.

In these long programs we are always looking for a quick method. It’s a LONG sequence. Any route is going to take a while. But if the one you choose doesn’t work, you have wasted that time. I like to pick the one that will certainly work, even if it might mean a longer encode or a bit of waiting.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[David Roth weiss]

Sherry,

Rich has a good point. So, make two on hour DVDs using the down and dirty technique.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

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

[Sherry Daniel]

David and Rich,
Thanks again for the input and advice.
I’ve tried a few times to export the HDV sequence as a QT, only to have it be rejected by DVDSP. This happens even when I cut the sequence down to a 1 hour rt.

The error message I’m getting is “One or more files failed to import. Common reasons for this are they do not match the current project’s video standard or their file format is not supported.”

Any ideas how to fix this?
much appreciated,
Sherry