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How do you export your project to a DVD?
I’ve found a thread on here that says to export a quicktime and uncheck the ‘make movie self contained’ box. I did that, now there’s a horrible looking 500MB file on my desktop. The project is 16 minutes long, it seems like it should be larger than 500MB.
The next step said to open the compressor. This seems totally unrelated to the first step of exporting a quicktime file.
So I’m trying the export using compressor thing. I selected DVD best quality 90 minutes, first I tried Dolby Pro, but that said it finished immediately and there was nothing on the DVD. Then I selected MPEG-2, 6.2MBPS 2 pass. I don’t understand this, it seems like I should have been able to do CBR 7.0 and only 1 pass. Now it’s rendering or something, it says it will take 40 minutes and I’m not even sure if it’s burning a DVD. My guess is no. I’m thinking at this point the thing to do would be to export my video, import it into Premiere and then I can just export to DVD.
Why is there no export to DVD feature in FCP? I just want it to make a simple check disc… In premiere all I have to do is tell it to do it, and it does it. With CS3 they took away the simple menu functions, but I can still make a one-off DVD copy quickly and easily. 40 minutes seems like a long time to burn a 16 minute DVD. I don’t think I’m going about this the right way. Am I correct in assuming there is no simple quick way to export your project to a DVD in FCP?
Thanks,
-Wesley D.
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2 Replies
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In my older version of FCP, I did export>using quicktime conversion> make mpeg 2. Open Apple DVD studio pro, import that asset as separate video and audio files, drag them into the timeline below the graphical display pane; from there you can add an easy menu or make the DVD video “first play”, choose the loop to front feature in the inspector or not, as you like, hit the “burn” button up top, done. Looked okay and went fast.
My new system doesn’t work quite the same way: in FCP I mark the in and out in the FCP timeline, hit Export> quicktime movie> set whatever I want there, but usually leave it the same as the format that’s already on my timeline) and save it to a folder on my video scratch drive. Open DVD Studio Pro, import the .mov, drag that to the graphical layout window, it automatically becomes first play, hit burn, done, and pretty fast too. At no time did I know if Compressor was involved, but so far it hasn’t been used (or missed) in this process. 🙂
Another way to one-off a sample quickly is to feed it to idvd with a drag-and-drop to the iDVD icon in the dock, or the import dialog within iDVD. Less control of settings, because it is designed for consumers and such, and you may not want to fiddle with the fancy premade menu optinos, but easy to do for a quick check or approval copy.
Probably not the best ways to do this, and I’ll get scolded by some authoring expert, but so far it is working for me very well. I made a highly interactive DVD as well as several more common types usign these methods and they look and work well.
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Hi Wesley,
I’ve done the Export to Quicktime > Compressor > DVD Studio Pro workflow for quite a few projects and previews already – and it has served me well. Perhaps you want to make sure a few things are in order?
1) The correct sequence was highlighted and exported. Since you’re not exporting a self-contained Quicktime, the file will be pretty small.
2) Remember to export the Quicktime with ‘Current Settings’ and not with any form of compression.
3) If you’re using an external hard disk for your media, remember to keep the external HDD plugged in when you send the Quicktime to Compressor – since you’re exporting a reference, not self-contained, Quicktime.
4) You CAN do CBR and 1-pass in DVD Studio Pro – you just need to tweak the settings yourselves, after selecting a preset to begin with. Once you have your CBR and 1-pass setting done up, you can save that as a preset for your future projects.
5) After you churn out a .m2v AND .ac3 file, you can then encode a DVD, either through DVD Studio Pro or Toast Titanium [just make sure you select the ‘never re-encode’ setting].
Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
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MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.2
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