what codec do i use to put my movie onto a dvd?

[Gunleik Groven]

If you’re going with iDVD, just import your DV movie into iDVD and go.

If you’re going with DVD studio pro, either import the DV directly into DVDSP or export via compressor.

The rest is in the manual.

Gunleik

[Alexander Gao]

is there a quality difference between using iDVD and DVD studio Pro, or just the content of the menu? And, will the movie be playable on a dvd player?

[Craig Seeman]

iDVD using the Best Quality setting in preferences should give you a pretty good encode. That may be the safest route for you given the short file.

iDVD encodes the audio as PCM which takes up a lot of room. iDVD doesn’t really give any feedback to the user regarding its data rate though. With Compressor 2 you can encode the audio using the AC3 setting which creates a smaller audio file. This gives you more room to up the video bit rate (within reason) which could give you better quality. If you’re still using Compressor 1 you’d have to use APACK to compress the audio. You do have to have an understanding about what settings to use though to go this route.

[Craig Seeman]

Just to be clear both iDVD and Compressor are creating an MPEG2 file for the video. iDVD is creating PCM audio whereas Compressor 2 or APACK are creating a smaller AC3 audio file giving you more room for a higher bit rate MPEG2 video.

[Alexander Gao]

Thanks a lot for your help Craig. I have a few more questions if possible. How do i get an audio setting while encoding MPEG-2 in Compressor? There is not even any audio when I export to MPEG-2. Also, will iDVD re-encode this, or just accept it because it is already an MPEG-2 file?

Thanks a lot.

[Gunleik Groven]

If you’re going to make the disc in iDVD, I think you’ll have to encode the DV file in that program, too.

The Compressor route is only a viable option if you’re creating the disc in DVDSP

Gunleik