Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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Go to the audio settings in the camera menu and switch from 16 bit recordinng to 12 bit CH 1/2, 3/4. It’s all in your owner’s manual, starting on page 50.
– Don
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[brian] “Is it a burn speed issue?”
Probably not. I burn Taiyo Yuden discs at 8X and haven’t had a problem. I use the same workpath as you i.e. export a self contained QT movie, then convert that to MPEG2, create the DVD in DVDSP then make a disc image. The difference is I don’t use Toast but burn using Apple’s Disc Utility. I think the problem you’re having may be within Compressor 2.01. There’s a bug in that version’s VBR setting that creates pixelization and compression artifacts. Avoid the VBR settings and stay with the CBR presets or create your own custom CBR settings.
Another hint is to make sure you export your QT movie from FCP with compression markers. They tell Compressor to pay more attention to every fade and transistion in your timeline.
You might want to consider upgrading to Compressor 2.1 where the VBR bug has apparently been fixed. It’ll only cost you 49 bucks to find out. I haven’t done that yet because before the upgrade was available I stopped using Compressor 2.01 and bought Bit Vise. Pricey but definitely worth it.
Hope this helps.
– Don
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You didn’t mention what timeline codec you’re using in FCP but if your work is mostly graphics you need to use a lossless codec like 8 or 10 bit uncompressed, Motion JPEG or Animation codec so your graphics don’t take a quality hit when you export for Compressor and eventually DVDSP. You should do a test with some of the above codecs and see which one will work and look best for your particular workflow.
– Don
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Trash the preference files for FCP and then try another capture.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
– Don
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Hi Michael,
The article at the link below will probably help you:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/24p_in_FCP_nattress.html
But I’m pretty sure you’re going to have to recapture your 29.97 footage using the regular DV NTSC codec, then convert that footage to 23.98 so you can match it up to your other footage. Graeme Nattress makes a FCP plugin for this purpose called ‘Standards Conversion’. But read the article first.
– Don
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Here’s a recent thread in the FCP forum that should explain a few things and hopefully will help you to get your 24f footage captured properly.
– Don
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You’re not out of luck. Read the article at the link below. Towards the bottom of the article there are instructions on how to incorporate 24p normal using Apple’s Cinema Tools (which you should have as part of FC Studio) for use with your 24p advanced project.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/24p_in_FCP_nattress.html
– Don
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[Frank Cervarich] “- might the hangup that occurs in playback (it sticks at a point and will not go further) be partially caused by the length of the program itself?”
Probably not the cause of the pauses you’re experiencing. I’ve put over 3 hours of content on a DVD5 disc and have not seen the problems you’ve described. If you’re using iDVD then the hangups may be caused by the high bitrates of the .aif or PCM audio that is being used by this program. Consumer DVD players have a difficult time with high bitrates because of the players’ relatively small buffer capacities. Your computer will be better suited to playing high bitrate DVDs because of the machine’s better buffer underrun capability.
You need to get a program like Apple’s Compressor and DVD Studio Pro so you can compress the audio from the .aif/PCM audio formats to the industry standard .ac3 format, which is what the majority of commercially bought DVDs use. The advantages are: .ac3 audio uses far less space on your DVD, leaving more room for video and the lower audio bit rates will be much more compatible with consumer DVD players.
iDVD will not compress the audio for use on a DVD-R, but leaves it in its native format.
Another thing to consider when creating a DVD: Use the best blank media you can find, such as Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs. They’re considered the best of the best. But usually any blank DVD media that’s made in Japan is considered a safe bet. Cheap DVD media means cheap playback performance, especially down the road if not right away.
Hope this has made sense.
– Don
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[cmerillo] “What is the highest-quality DVD-R ‘General purpose’ disk? “
Taiyo Yuden.
Here’s more info on DVD media:
https://asvideoproductions.com/video/articles/dvdinfo.pdf
– Don
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What sort of files do you want to archive? If it’s video footage you need to keep then I’d recommend you buy a firewire drive for this task instead of DVD media. Even raw DV25 files require 1 GByte of space for every 5 minutes of video, so a standard DVD 5 disc will only hold about 20-25 min. of footage. FW drives are cheap enough these days that you can fill them up with transfered footage and just store the drive(s) on your shelf.
If you’re considering making MPEG2 versions of your video files for transfer to DVD media remember you’re introducing a big generational loss into the equation. It all boils down to how important your video footage is to you, how much time you want to spend transferring your media to DVD in 25 minute chunks and are aware of the the very slow read/write speeds when working with DVD-R media. If you still want to use DVD’s for long term archiving then buy the best DVD media you can find, such as the Taiyo Yuden brand.
You can always offload your footage back to video tape as well. Stored properly, digital video tape media will last for years. These are just a few ideas from the many storage solutions out there these days. It all boils down to money and the speed at which you can get your raw footage back on to your editing drives.
– Don
“Please take a moment to fill out your profile, including your computer system and relevant software. Help us help you.”