[Jeff Carpenter]

What computer? I use a Blackmagic Intensity Pro ($350) in my Mac Pro. It gives me component HD out through RCA connectors. It has HDMI too, which can be adapted to DVI. It’s a lot cheaper than most of the $1,000 options out there.

(There’s also a $250 version, but it only does HDMI, not analog.)

[Jeff Carpenter]

1) Reset the computer. Plug the camera in and turn it on before launching Final Cut.

2) If that doesn’t work, shut down Final Cut and open iMovie. Open the capture window in iMovie and try to play the tape there. If picture shows up (just shows up, you don’t have to capture) then shut down iMovie and open Final Cut. I’ve sometimes seen iMovie “un-stick” that sort of problem when nothing else works.

[Jeff Carpenter]

For anything less than 60 min, try this:

– Duplicate any DVD setting in Compressor. Change it to a CBR with a bit rate of 7.1. Use that along with a Dolby audio compressor.

That’s about the higest quality you can get. It might not look better than what you’re using now, but it shouldn’t look worse and it will give you your best possible chance.

[Jeff Carpenter]

1) Export from Final Cut using the export-using-Compressor method. Go right from the timeline to your MPEG II file. No need to use an extra export in the middle.

2)How long is your program? You may be able to use a better setting than you currently are if it’s short enough.

3) Do any DVDs look good on that LCD screen? Make sure it’s not an issue with the DVD player or the TV up-scaling poorly. I have 2 DVD players on my HD TV at home. One player upconverts itself and puts out a great images from DVDs (Hollywood-made) and the other (older player) doesn’t and the TV does the up-scaling. It generally looks pretty poor. Both are using component connections.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Well, Don answered your question, but I’ll go a bit further.

Ditch Windows Media Player and download the free Flip4Mac plugin. It installs itself in Quicktime.

Then follow Don’s advice again and set .wmv files to open in Quicktime. It’s one less program you need and I find that it works smoother than the actual Windows Media Player most of the time.

While you’re at it, get the Perian plug-in too. It adds a few more codecs to Quicktime.

https://www.flip4mac.com/download.htm
https://perian.org/

[Jeff Carpenter]

FAT32 won’t take a 9 GB file. Unfortunately that’s the only cross-platform drive standard.

You have a couple of options.

1) Format it as a Mac drive and have your clients buy (or buy for them) Macdrive, which will let their Windows machine use the drive. This is probably a good idea if you do a lot of business with them, but not a great idea if this is the only job you’re doing with them.
https://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

2) Connect to a local PC over gigabit ethernet. The file will copy pretty quickly to the Windows machine and you can use the external drive there. Format as NTFS in this case, not FAT32 (which is what the Mac does for Windows PC formatting).

3) Find a way to make an NTFS drive work with your Mac.
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-read-and-write-ntfs-windows-partition-on-mac-os-x.html
Try that link, but I have to admit that’s over my head. Perhaps you or someone you know is more computer adept and can figure that out.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Thanks. Don’t have the hardware so I never explored the software.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Warren,

Are those images made by DVD Studio Pro?

[Jeff Carpenter]

Do you have the OS zoom feature turned on? It’s in Universal Access in the computer’s preferences.

I use the keyboard shortcut for it, but I believe that holding one of the modifier keys will make the mouse wheel zoom in as well.

I often pop into a zoom view and then back out in many programs, not just Final Cut. It’s very useful.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Compressor. It has pre-sets for widescreen DVD settings. Just use one of those. Assuming your project is under 90 minutes, the 90 minute pre-set should give you very good quality.

If it’s not exactly what you want, find the closest pre-set to what you wan, duplicate it, and alter the duplicate.

That’ll give you video. Drag a Dolby pre-set onto the video in Compressor as well. That will give you audio. Take both resulting files into DVD Studio Pro and put them on a timeline there.