[John Fishback]

And be sure to make your audio as an ac3, not aiff. The ac3 is 192kbps and the aiff is 1500kpbs so you save a lot of space using ac3 with virtually no difference in quality. Search for ac3 on the Cow if you’re not familiar with its workflow.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

No. You can export PNGs from PPT and use those as stills. Also, you can open the PPT in Keynote and export a QT. I’ve never done that, but have read posts saying that’s the best way to do it. PPT’s QT export is poor.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

You are in the right place to change your sequence QT settings. I’m not sure why the 320×240 frame size and HD aspect pixel ratio are coming up the way they are. That’s really apples & oranges.

Try setting as follows:
In the General Tab:
Frame Size: NTSC DV (3:2)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: CCIR-601/DV(720×480)
Field Dom: Lower
Edit Timebase: 29.97
QT Settings
Compressor: DVCPro-50 NTSC (Note DVCPro50 is technically a DV
format, just higher quality with 4:2:2 color)
Quality: 100%
Audio:
Rate: 48k
Depth: 16 or 24 bit
In the Video Processing Tab:
Motion Filtering Quality: Best
In the Render Control Tab:
Check Filters & Frame Blending
Frame Rate and Resolution: 100%
Check Always Use Best Quality When Rendering Movie

Some of this may be different for your version of FCP, but it should be close enough.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Every soundperson I’ve worked with seemed to use a Sony MDR7506.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I export a ref or self-contained QT using current settings (do NOT recompress). I use that QT in Compressor to make mv2 and ac3 files. I use the best quality 90 minute presets. Then I use those files in DVDSP to author the DVD. Never had any problems.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Don’t send to Compressor from FCP. Use Export Quicktime with Current Settings. Then use that file in Compressor. Be sure to turn on Frame Controls in Compressor and choose best for all quality settings. Compressor will do a good job – not as good as a hardware conversion, but probably good enough. Do a test of a short segment and see.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

You can use Render Manager to delete your renders and then re-render, to see if that helps. Or first, try exporting a ref or self-contained QT with current settings. See if Compressor will run with that file.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Part of your problem is FCP is scaling your giant images down – and FCP’s lousy at doing that. All you need for a full frame image is a 720×480 image at 72dpi. If you want to be able to zoom in and around an image try doubling its size. Do this in PhotoShop or similar app.

You don’t mention your hardware so I don’t know if you’re monitoring on an external monitor. If not, know you can’t judge picture quality by looking at your computer monitor. If you have to work that way, adjust the size of the Canvas to 100%. That will get you closer to seeing reality.

You seem to be editing in a DV timeline. This will give you the worst quality compared to other codec choices. I suggest you use ProRes, or DVCPro50 if your version of FCP doesn’t support ProRes.

Export using QT with current settings. Do NOT recompress. It’s your choice of ref or self-contained. Use Compressor to turn that QT into mv2 video and ac3 audio files. Pick the best presets – the ones with the shortest time listed.

Bring those files into DVD Studio Pro and make your DVD. When you watch that on your TV you’ll see what you have. I suggest exporting a short piece of your program to experiment with. That way you won’t have to wait a long time for renders.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

Or Compressor (with Frame Controls on & quality set to best) which you have.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[John Fishback]

I think you just don’t have the horsepower to render quickly. I’ve never had “slow” renders on my machine until I added Red Giant’s Mojo (a great plugin BTW) to a couple of tracks along with Neat’s noise reduction plug. It crawls! You can try playing with your RT settings to see if that helps.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN