[Kylee Pena]

I’m stealing this analogy and will probably use it today.

[Kylee Pena]

I’m not sure why you keep posting this question since you’ve gotten the right answers multiple times.

In Compressor, you use the DVD preset (best quality 90 minutes will probably work fine for you). It’s 2 presets. This gives you an .m2v and .ac3. M2V is mpeg 2 (video only), ac3 is audio only. You don’t really need to change any of the settings unless you really know what you’re doing. You drag these into a track in DVDSP. There isn’t really any other proper option for making files for a DVD – it’s not a matter of better or smaller, it’s just that DVDs ONLY want this format. In DVDSP, if you import any other kind of media, you’ll notice the dot next to the file is red or yellow. They should be green.

If you have a 16:9 file, choose 16:9 in DVD Studio Pro. DVDSP takes care of the flags within the DVD instructions to tell a DVD player what’s going on. The DVD player will adjust the display to letterbox or not as necessary.

That’s it.

[Kylee Pena]

I’ve honestly never tried mp4 to mpg2 and knowing the nature of mp4 files, seems like a very bad idea. If attempting to have it done now is more important than quality and sanity, go for it. Otherwise I’d wait until the weekend.

[Kylee Pena]

I’ve been doing an awful lot of DVD authoring lately. Too much.

Sweet, when do I start? 😛

[Kylee Pena]

DON’T use your mp4 to make the DVD!

Go to FCP, export a self-contained Quicktime (now you have your archival file), put that in Compressor. You can also export a Quicktime reference file (by un-checking the self-contained box) which would probably be quicker and smaller, but this is basically just a list of instructions that point to your footage so it’s easy to break the links, and once you move your files around to archive the project, it becomes worthless. But I do occasionally use them for quick DVDs.

I would really follow David’s advice above and look up DVD creation on the Cow and understand it better. You could end up wasting a lot of time otherwise.

[Kylee Pena]

DVD files are not mp4. You need to go back to the original file and drop it into Compressor and use a DVD preset (best quality 90 minutes) to make an m2v and ac3. Those will work in DVDSP.

[Kylee Pena]

There is a script that does this, but I don’t have any experience with it so I can’t recommend it either way. What I did has an extra step. Basically, you edit your footage how you want it in Final Cut. Once you have it the way you want it, remove all the attributes if you added any positioning to get a rough idea for placement. Save the whole thing as XML. Open Premiere Pro, import the XML, then save the project. Then open After Effects, import the Premiere project, and then save. Ta da.

I actually JUST blogged this workflow yesterday on my blog. 🙂

[Kylee Pena]

The DMCA was updated last summer to be more broad.

“The exemption for use of motion pictures on DVD—which lumps together doc filmmakers, college teachers and film/media studies students and noncommercial video creators such as remixers–is limited only to criticism and commentary, not to all potential fair uses, but that category is enormously broad, including even remixes with a critical intent. The excerpt must be “relatively short,” but the Librarian chose not to define the phrase, leaving it up to the user. A new work must be created (a “transformative” act). The maker must have a reason why an inferior quality (such as one shot off a screen or from a VHS) is not good enough.”

Shane’s short school projects fall under this. I did several similar “found footage” projects while I was in school. They are remixes with critical intent.

[Kylee Pena]

The utter lack of understanding of fair use and copyright as it pertains to education in this thread is astounding. Shane isn’t a professional trying to steal for commercial purposes – it’s for SCHOOL. This is allowed. Why don’t we try to actually help him solve his problem?

Shane – I recently needed to copy protected DVD footage for a remix project (which is ALSO protected under fair use!) and Handbrake and MPEG Streamclip were spotty depending on the protection used. I ended up having to use iSkySoft’s DVD Ripper, which costs money. If your teacher wants you to get this footage, he or she should be offering up some suggestions for how to get it.

As far as the project files and stuff – your FCP project file will only open in FCP. You have to export a self-contained Quicktime to play it in Quicktime.

[Kylee Pena]

It sounds like the files were on an external that became unmounted and now it can’t find them.