Hi--

I'm reasonably familiar with FCP, but a first-timer with Studio Pro. I've also got Compressor. I've got some footage shot on a Canon XL2 in 24p, 16:9, edited in FCP and would like to get it on DVD, with a simple one-button menu.

I've RTFM, but am staggered with all the formats, resolutions, standards, codecs, etc.

Could someone give me a simple, straightforward workflow to output to DVD in a letterbox view? A very simple menu will suffice.

Should I export from final cut as a QT movie, or through compressor as an MPEG-2?

All help much appreciated, as I'm on a lamentably short timeline.

Happy Thanksgiving!

--Tim

Hi Tim. Welcome. :-)
I'm not any kind of Jedi at this stuff, but I've been shooting for a while with a similar setup (XL2 and FCP). I love the look of 16:9 at 24P, but it took some time to figure out how to make it work. So here's what I do (your mileage may vary)...

1) Set the XL2 to shoot in 24P Advanced
2) Import the footage into FCP (optionally stripping the pulldown in the Log and Capture Window)
3) Create a new sequence at 23.98fps
4) Click the "Advanced" button and make sure the sequence is progressive and not interlaced, and that it's set for 16:9
5) Edit, edit, edit
6) Export using Compressor
7) If you've installed DVDSP properly, you should see export settings in Compressor for DVDs. If it's a short thing, choose the 16:9 90 minutes best quality
8) That should about do it once you've imported the m2v and ac3 files into DVDSP

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but this should give you something to chew on for a bit (at least in between turkey drumsticks).