The source footage is 720p25 (2 clips). They were exported from Compressor using the settings from the pop-up menu "HD DVD:H.264 for DVD Studio Pro 60 minutes". I didn't alter or adjust any other settings. Each clip was eventually encoded into a .mov file (in H.264) and an audio .ac3 file.

I set the DVD SP preferences to "HD DVD" and "PAL", plus set "Resolution" to "1280 X 720p".

Then I started a new project and tried to import the 4 assets (from the two clips). DVD Studio Pro imported the two .ac3 files okay, but not the HD video assets (H.264).

DVD SP gave the message "Could not import 2 files. The files' formats are not supported."

Does anyone (who might have successfully imported H.264 encoded HD assets into DVD SP before) have any suggestions?

Do I need to change the last part of the file name from ".mov" to something else? Or am I missing something more obvious?

I know that I still have the option of bypassing Compressor and exporting the 720p25 sequence as a Quicktime, import that into DVD SP and encode using MPEG-2 HD. But I'd much rather work with H.264 as it is more efficient and uses only half the bit rate.

I've successfully imported H.264 1080i NTSC files from Compressor into DVD SP, but initially got the same kind of behavior as you (successful import of audio .ac3, failed import of video H.264 with "formats are not supported" message) until I figured out that I had to set DVD SP preferences to HD DVD. (But you've already done that.) All my H.264 video files have had a .mov extension. This info may not directly solve your problem, but hopefully it will help you narrow the possibilities as to where things have gone wrong.

Thanks very much, Ernest. That does indeed help narrow the possibilities, plus the story of your eventual success does give me hope that I can solve this!

Do I need to change the last part of the file name from ".mov" to something else? Or am I missing something more obvious?.

Not sure about an exact answer to your precise question, I'm just querying this point:

When I make H.264 files with QT Pro, I get the suffix .mp4 by default, not .mov. I haven't tried Compressor for this job (yet) but it might be worth trying a rename in your case?

Thanks Martin. I appreciate any and all tips. I just now changed the suffix of one to .mp4 and tried to import, but unfortunately I got an "incompatible format" notice.