Finishing on DVD
 

I have a film-originated project to finish on DVD. I would like to know the best settings possible to maintain the quality of the image.

The project is a 16mm short (3-4mins) and has went through telecine and offline to minidv which is what I'm editing with on FCP. Please advice.

Anyone? I apologise if I was not clear enough in my question.

I'm already done editing it but I would like to know the best export setting possible to prepare it for DVD burning. I have tried exporting uncompressed 8bit/10bit assuming that would be best but the machine said the hardware doesnt support it.

Are you trying to make a file to send to a DVD replication company or are you trying to create the DVD yourself?

Im trying to create the DVD myself.

But just out of curiosity, is there a difference between the 2? Perhaps you can explain it so that I'll know better for future uses.

Just make sure your timeline is activated and open Export with Compressor. Pick the appropiate DVD setting and render. You will now have two files (video & audio) ready for use in DVD Studio Pro, if you have it.

If you are going to an outside DVD production firm, ask them what sort of file they want.

For this short project it won't really matter, but for anything over 10 or 15 minutes you should encode using ac3 audio which can be done in compressor. AIFF uncompressed audio takes up a lot of space and I heard it can cause issues with older DVD players.