Low Quality Export To Dvd

[Scott Harper]

So what settings should I use when exporting to Compressor 2, or should I use a different workflow. Please be specific if you could. Thanks.

[David Knaggs]

Thanks, Martin and Robert. Very well explained. (And saved me from some extra typing!)

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

So what settings should I use when exporting to Compressor 2, or should I use a different workflow. Please be specific if you could. Thanks.

Scott, I'm so used to using Compressor 3 now that I hope I don't mislead you in trying to recall the settings for Compressor 2. (Also, if you do a search, I think I've made at least 2 or 3 posts of my 720p25 timeline to PAL (SD) DVD workflow through Compressor 2. Those might prove more accurate, in terms of correct settings.)

But here is what I can recall of the workflow for what I felt were best results:

1/ Capture your HDV 720p30 footage natively in Final Cut Pro (using "Easy Setup" for "HDV 720p30").

2/ Edit your footage in the native HDV 720p30 timeline and, when complete, export directly from the timeline to Compressor. (i.e. click the timeline to make it active, then select File>Export>Using Compressor.

(Robert's advice to you about the book by Brian Gary is spot-on. I use a training DVD on Compressor 2 by Brian Gary that was put out by Ripple Training. That's why I export directly from the timeline to Compressor whenever I want the best quality result. But it means that you are unable to use FCP while the compression is being done, which is why some like to export as a Quicktime or Quicktime Reference movie and then put the movie in Compressor. Then they can keep using FCP, even though the work might take a slight hit in quality.)

3/ In Compressor 2, you need to select "DVD: Best Quality" for whatever the duration of the timeline (hockey game) is. That is, if it's 80 minutes long, select "DVD Best Quality - 90 minutes". If the game is 100 minutes long, select "DVD Best Quality - 120 minutes". And so forth.

4/ Say, for this example, it's "DVD Best Quality - 90 minutes". Under this heading should be options for ".m2v" file (the compressed video file which you will then import into DVD Studio Pro), the ".ac3" file (the compressed Dolby sound file) and the ".aiff" file (the uncompressed sound file).

Select the .m2v file and the .ac3 file only. (Compressor 3 doesn't even bother to carry the option of ",aiff" anymore. Dolby .ac3 is extremely high quality and very efficient.)

5/ Ensure that you change the names of both files (after you select them) so that they are the same. E.g. "HockeyGame.m2v" and "HockeyGame.ac3". This is important so that DVD Studio Pro will know to link them together later on. (Compressor 3 does this automatically.)

6/ Select the .m2v file and go to the Inspector. Now you can tweak it a little if you like. I've given a lot of tips on this in other threads, but the main things to remember are that the sizes of your .m2v plus .ac3 plus DVD menus plus sub-titles, etc., can't exceed about 4.37 GB for a single-layer DVD.

In the encoder (in the Inspector), I usually like to select the GOP tab and select the "IP" GOP structure and a GOP size of 6. Under the Quality tab (so long as I'm NOT exceeding my DVD total of 4.37 GB) I might raise the Average Bit Rate a bit, but these days I never set the Max. Bit Rate higher than 8.3 Mbps. But this is usually for movies under an hour. Remember, you must never exceed 4.37 GB for ALL of the things given above.

7/ Submit.

8/ When done, import your .m2v and .ac3 assets into DVD Studio Pro and author your DVD.

This is all from memory (and it may be faulty memory, at that). Others may have better (or different) workflows which they might like to share for Compressor 2.

[Scott Harper]

Thanks, David.
Amazingly(amazing cause I can't believe this is as good as it gets) this is, I think, the exactly the method I have been using. I usually highlight and export my Timeline and export to Compressor 2 then choose from my settings drop-down the options "best quality 90 minutes- 16:9, then I chose "all"
Once it finishes, usually about 7 hours later, I then do a search on my Mac and drag and drop into DVD Studio Pro the following files:
Under Movies, "Sequence 1-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass 16/9.m2v"
Under Music, "Sequence 1-Dolby 2.0 ac3 files.
I then choose 1st play in DVDSP and hit the burn button.
Once this is all done I look at my finished product and cringe! Is this the usual facial expression that follows this procedure?

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

Thanks, David.
Amazingly(amazing cause I can't believe this is as good as it gets) this is, I think, the exactly the method I have been using. I usually highlight and export my Timeline and export to Compressor 2 then choose from my settings drop-down the options "best quality 90 minutes- 16:9, then I chose "all"
Once it finishes, usually about 7 hours later, I then do a search on my Mac and drag and drop into DVD Studio Pro the following files:
Under Movies, "Sequence 1-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass 16/9.m2v"
Under Music, "Sequence 1-Dolby 2.0 ac3 files.
I then choose 1st play in DVDSP and hit the burn button.
Once this is all done I look at my finished product and cringe! Is this the usual facial expression that follows this procedure?

No, cringing should not be part of it. It usually looks (for an SD DVD) really, really nice. Especially when shot progressively with your JVC ProHD camera. Of course, I'm using PAL, which has 576 lines of SD while you are using NTSC with only 480 lines. That might have something to do with it.

But at least we've cleared up one thing. You've been trying to make an SD DVD all along!

So, try this experiment with HD DVD. Export 2 minutes of the same footage that made you cringe (either by placing In and Out markers in your existing sequence or putting a 2 minute clip in a new sequence) directly into Compressor 2 and select the "HD DVD 30 minute" settings. But use the H.264 choice rather than the MPEG option.

Then set up DVD Studio Pro (DVD SP) for "HD DVD" and import the HD DVD asset(s) into it.

You don't even have to burn a physical DVD (as this is just an experiment). As your last step in DVD SP, you can set it to make a "disc image" which is an ".img" file on your hard drive, rather than burning to disc (just change the Output Device from your burner to .img).

Double-click the newly created .img file and then drag the resulting folder into your Mac's DVD Player. It will then play the HD DVD. The quality should be a LOT closer to what you see in FCP and you should then find that same 2 minute piece on your cringe-inducing SD DVD and play that as a comparison.

[Hugh Walton]

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

Hi David. Appreciate your help.

I'm shooting HDV 30p.
I export directly to Compressor 2.
I want the best quality HD DVD- Same as what I see in my Timeline, which looks great. It's just the transfer to DVD that sucks.
Compressor 3 sounds great, but I'm using Comp 2 and don't have access to C3.

There is no need to use compressor if your footafge and sequences are 1080p30 using your XH-A1. The files that are exported using "Quicktime Movie" will be Mpeg-2 HD files and ready to be imported directly into DVD SP for burning to HD-DVD. The HD-DVD will look exactly like the native footage captured directly from the camera. Give it a try and don't add any additional compression.

Hugh

[Hugh Walton]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

Scott,

Just to be clear, you currently cannot burn to HD-DVD on a Mac; the media is available but the burners are not. I've seen some threads where people are authoring HD-DVD content and burning to a dual-layer DVD-9, but those discs do not have the ability to hold and transfer HD resolution, so even though they *might* have made a successful encode to an SD-DVD using HD-DVD assets the media simply can't playback HD-res content because the discs simply weren't made to hold those higher bitrates.

If that's what you've done - used HD-DVD assets and burned to a DVD-5 or DVD-9 and are getting poor results, that's why - both DVD-5/9 have max bitrates of 10.08Mbs; HD-DVD is almost double that.

This is not the case. I burn HD-DVDs on my Mac using DVD SP and the results are in fact HD and look great. Check out the link below to see how it is done:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=99744

Hugh

[Scott Harper]

Originally Posted by Hugh Walton

There is no need to use compressor if your footafge and sequences are 1080p30 using your XH-A1. The files that are exported using "Quicktime Movie" will be Mpeg-2 HD files and ready to be imported directly into DVD SP for burning to HD-DVD. The HD-DVD will look exactly like the native footage captured directly from the camera. Give it a try and don't add any additional compression.

Hugh

Thanks Hugh,

I'm shooting 720/30p - not 1080. Does it make a difference in your opinion?

[Hugh Walton]

Originally Posted by Scott Harper

Thanks Hugh,

I'm shooting 720/30p - not 1080. Does it make a difference in your opinion?

Check this out:

From:
Late-Breaking News About DVD Studio Pro 4.1 (Page 3)

DVD Studio Pro Does Not Support All HDV Formats
The following HDV formats are not supported by DVD Studio Pro:

720p24
720p25
1080p24
1080p25

You can convert these to supported HDV formats (720p30, 720p60, 720p50, 1080i60, and 1080i50) for your HD projects using Compressor.


720p30 is one of the supported HDV formats, so I think you are in luck. Give it a try, see what happens, and let us know. I don't understand why they don't also include 1080p30, since it is also supported.

Hugh

[Gary Williams]

I have been trying to get past the limitation of the DVD-5 30 minute of HD useing the H.264 codet as apple states but have yet to get it to play with out being very chopping in movement. You are suppose to be able to put up to 90 minutes of HD material on an DVD-5 But I have yet to get it to work After I build the finished project and try to play it in my apple dvd player on my system it always plays choppy. If it wont play in that it wont play in an hd player. I would like to see apple make this work. It sounds good but dose not work, I guess the only way will be to burn on a dual layer dvd.