Best quality transfer to dvd using FCP2?

[Scott Harper]

Recently I have been shooting hockey games and have transfered them to DVD Studio Pro using Compressor in Final Cut Studio 2 and I must say the quality I get is awful compared to what I see on my Timeline in Final Cut. I'm shooting HDV 720/30p footage with my JVC HD Pro camera. I want the finest quality dvd to deliver to my client- same as what I see in my Timeline, which looks great but it's the transfer to dvd sucks. Is there a way of getting a better quality transfer? Something resembling what I have in my Timeline in FCP?

I have FCP Studio 2 and the workflow goes something like this;
I usually highlight and export my Timeline to Compressor then choose from my settings the options "best quality 90 minutes."
Once it finishes, usually about 7 hours later, I then drag and drop it 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! Has anyone out there shot wedding videos and burned beautiful dvd's using Final Cut Pro with any great success?

[Martin Pauly]

Scott,

there are numerous different approaches. I don't believe a clear winner has been identified, it depends on the type of footage as well as personal preference. Anyways, you may want to take a look at this thread for starters and then move on from there:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=103419

- Martin

[Carl Wiedemann]

Scott,

You may need to set a higher maximum bit rate for your mpeg-2 to get decent resolution. I’m working in standard definition, so my particulars may not apply, but 6.2mbps seems like a low maximum setting.
I export to mpeg-2 using Two Pass VBR mode, with the bit rate set to 5.5mbps and the Max Bit Rate set to 8.0. The Motion Estimate is set to Best. I get rather clean looking DVDs with these settings. A flat 6.2 setting (without variable bit rate) seems likely to produce a fair amount of artifacts, especially with fast moving subjects.

[Scott Harper]

Thanks, Carl. When you refer to the bit rate I assume you mean the settings within DVD SP? Under the Encoding tab(MPEG-2 HD) in Preferences my Bit Rate is set to 18.0Mbs and my Max Bit Rate is set to 27.0Mbs. Motion was set to Better but I've just changed it to Best.

[Tom Tomkowiak]

Scott, you might find feed://www.switchpod.com/users/studio006/feed.xml a useful site. He just finished up a series of tutorials (free) on Color and has started another series on Compressor.

I've been using FCP since version 2, and currently have the latest version of FCS2. No problems at all outputting great video on DVD.

[Carl Wiedemann]

Scott,
I assume that you’re referring to HDV rendering when you’re describing 18 to 27mbps settings. I don’t have any insights into HDV issues as I’m still working in the SD realm.
However, I was thinking that your problem might be with your mpeg-2 rendering for DVD with your setting at "Sequence 1-MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 2-pass 16/9.m2v". 6.2mbps as a maximum for your DVD mpeg is a bit low for fast motion content (in my admittedly limited experience). I export my DVD mpegs from Final Cut using the parameters mentioned above (upon the guidance of a more knowledgeable friend who makes DVDs for commercial sales) and found that it cleared up my DVD image quality issues.