Codec Problem

[jms66]

I'm needing help with codec. I'm using Final Cut Express, when saving a project as a quicktime file what is the best codec to use, to get the best quality. It's going to be burning it to a DVD using iDVD.

Thanks
John

Please send replies to jstewart@smkw.com I can acess my e-mail easier than I can the web.

[WinterMute]

Leave it as DV stream, assuming you've captured from camera via Firewire, iDVD accepts DV stream and converts to MPEG2 internally.

If you convert to quicktime you're compressing the video twice.

[ndmccormack]

depends what the footage is and how professional you want to be.. if its just video that you've captured from dv, and you haven't added in any graphics, then like WinterMute said leave it as DV. however if you've added in overlayed graphics and type n stuff, and you want to keep quality top notch, then export it as quicktime, but use no codec ('none' in the dropdown, this will however use a hell of a lot of disk space) thus ensure no double compression as mentioned above. Then whack it into DVD Pro or iDVD....

this basically ensures that there are no defects and artifacts that can occaisionally happen with the dv codec. These are described below in the links.

http://www.adamwilt.com/pix-artifacts.html

hope that helps..
cheers
Niall