Getting best quality DVDs from FCP X

Yes, Compressor is the best I have found. Take your finished FCP project. In 10.0.6, hit File -> Send To Compressor 10.0.5 and earlier Share -> Send To Compressor ... For your settings under the presets go to Disk Burning and use both MPEG-2 For DVD and Dolby Digital Professional. Click on MPEG-2 For DVD after you've dragged it onto your file in Compressor. Under "Quality" settings choose 2 Pass VBR Best. It should automatically adjust the bitrate to the duration of the project, so leave that alone. 2 Pass VBR Best will make the video look better. Leave Dolby Digital Professional alone. Double click on the rectangular box for the project in the Compressor window and change your "Job Action" to Create DVD. From here you can adjust the title, change whether or not it "Plays Automatically" or "Go To Menu" when loaded, and you can even add a still image to the background of the menu. Set this up and click submit.

tekriter said:

OK, I finally made the jump to FCP X a couple of weeks ago.

Now I'm working on a wedding video shot in 1080i with my Canon Vixia M40's.

The wedding couple wants DVDs, but they don't have a blu-ray, nor does most of their family. So, I need to output to standard DVDs.

I tried the burn-dvd output in FCP X, but I get more jaggies than I expected in the finished DVD. I transcoded into FCP X using ProRes 422, made my edits, and burned the DVD. Total length of the DVD is 54 minutes, so I don't think it's a disk capacity issue.

What are the forum's recommendations for outputting to DVD? Compressor? MPEG Streamclip? Handbrake?

Thanks in advance - I have learned a lot in reading this forum!

Click to expand...

I haven't tried in Compressor 4 - haven't actually burnt a DVD video disc in years - but I always got better results from Toast.

Zwhaler said:

Yes, Compressor is the best I have found. Take your finished FCP project. In 10.0.6, hit File -> Send To Compressor 10.0.5 and earlier Share -> Send To Compressor ... For your settings under the presets go to Disk Burning and use both MPEG-2 For DVD and Dolby Digital Professional. Click on MPEG-2 For DVD after you've dragged it onto your file in Compressor. Under "Quality" settings choose 2 Pass VBR Best. It should automatically adjust the bitrate to the duration of the project, so leave that alone.....

Click to expand...

Great advice; I'm not ready to export my project yet but I'm copying your notes and will try it when I'm done. Thanks!