With out the aid of iDVD, DVD Studio Pro, or any other apps, how would I put my Final Cut Express video to a DVD?
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Final Cut Express to DVD
- Thread starter XnavxeMiyyep
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LethalWolfe
macrumors G3
Re: Final Cut Express to DVD
You can't. You need to use a DVD authoring app such as iDVD or DVDSP.
Lethal
You can't. You need to use a DVD authoring app such as iDVD or DVDSP.
Lethal
LimeLite
macrumors 6502a
Um....you don't. Final Cut Express doesn't burn DVD's, so short of sending it away to a company that does it for you, you'd need to use some sort of other App. Like Roxio's Toast.
Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure if you can do that. I know DVDSP can make the files that can then just be burnt with Toast, but I don't even think you can go straight from any Final Cut to Toast. You'd have to go through an application that can convert it to mpeg2 and make it ready to be viewed on a DVD Player.
Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure if you can do that. I know DVDSP can make the files that can then just be burnt with Toast, but I don't even think you can go straight from any Final Cut to Toast. You'd have to go through an application that can convert it to mpeg2 and make it ready to be viewed on a DVD Player.
macphoria
macrumors 6502a
No, you need iDVD or DVD Studio Pro and possibly Toast.
iDVD will convert your movie file to MPEG-2 and also burn it on DVD. DVD Studio Pro will set up the DVD interface and also allow your QuickTime to Export your movie in MPEG-2 format so that it can be Imported into DVD Studio Pro. DVD Studio Pro can burn DVD, but not as reliably as Toast, so you might need Toast for burning purpose.
If you do not burn DVD's much, iDVD (which comes in iLife package) might be worth the investment (around $50 I believe). But you'll need built in SuperDrive to use this. So if you do not have internal SuperDrive, your option is DVD Studio Pro and Toast with External DVD-R drive.
Thanks for the info everybody. iDVD had stopped working for awhile, which was the original purpose I posted this thread. I reinstalled it, and it works now.
Well, I've never used iDVD before, and I can't seem to figure it out. How do I get my Final Cut Express project into iDVD?
Well, I've never used iDVD before, and I can't seem to figure it out. How do I get my Final Cut Express project into iDVD?
Most of it seems pretty simple(except for importing) Which type of export should I do that loses little/no quality?
macphoria
macrumors 6502a
From my experience, DV/DVCPRO-NTSC compression in QuickTime options setting seems to work pretty well. It looks weird when it is exported, but when it is burned into DVD, it looks great.
Animation compression in QuickTime options setting worked ok too, kept great amount of deail. Except the color seemed to shift a little.
If I were doing a project, I would go with DV/DVCPRO-NTSC setting.
Just little bit of additional info, once you Export from Final Cut, the movie has to be converted (exported) yet again (either in iDVD or Quicktime) into MPEG-2 format. So a lot of your video quality is streamlined (trimmed) for DVD use. I think you can use other Export settings as long as it looks good on the screen and to your liking, because of that fact.
What becomes important is, therefore, Bitrate at which your movie is encoded into MPEG-2. iDVD does this automatically so you don't have to worry about it. iDVD uses 8.0 Bitrate initially which gives great result. But if the movie is longer than 60 minutes (if I remember correctly) iDVD drops the Bitrate to 5.0 and results in slight lose of quality.
If you work with DVD Studio Pro and need to convert your movie into MPEG-2 via Quicktime, you should start with 8.0 Bitrate than adjust it as you work if DVD Studio Pro asks you to lower the Bitrate.
Animation compression in QuickTime options setting worked ok too, kept great amount of deail. Except the color seemed to shift a little.
If I were doing a project, I would go with DV/DVCPRO-NTSC setting.
Just little bit of additional info, once you Export from Final Cut, the movie has to be converted (exported) yet again (either in iDVD or Quicktime) into MPEG-2 format. So a lot of your video quality is streamlined (trimmed) for DVD use. I think you can use other Export settings as long as it looks good on the screen and to your liking, because of that fact.
What becomes important is, therefore, Bitrate at which your movie is encoded into MPEG-2. iDVD does this automatically so you don't have to worry about it. iDVD uses 8.0 Bitrate initially which gives great result. But if the movie is longer than 60 minutes (if I remember correctly) iDVD drops the Bitrate to 5.0 and results in slight lose of quality.
If you work with DVD Studio Pro and need to convert your movie into MPEG-2 via Quicktime, you should start with 8.0 Bitrate than adjust it as you work if DVD Studio Pro asks you to lower the Bitrate.
Well, I'm using iDVD for a 6 minute movie I made with my friends, so I don't have to worry about it being too long. It's exporting from FCE to DVCPRO-NTSC right now. Is there anyway to improve the bitrate above 8.0 for a smaller movie?
EDIT:
I seem to be incredibly bad at this, improving the bit-rate above 8.0 is the least of my concerns. How do you make 2 selectable options being play movie and scene selection?
EDIT AGAIN:
Figured it out. Just kind of slow...
EDIT:
I seem to be incredibly bad at this, improving the bit-rate above 8.0 is the least of my concerns. How do you make 2 selectable options being play movie and scene selection?
EDIT AGAIN:
Figured it out. Just kind of slow...
macphoria
macrumors 6502a
There is no way to control the bitrate in iDVD. But you shouldn't worry.
In QuickTime MPEG-2 Export setting, 9.8 Bitrate is as high as it goes. Unfortunately, I never managed to make it work at 9.8 Bitrate. What would happen is, when I export at 9.8 Bitrate, DVD Studio Pro will say my Bitrate is too high and I need to lower it. And I usually end up using it at 8.0 Bitrate.
I've been pretty happy with 8.0 Bitrate results though.
macphoria
macrumors 6502a
If you have a QuickTime movie file that is a format other than MPEG-2, then it has to be Exported (or converted if you prefer) in MPEG-2 format from QuickTime so that DVD Studio Pro can accept it.
And as far as I know, there is no way to adjust a movie's Bitrate within DVD Studio Pro.
I work with DVD Studio Pro 1.5. Have I missed out on certain functionality? Or are you talking about newer version that has capabilities that you speak of?
LethalWolfe
macrumors G3
I'm not sure about the export settings of FCE (I have FCP) but if you can export it as a Final Cut Express movie and make sure the "make self contained" option is NOT checked. This will generate a reference movie (very small file) that you can then drag and drop into iDVD. If you export it as a Quicktime movie you are adding unneed compression to the video.
Don't work about the bit rate. 8.0 is pretty much the defacto standard because anything over 9 might cause DVD players to choke and not playback the DVD properly.
As for scene seletion chapter markers, that should be in the manual. Just park the play head where you want the marker to appear, tap M 2x and select "chaper marker" from the menu that pops up. Now when you export it as an FCE movie make sure chapter markers are turned on (in the FCP movie export window this is the last of 4 or 5 drop down menus). Now when you drag the FCE movie into iDVD it will see the chapter markers and automatically make a "scene selection" menu.
The biggest problem I had when I first used iDVD was that it was so simple I made it hard by over thinking everything.
Lethal
Don't work about the bit rate. 8.0 is pretty much the defacto standard because anything over 9 might cause DVD players to choke and not playback the DVD properly.
As for scene seletion chapter markers, that should be in the manual. Just park the play head where you want the marker to appear, tap M 2x and select "chaper marker" from the menu that pops up. Now when you export it as an FCE movie make sure chapter markers are turned on (in the FCP movie export window this is the last of 4 or 5 drop down menus). Now when you drag the FCE movie into iDVD it will see the chapter markers and automatically make a "scene selection" menu.
The biggest problem I had when I first used iDVD was that it was so simple I made it hard by over thinking everything.
Lethal
WOW... that was easy and quick
I've been burning a couple DVDs today and your suggestion just sped everything up incredibley. I don't mind all the rendering time on my iBook but anything to save a bit of time. That Export "not self contained" trick really works and saves you on step on the export.
Thanks
LethalWolfe said:
I've been burning a couple DVDs today and your suggestion just sped everything up incredibley. I don't mind all the rendering time on my iBook but anything to save a bit of time. That Export "not self contained" trick really works and saves you on step on the export.
Thanks