Help with Compression settings...

1) If you have Final Cut Pro 7, you should use Compressor to compress it.

2) Getting it "compressed down without losing quality" is an oxymoron. Compression at its very essence is taking information out of the image to create a smaller file so you are always losing quality when you compress.

Do you want to compress it for web or DVD? If DVD, there is a DVD preset in Compressor based on whether your clip is 90 minutes and under, 120 minutes and under or 150 minutes and under. That would be a good start.

3) If you have Final Cut Pro 7, you should also have DVD Studio Pro to make a DVD menu

Hope this helps.

 

No, it is included with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Studio is the suite that Final Cut Pro comes in. If you have final cut pro, you should have compressor, dvd studio pro and a whole slew of other programs.

 

You can send your project directly to Compressor from the timeline. In Compressor, use one of the DVD templates (best quality). Then later you'll have to build your DVD in DVDSP.

Simpler way: Export your sequence as Quicktime movie and drag that into iDVD (DVDSP is a bit overwhelming for first-time users).

 

Well, that really isn't true. There are compression methods that are lossless.

Your answer is warped by your experience with common video and audio compression where the aim is to fit a very large amount of data into a much smaller space.

What you mention is actually a technique used to accomplish the goal of using much less disk space. It isn't a requirement of a compression algorithm to strip information.