iDVD3 quality issues

[sb]

You should export the finished FCP movie as a reference movie or a self
contained FCP movie and import that into iDVD3.
By exporting to a different codec, you have compressed/recompressed your
footage.

By using the ref movie or self contained FCP movie, you are preserving the
original quality.

 sb

On 8/7/03 8:52 AM, "George Robertson" <gcrobert at shaw.ca> wrote:

> I hope you'll bear with me. I am a little confused.
> 
> I have just completed a one-hour travel video in FCP 3.0, and
> subsequently burned several DVDs with iDVD3, using Mac System 10.2.3.
> The project accumulated over 40 gigs by the time I was ready to burn.
> The result is adequate but disappointing in one respect: the video
> quality comes close to the original DV footage, but reveals at times a
> gauzy pixellation in certain shots. I am wondering if this is a natural
> limit of the compression software, or if I have made some errors along
> the way.
> 
> Here are my steps:
> 
> 1. When the project was finished on FCP 4.0, I transferred it back to
> DV tape. The tape quality looked identical to the original tape sources.
> 
> 2. I then captured this one hour of tape back into a new FCP project
> file. It of course looked like the original tape. It occupied only 16
> gigs instead of 40.
> 
> 3. Under File, I exported this as a "DV stream", and selected 48 kHz
> sound quality in stereo. This export took about three hours.
> 
> 4. When this was finished, I opened iDVD and dragged the exported file
> on to its main window. I selected a theme and placed the title, etc.,
> and then clicked on Burn.
> 
> 5. The process of burning the DVD took just under an hour. The result,
> as I say, is close, but reveals a fine gauzy texture in some
> backgrounds, and a few artifacts in scenes with motion.
> 
> My questions are: did I needlessly complicate things, or degrade the
> picture, by making a DV backup of the project, and then encoding it
> from there, instead of from the original project? And is there a less
> lossy compression I can use within FCP and/or iDVD than the one I chose?
> 
> And finally, will I be able to achieve a higher quality final image
> from DVD StudioPro?
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> George