[MacDV] iDVD3 quality issues

[Jim Heid]

> Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 08:52:40 -0700
> From: George Robertson <gcrobert at shaw.ca>
> Subject: 
> Message-id: <2CA87FA2-C8EF-11D7-889B-000A956DF938 at shaw.ca>

> 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.

You worked *much* harder than you had to. Simply export a reference movie
from Final Cut Pro. (with the timeline active, choose File > Export >
QuickTime Movie). Uncheck the "make movie self-contained" box. Drag the
resulting movie into iDVD.

> 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?

If your movie was over 60 minutes long, iDVD downshifted to its
lower-quality compression setting (5 megabits per second). If you can cut a
few minutes to get under 60 minutes, iDVD will encode at 8 mbps, and you'll
get much better quality.

> And finally, will I be able to achieve a higher quality final image
> from DVD StudioPro?

Yes, without question! The Compressor program included with DVDSP (and Final
Cut Pro 4, though you can't use it with iDVD) does a lovely job.

Best,
Jim

-- 
Jim Heid
Editorial Director, Avondale Media
Training DVDs on Photoshop, Office X, and more
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Author/Host, "The Macintosh iLife" book/DVD
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