Conversion & Exporting

Question

Conversion & Exporting

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well. My question is about a 25 minute video that I have edited and I have to make about 80 copies. I've made the project self contained and its size is 5.36 GB. I was thinking of taking it to a burning house and let them to all exporting and all the copies. The first question is how can I downsize the self contained file so I may fit it on a 4.7GB dvd? The second question is how or what would be the best way to export this file to get the best quality out of the video? I apologize if I'm not too clear and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dual 1 GHz PowerPC G4 & 4 x 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 21, 2007 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Jun 21, 2007 8:55 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

Jason:

You aren't clear.

Is this intended to made into video DVD?

and you made the movie self contained, not the project.

Which codec did you use? Are you intending this to play off the DVD?

Or be copied to the HD? For windows and Macs?

Help us out.

For example, h.264 encoding is very efficient and small sized, but it takes forever to encode, and many PCs won't be able to play it.

But give us a better idea of what you wish to do

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Answer 2

Jun 21, 2007 8:59 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

Assuming your project is DV:
Don't look at the size of your final file; rather, look at the length. A 4.7GB DVD can hold up to about 120 minutes. Your project is only 25 minutes as you mentioned so it will easily fit. Don't compress your final file at all. DVD burning software will do that for you.

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2007 9:39 AM in response to David S.

Sorry guys but thanks for the response. I just edited a wedding on FCP and I decided to make my friend a cinematic version of their wedding which is about 25 min long. After I finished editing the sequence in FCP, I clicked on the sequence and exported using quicktime conversion and made the file self contained. What I want to do with this project is to put it on a DVD, I don't care much about putting it on the web or anything like that, just a dvd. I was also thinking that instead of doing the exporting and burning of the dvd myself, I would send a company the self contained FCP file and let them do the exporting and burning of the dvd. What I've done before to export to make a dvd was grab my sequence, highlight it and export using quicktime conversion and make it self contained. After that is done, I highlight the self contained file on my desktop and open it with compressor and pick a setting to use. Once that is complete, I open DVD Studio Pro and put together the whole dvd with menus and music and so on. I than to an advanced burn and done, thats it. I've never done such a small file on a dvd and it's a whole new concept for me. How can I get a 25 minute video from FCP onto a DVD with the greatest quality and make it compatible for all dvd players?

Hope that helps and if you need any more information, maybe a little more detail, just let me know. Once again I appreciate any help and I want to thank everyone for their responses.

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Answer 4

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Jun 21, 2007 9:47 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

What was the original sequence settings?

And what do you convert it to when you exported?

The reason I ask is that a 25 minute NTSC DV equals:

5.43 GB/s.

either you edit, or you create a DL data disc and send that to the encoder.

Remember, the movie file must be work with the encoder.

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Answer 5

Jun 21, 2007 9:57 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

Don't export from FCP "Using Quicktime Conversion".

1) With the sequence open, go to File>Export>Quicktime Movie. This is the highest quality possible. No compression needed.
2) Import that file into your DVD authoring software, create a DVD menu, and burn a master copy.
3) You can then send that master copy to another business for duplication.

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Answer 6

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Jun 21, 2007 10:13 AM in response to Jared Torres1

Jared:

Good suggestion.

But given the file size, my guess is that he exported consistent with NTSC DV settings.

We'll see

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Answer 7

Jun 21, 2007 10:18 AM in response to David S.

Here's my sequence settings...

Frame size is 720x480 with a NTSC DV (3:2) Aspect ratio
Pizel aspect ratio is NTSC-CCIR601/DV (720x480)
Field dominance is Lower (Even)
Editing Timebase is 29.97
Quicktime Video Settings - Compressor is DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
- Quality is 100 percent
Audio Settings - Rate is 48 kHz
- Depth is 16-bit
- Config is Default
Video Processing is Render in 8-bit YUV
Process maximum white as White
Motion Filtering Quality is Normal

As for what I export into to, I get three files...2 audio and 1 video.
The two audio files are .aiff, .ac3 and the video format is .m2v

The video is 25 minutes and 15 frames long.

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Answer 8

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Jun 21, 2007 10:22 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

You've already created it to m2v and ac3.

These files can then be used to author a DVD.

If the combined size of these two files (without the aiff file) are under 4.3 GBs, you are good to go.

However what bit rate did you use for video?

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Answer 9

Jun 21, 2007 10:31 AM in response to Jared Torres1

Sorry guys, I just went through the exact steps that I've been doing and when I export I dont do quicktime conversion, I just export a quciktime movie. Heres the info on the file after I made an quciktime movie...

General
Kind: Final Cut Pro Movie File
Size: 5.36 GB on disk
Dimensions: 720x480
Codecs: DV/DVCPRO-NTSC,
Integer (Big Endian)
Timecode
Channel Count: 2
Duration: 25'15

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Answer 10

Jun 21, 2007 10:27 AM in response to David S.

I was told not to use over 5 as my target biterate and 7.5 as my max. I've had problems with other Dvds where some can watch the dvd without a problem but others had problems. I just want to make sure that I get the best quility and everyone can watch without a problem.

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Answer 11

Jun 21, 2007 10:32 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

ok, so now just import that file into your dvd authoring software and burn...

am I missing something? ....I feel like I am. haha.

Jared

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Answer 12

Jun 21, 2007 10:33 AM in response to David S.

Another question and sorry for all these questions but you guys are being so helpful. What audio file should I be using when I burn and whats the difference between the aiff and ac3 files besides the obvious difference of size?

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Answer 13

Jun 21, 2007 10:36 AM in response to Jared Torres1

My Dvd is only 2.4GB in size and thats with one main menu and a song that plays for about 5 min. I than have two chapter indexs with songs that play for about 4 minutes. I just feel like the self contained file is 5.36 GB in size but when I went to compressor, I used the best quailty 90 min setting and I believe that it's been compressed too much. How can I get the 25 min video into DVD studio pro without compressing it too much. The only option I see when exporting is the HD 30 min setting.

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Answer 14

Jun 21, 2007 10:37 AM in response to David S.

Another thing, sorry again but is there something I should be changing about my sequence and their options?

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Answer 15

Jun 21, 2007 10:45 AM in response to Jason Gouveia

OK I think I know why I may be a little confused about the whole "having to compress" thing:

I use iDVD. If it were me, I would just import that 5.36GB file into iDVD and when I burn it compresses into MPEG2 for me.

Does DVD Studio Pro not compress into MPEG2 for you? Is that why you want to compress before burning? Maybe I should dismiss myself from this discussion since I am not a DVD Studio Pro user. haha.

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