MPEG-2 export from QuickTime Pro?

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MPEG-2 export from QuickTime Pro?

Windows XP:

I'm struggling to find a way to get my QuickTime Pro content burned into DVD format on a dvd. I've typically got a video stream, with imported jpeg stills at the beginning and end for credits. If i Save As to flatten it, what do i do next to export it in a way that a dvd authoring program can use it?

If i bought the MPEG-2 add-in for more money from Apple, would it allow me to export to a .mov file that is MPEG-2? I scoured the MPEG-2 add-in page and it only mentioned coming FROM dvd, not going TO dvd ...

When i bought Quicktime Pro, i assumed the final step of getting my content onto a dvd would be simple, but i've spent several days now trying all kinds of utilities and QT Pro exports and i still don't have a workable solution. Why is such a basic workflow so difficult?

Pentium, Windows XP

Posted on May 4, 2009 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

May 5, 2009 4:12 AM in response to navboy

QuickTime Pro doesn't create MPEG-2 formats.
The conversion to MPEG-2 is done by the DVD authoring application.

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Answer 2

navboy Author

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May 5, 2009 5:32 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Thanks, Kirk.

Hmm, i've tried DVDFlick and SUPER (which doesn't do authoring anyway), and both of their "MOV to VOB" transcoders don't read any jpegs that are in my QT flattened movie, only video streams, forcing me to insert an extra encoding step (yuck) in the process by exporting to some format or other out of QuickTime Pro before feeding that to the authoring. But so far i've tried exporting to AVI and to DV/DVPRO in QT Pro and i always end up with audio stuttering when the final dvd is played on a commercial player (and no audio on PC in WMP, but all is good in most PC players).

So either the conversion in SUPER and/or the authoring app just isn't good enough, or i'm not picking the best format to export to in QT Pro, but i have no idea what the ideal format is .... Any ideas?

Oh, and i keep seeing these utilities on the web when i search that claim MOV to VOB or MOV to MPEG2 and i feel like i'm on an endless quest of downloading and installing and figuring out these things, and in the end none of them works for one reason or the other. If i could just find one that can read flattened QT movies (jpegs and all) and convert, i'd at least have a multi-step solution. That's why i figured it made by far the most sense just to have some sort of QuickTime Pro add-on to convert to VOB or MPEG-2 at least - it would solve all of these headaches, but i guess that would make for too useful of a tool.

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Answer 3

May 5, 2009 5:47 AM in response to navboy

The QuickTime .mov container can hold up to 99 "tracks" (audio, video, sprites, text, etc.). Take a look at the "Show Movie Properties" window of your file to see how yours compares.
Many "conversion" applications don't seem to find (or use) these extra tracks any only use those "connected" audio and video tracks in the final export. If your DVD authoring application is letting you down you could try others or export your QuickTime file (again) to make just two tracks (audio and video) from your multi track QuickTime file.
As you probably know, any additional export (compression) will degrade video quality so I suggest an "up-sampling" codec like DV Stream.
Assemble your multi track QuickTime file, Save As (to gather up reference movies) and export to DV Stream. Use this .dv file in your DVD authoring app and see if things improve.

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Answer 4

navboy Author

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May 5, 2009 4:07 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Thanks for the help.

I re-exported from QT Pro using DVStream to .dv (set to default of interlaced, NTSC), imported into DVDFlick using "Best" encoding, it all looks great on the PC in PowerDVD and Media Player Classic but has bad audio stutter at exactly the same few points as it did in my prior attempts (export to AVI, export to DV/DVPRO .mov).

Is it possible to end up with a bit rate that's too much at spots for a commercial dvd player to handle? In the QT Pro export, i did chose Lock Audio at 48K (hadn't chosen that in my prior attempts). I may try choosing just the "Good" quality setting in DVDFlick, but i assume for creating a DVD you'd want the absolute best encoding settings and that unlike compressed videos for web, a dvd player can handle as much quality as you can throw at it.

I'm also confused by the size - the source is H.264 at 720x405 (16:9), but in the DV stream .dv export file, QT Pro reports the size at 853x480 (16:9).

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