Exporting from FCP for iDVD

Have you already followed these steps?




http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2179



http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1611



I'm not at my system right now but does FCP have an "Export fo iDVD" option by chance?



I believe there is no option that reads Export to iDvd (as opposed to Dvdsp which is what FCP is intended for (namely pro apps). However it is possible to Export to QT and then use the file within iDvd.



Click Here



Hope this helps but if not just come on back.





Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Well, I take a different approach. I just export a NON self-contained QT from FCP and let iDVD handle all the encoding. It's very fast, and you definitely don't need to export to h.264, because iDVD will just re-encode to MPEG-2 anyway.

The only other iDVD related tips are that you have to either follow the steps in a prior message to make sure that the QT is flagged correctly re:16:9 vs. 4:3 (or use Anamorphicizer and/or Inverse Anamorphicizer to fix it - find these here: http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html)

And, I always use iDVD to create a .img file rather than a disc. Then if that went well I use Disk Utility to burn the dvd. This means you never have to re-encode, you have in essence a backup of the disc, and it makes it simple to make future copies.

David Dixon

H.264 is a delivery format / compression scheme. Great for streaming to AppleTV, iPod, etc.



However, I'm still shooting and working with .DV (mainly via FireWire on a Sony 3 Chip TRV900). And David is correct. Eventually this is all compressed into Mpeg 2. It's tried and tested / old technology but it works great for what I do.



Unfortunately my G4 Power Mac/s (even with all its upgrades) isn't really beefy enough to address H.264 so I will let others who actually use this latest format on this forum help you from here forward.



And just so we're all on on the same page, here's what iDvd's Help menu says about which formats work best with iDvd'08:



Video and image formats that work with iDVD
You can use these movie and graphic formats in iDVD:
◼
Most video or image files supported by QuickTime (see the list of unsupported QuickTime formats below)
◼
16:9 widescreen formats
◼
AAC, MP3, and AIFF audio files
◼
Any format from iMovie: DV, high-definition video (HDV), MPEG-2 SD, MPEG-2 SD, MPEG-4 SD, MPEG-4 HD, and AVCHD
High definition video is converted to work with the format of your project. iDVD supports using 16:9 widescreen video; therefore, when your DVD plays on a DVD player that supports widescreen format, the footage appears in its original aspect ratio.
The following video and image formats are not supported in iDVD:
◼
Copyrighted or protected videos.
◼
Movies saved in thousands of colors using the “none” compression setting in iMovie.
◼
48-bit color images (16 bits per color). To use source files in one of these formats in iDVD, save them in a supported format.
◼
Aurora uncompressed files. For best results, export Aurora clips as DV-format video before importing them into iDVD.
◼
QuickTime VR, MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, Flash, streaming or encrypted movies, or QuickTime spanned movies. You can’t add MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files to an iDVD project because they don’t contain standard video tracks.
◼
QuickTime Fast Start movies. (Fast Start movies are intended for Internet playback.) When saving a QuickTime movie for use with iDVD, click the Options button in the QuickTime Export dialog and make sure that the “Prepare for Internet Streaming” checkbox is not selected.
NOTE: You can add any type of file to the DVD-ROM portion of your DVD so that viewers can copy the file to a computer. Viewers can access these files only when viewing the DVD in a computer, not a DVD player connected to a TV.

+And, I always use iDVD to create a .img file rather than a disc. Then if that went well I use Disk Utility to burn the dvd. This means you never have to re-encode, you have in essence a backup of the disc, and it makes it simple to make future copies.+

I second this recommendation. In addition, with a disk image file saved, you can safely delete the original media used in your iDVD project without losing the ability to burn more copies. You can save the disk image files to an external drive, also.