Can I compress a 40+ minute HD video to burn onto a DVD using Compressor 4?

60i means 60 fields and not frames; so your project should be 30 fps.

Neither FCP nor Compressor cares how big the file is; only how long it is. THe longer the video, the lower the data rate, which may be why your quality suffered.

Your DVD is SD and will be 720x480.

Russ

Ideally, edit in the format that you shoot.

Since you mentioned 60i, I'm assuming that you shot 1080i60. (The easiest way to conform your project setting to your clip is to let FCP do it automatically with the first clip you edit to the Time Line.

If you created optimized media, then in your playback preferences, choose Use Optimized or Original Media.

You said that you were splitting it into two parts and so you could either use in and out points to select ranges for export or use two separate projects.

I would export a master file as Pro Res 422…expect very large files.

Because you'll be down scaling, I would turn on Frame Controls and set Resize Filter to Best. This will take some time so before doing the final encode, I would do a test encode of a small section. (You can do that in the Preview window by marking in and out points.)

After you're satisfied with the results and are ready to submit, choose whether you want to burn a physical disk or a disk image. (Select the disk image if you anticipate any possibility of burning additional copies in the future.

Good luck.

Russ

I think (hope) so but I'm not entirely sure about the how the timing of certain kinds of edits might be affected. (I'm still in major learning mode when it comes to the new FCP.)

What I do know is that when you create the new project, you should choose standard – at which point you can set the correct resolution and frame rate.

I will be easy enough to test.

Let us know.

Russ