Hi Russ, thanks for responding.
Here you go: I'm not an expert, so this may be more info than necessary, but I'm trying to answer all questions in advance.
I'm using video files from two different HD cameras, both shot in 1080i (1920X1080, 29.97i), stereo sound @ 48Khz. Each contains their own audio-track from the on-camera audio.
I imported all the clips with the "create optimized media" box checked to create pro-res 422 files for editing.
I synched them manually into multi-cam clips using a slate (which was fortunate because the difference in sound levels meant that FCPX's attempt to auto-synch failed), and cut & edited them into a completed project.
I know that DVD resolution is not HD, but I wanted the best original source material so I shot and edited in HD anyway. I know FCPX will compress the final result down to DVD resolution, and that's cool.
The completed project is 1 hour 50 minutes long. I added 68 chapter markers. (the project is for a school talent show which had 68 acts) Editing went fine and I'm happy with the finished project. My fellow parents are anxious to see the finished DVD.
So, after a week's work, I'm now trying to create the DVD image on my hard drive, for later burning to disks.
From FCPX, I'm selecting File>Share>DVD.
In the DVD window, the "info" tab is giving me an estimated size of 3.84GB.
This should fit on a standard single-layer DVD-R (capacity 4.7G (4.38gig), or 2+ hours of video)
There is no option to change any of the "info" settings, it's just standard DVD resolution (720X480, Stereo 48Khz, time 1:50:17:06, 2 files)
I click "settings" tab and choose these settings including "single layer":
Output Device: Hard Drive
Layers: Single-layer
Disk Template: Black
When Disk Loads: Show menu
Markers: checked "Use Chapter Markers as subtitles"
Background: [a 970kb JPG still image]
Clicking next and specifying an external hard drive with 1+TB of free space, FCPX goes to work, and, after about 50 minutes, creates a finished DVD image file that is.... 6.7G's.
Whoops! too big to fit on a single layer DVD.
So, what am I doing wrong?
I sure hope the problem is me rather than the software, but I doubt it, since the same problem has been reported on these forums here, here, here, and here.
All previous posters reported the problem arising in 10.0.6, the same version Apple offers as a trial. The 10.0.7 version release notes state "Fixes an issue that could occur when creating a single layer DVD." But I can't get a trial of the 10.0.7 to test this.
The work-arounds which were posted in response to those earlier forum posts were either to use a dual-layer disc (non-starter, as most parents will want to watch these DVDs on their stand-alone DVD players hooked up to their TV, most of which won't play dual-layer media) or export a master file then use Compressor X. (which supposedly works but there's no trial version to verify this and I'm not up for spending 50 bucks to find out.)
So, can you help me? I sure hope I'm doing something wrong because I really want this to work.
Thanks so much.