MPEG-2 VS .DV - Which is better?

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Level 2

185 points

MPEG-2 VS .DV - Which is better?

Hi,

I have 1 hour worth of video I need to get onto a DVD.

I edited in FCP, but am wondering if I should output to an MPEG-2 or DV? Is there a difference in quality / reliability? The files will then be dropped into DVD Studio Pro.

Also, should I be doing all of my compressions in Compressor or is Final cut just as good?

Thanks,
Dace

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.3.6)

Posted on Dec 20, 2006 1:07 PM

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Answer 1

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Dec 20, 2006 1:11 PM in response to Dace Willmott

Quality? All DVDs have to be encoded to mpeg2. That requires compression. There is no way to eliminate a loss in quality going DV to DVD.

Reliability? In terms of what?

To author in DVD SP, you must encode the video and audio appropriately to get a compatible playback with set top players.

You might want to take a few looks at the DVD SP manual.

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Answer 2

Drew13

Level 6

12,387 points

Dec 20, 2006 1:14 PM in response to Dace Willmott

The DV file will be recompressed to M2v for a DVD. The best way is to export the timeline as Uncompressed 8-bit/10bit then encode in Compressor then bring the m2v and AC3 file into DVD SP

http://www.dvdstepbystep.com/fasttrackover.php shows the general steps (note in step 2 set Current Settings to Uncompressed)

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Answer 3

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Dec 20, 2006 1:36 PM in response to Drew13

Drew:

Transcoding to uncompressed is just transcoding artifacts, isn't it?

It won't add to color space.

The only benefit I can see in doing this is to improve titling.

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Answer 4

Dace Willmott Author

Level 2

185 points

Dec 20, 2006 1:44 PM in response to David S.

Hey Dave,

OK Thanks. I didn't know that DVD Studio Pro encodes back into MPEG-2; but it sounds like that is the best way to go about it - straight to MPEG-2 rather than DV and then making DVDSP encode it to MPEG-2.

Is there a difference from compressing to MPEG-2 in FCP vs. Compressor?

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Answer 5

David S.

Level 7

20,636 points

Dec 20, 2006 2:01 PM in response to Dace Willmott

I don't which version of FCP you have, but I encode in Compressor for video and then audio to AC3 in a.pack or Dolby2 in Compressor.

I don't use aiff audio at all.

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Answer 6

Drew13

Level 6

12,387 points

Dec 23, 2006 5:44 AM in response to David S.

David

Picked this one up awhile ago, and seems to work. Yup, won't change color space, but seems to make the encoder work better (more so for HDV), and seems to give me better results when using filters/sizing.

Definately improves titling

Seems to work well more times than not for me, but I usually try a couple of ways and A/B often also - glad DVD-Rs are inexpensive

Drew

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