DVD/Compressor questions
 

I've been following the excellent discussion on the thread "FCP-Compressor-DVD Final Video Image Poor?", below.

I have a couple questions regarding SD dvds:

Should one always de-interlace footage?

Is there any consensus that one should export directly from FCP to Compressor, or should one make an FCP movie and import that into Compressor?

Should one always use Dolby .ac3 files instead of Aiff?

best,
elmer

De-Interlacing causes a change in the nature of the footage, essentially a change in frame rate. Since most DVDs are going to be shown on some sort of interlace capable monitor, I would suggest leaving the footage the way it was shot unless there's a creative decision to go with a progressive look.

The consensus I've heard is that Compressor will create a better compression from the original FCP timeline as Compressor will use the clip cut points as a signal to reassess the compression ratios. A solid movie file would lack the cut points and could have degraded compression.

ac3 files have more compression but should sound fine for most purposes. The real benefit of ac3 is that it allows more room for the video. Short DVDs won't need ac3 but as you approach 60 minutes or more, ac3 becomes a good idea.

A point of interest here: .ac3 not only saves space, but is part of the DVD standard, uncompressed .aiff is not. Althought .aiff will work, there are more chances of playback errors on picky DVD players. We used to use iDVD to make client proofs and had the occasional complaint that the DVD would not play. iDVD uses aiff, not .ac3. When we swithced to DVDSP and started using .ac3, we have not received a single complaint about playback problems.

Regarding exporting out of FCP to Compressor vs creating a self contained movie to import into Compressor, William is partially correct. Compressor will note the cross disolves and high motion areas that would benefit from a higher bit rate when doing a 2 pass VBR, however, when exporting a self contained FCP movie, you have the option to save the compression markers from FCP in the self contained movie. When using Export>QuickTime Movie, leave the export settings at Use Current. In the DVDSP markers dropdown, choose All (Ithink it's All).

And if I have it correct, before making the self-contained movie, you have to create the compression markers yourself, a three step process for every marker.

Now here's a question, which 3rd party MPEG2 compression programs recognize the FCP compression marker when it's contained in a QuickTime movie?

William,

It is not necessary to make the compression markers. They are made as you edit and just as they are read when exporting from FCP to Compressor, they are read in Compressor from self contained FCP movies imported into it.

BitVice is a third party encoder that reads DVDSP and compression markers from self contained or reference FCP movies.

So FCP automatically places compression markers into self-contained QuickTime movies?

Yes, it does.

Hooray!!!!!!!!!