Compressing Quicktime file for DVD
 

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this in, but hopefully it is.

I have a short film that was shot on S16mm, transferred to HDCAM, and edited in FCP. I'm trying to make a DVD for the film and don't know what the best way to go about compressing the film is. I tried the DVD Best Quality setting in Compressor, but that ended up pixelating my text in the opening credits over black, and makes the scrolling end credits flicker.

I initially exported the film as a Quicktime movie file with Apple Pro Res 422 1920x1080 24p 48Khz settings. The Quicktime itself plays fine with none of the text issues. The HDCAM tape exported from FCP directly is also fine when played on an HD Monitor. The scrolling text plays perfectly.

The Quicktime movie file is 8.55gb in size. What would be the best way to get this file onto a playable DVD without the pixelating text and flicker problem in the scrolling credits?

I can't tell for sure from your description above but you may be having an issue when Compressor drops the resolution to DVD level, where it's inconsistently changing the weight of the fonts in your credits creating the flicker. If the text is rendered in HD resolutions, and you drop it down to DVD, flicker can be very common.

One thing to try is just making a copy of the segment with the credits in FCP and dropping the sequence settings down to DVD resolution. Restructure your credits there so they flow smoothly. You can then dump that segment through Compressor separately along with the original sequence minus the credits and join the two parts back together in DVDSP to push them to the DVD.