HD FCP 16:9 to SD in DVD studio Pro settings

[Josh Swan]

I've been searching for a while on here and can't really find what I'm looking for. I'm new to the HD scene and was wondering if you guys could tell me what works best for editing HD in FCP and then delivering a DVD 16:9 SD. The full process would be great, do you change bit rate and so forth.

Thanks and sorry if this has been addressed a bunch around here, if it was, not the easiest to find.

[Heath McKnight]

So, let me make sure I understand you correctly; you're looking for:

1. Final Cut Pro 6.x settings for HD? What kind of HD did you shoot on?

2. Settings in Compressor for export to DVD (SD, 16:9)?

Let me know if this is what you need.

Heath

[Glenn Fisher]

I've had to handle this issue many times, since I shoot in HDV but need to deliver SD DVDs. Although I haven't experimented with it too much (which I really SHOULD do, and if you have time, I would advise you to do the same), here's what's worked for me in the past:



Compressor:
1. From FCP, choose File -> Export to Compressor (or you could export your timeline as a quicktime file too, although then you need to drag it into Compressor).

2. Compressor will automatically open with your sequence ready to go. From the many presets, choose Apple -> DVD and then choose "DVD Best Quality..." for however long your video is (it will make sense when you see the options in Compressor, trust me).

3. Once you select the folder with "DVD Best Quality..." for the length of time that you need to fit on the DVD, inside of that folder you will find two presets. One of them is for audio and the other is video. Select both of them and drag to where it says "Drag Settings and Destinations Here" (no, really?).

4. For both the audio and the video (you have to do this for each one individually) right click on the destination (it may say "Source" meaning that it will save the compressed file to wherever your original video came from) and select "Destination -> Other" and then choose where you would like to save your compressed files.

5. Click the "Submit" button, rename the project if needed, and let compressor run for awhile. To watch the progress of your compression, open up the "Batch Monitor."



DVD Studio Pro:
1. Load your assets into DVD Studio Pro.

2. Create the basic tracks and menus that you need to work with.

3. For each track/menu, select it, and then in the inspector there should be an option to change it to "16:9 Letterbox" (I can't open DVD Studio Pro right now, but I think for a menu it's under the "Menu" tab of the inspector when you have a menu selected, and for a track it's under the default tab, whichever one that is).



That will force any (abiding) DVD player to play back your HD content in a letterboxed format on an SD DVD.

Best of luck to you, and I hope that helps,
Glenn Fisher

[Josh Swan]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

So, let me make sure I understand you correctly; you're looking for:

1. Final Cut Pro 6.x settings for HD? What kind of HD did you shoot on?

2. Settings in Compressor for export to DVD (SD, 16:9)?

Let me know if this is what you need.

Heath

I'm just looking for the best way to deliver HD to an SD DVD 16:9

And if you guys have run into any problems and so forth in the process

Thanks Glenn that was helpful.
So what will it do if you don't letterbox? Will it distort the image on SD tv's? (4:3)
I should do some tests, but I just wanted to see what was working for you guys out there.

[Heath McKnight]

I use Fastest Encode--Best Quality has been buggy for years. I wrote a tutorial for VASST, but I can't seem to find it on their new site.

Heath