Phillip's workflow is spot on.

Thanks guys,


I still can't get anything to cooperate. I exported a quicktime file last night and then tried importing it into compressor.....no dice. It just hangs there and never makes any progress. I trashed my preference files and tried to export using quicktime again and it still isn't working. I'm at a loss here. Are there any other processes I can try? I gues I am really SOL here. Do I reinstall FCP? I really just want to get this thing done and over with. Any additional help would be great! Thanks again guys!

Ryan

It sounds like the problem may with Compressor. Can you check this by importing & using your 'usual preset' for a file that you know successfully worked in the past. If that doesn't work then try one of the standard Apple supplied DVD presets.

You do open Batch Monitor if you render in Compressor right?

Because it's the Batch Monitor that tells you the progress of your batch...

As told here, I always export in FCP as a Quicktime Movie in the current and original settings, thus having a 'Master', self contained of course. I'm still on FCS 2, but if I exported via Compressor, straight from FCP, I always got lockups.
So if I have that self contained Quicktime, I never get problems rendering that.

Ryan,

When you say Compressor "just sits there" are you meaning that it looks as if nothing is happening at all and you don't get a "time to finish" estimate window, or just that things are in-progress but just taking longer than you think it should?

If things aren't working or responding at all that tells me you've got a system that needs maintenance. Download and Onyx (free app) and run ALL it's cleaning and maintenance routines and reboot. If things still aren't working properly after that then you've got more serious problems.

Nigel, Thanks for the responce. I haven't tried that yet. I'll give it a whirl and let you know what happens. Thanks!

Mathieu, I did export a quicktime movie and it is not a reference. Is the batch monitor the small window below the preview window? that's the only place I knew of to check progress. If there is another option I'd love to know. I look around compressor and see if there is anything else. I did wind up just dropping the quicktime movie into idvd and it seems to be going fine. We'll see what the final product looks like on the tv. I still want to use dvdsp so I can do my own menus and chapters though. Thanks!

Ryan

Robert, Compressor just continues to say "unknown finish time" in the estimate window. Maybe I'll try onyx. My hard drive on my mac is pretty much full. Would that have something to do with this? Thanks!

Ok.....I have a little update. I'm still having trouble with compressor and the video in question, BUT I opened another project that I finished a while back and exported it using both quicktime and quicktime conversion. Both came out just fine.

If somebody could help me out here I'd be willing to pay for your services. I really would like to get this figured out. Thanks!

Ryan