Are you viewing the dvd on a television or on your computer monitor? Depending on the nature and format of your original (pre-MPEG2) footage the end result can sometimes look soft on a computer monitor. I've had the best encoding results with iDVD when I give it DV stream footage. I think it has less to do with iDVD than with the black art of encoding strategies.

When playing the finished DVD back on the Mac the Actor looks badly sunburnt.

When playing the DVD back on TV he is sunburnt too.

But when the quicktime file that has been exported out of fCP but is still on the HDD it looks fine.

Also if I print to video from FCP and record into the XL1s again or onto a VHS and play that on the TV it is good too.

thats why I was thinking it is iDVD problem. What do you think?

and thanks a lot for your reply

:o)

Hmmm...well your circumstances certainly implicate iDVD's encoder, eh. I've not encountered this. Since there's no opportunity to intervene in iDVD's encoding process (that I know of) the only other chance for adjustment would be in the FCP export. What format do you use to export from FCP? As I noted earlier I always have used a DV stream file.

I did a series of tests over the weekend and found some interesting results.

Bottom line is this:
1. If I run FCP 3.0 in mac osx and capture to my external firewire drive, the audio is garbled. It is automatically saved as a QT clip and no matter what - even if I move the saved file back to my internal drive, the audio is too fast and loopy.
2. If I do the same thing but in macos 9.2, everything is fine - no audio or video problems. And the saved clips open in macos x and work fine.
3. If I change my scratch disk to the internal drive, everything works from the getgo in macos x.
4. Conclusion: FCP thru firewire in osx is different, then in os 9. I may need a faster external drive (using Que firewire 60GB), but I have a workaround that works (os9).

Anyone else having similar experiences?

I have been exporting out of FCP as a Final Cut Pro movie, not a QuickTime file. Maybe that's where I am going wrong.

Today I am exporting out of FCP as you do Ken, as a DV Stream.

Then I will use that file and iDVD to make another DVD and see how that looks for colour etc. Perhaps I have been compressing the movie twice?

thanks

Well you are compressing the movie into DV and then into MPEG2, so yes you are compressing it twice.... that can't be avoided no matter what. I don't know what the difference between a DV Stream and a Final Cut Pro movie would be. I think it results in the exact same data. I'll be interested to hear your results.

Help! Audio redering.
 

FCP3 Mac G4
I've done something and I cant think what!
Each time I put an audio file into the timeline I get the red render bar. I then render the entire audio track. When I insert another video clip the red render bar appears over the newly inserted video track. I've checked and re-checked the set-up settings and everything looks to be OK. They're set at DV Pal 48 KHz

Off-hand it sounds like the sampling rates of your audio files may be different from that of your FCP timeline. Unless this is going to be a very short project I'd suggest you recapture / regenerate your external audio files with the same sampling rate. Otherwise you'll be re-rendering audio over and over.

Hi,

What is the source of your external audio clips? Are you sure they are 48kHz?

Jeff Donald

The footage I exported as a FCP movie was actually slightly larger then when exported as a DV Stream. ie 2.4gig opposed to 2.3g as a DV Stream. (The FCP manula says FCP exported movie gives broadcast uality compreesed file and DV Stream gives broadcast quality uncompressed file) then I burnt to iDVD and same problem occured but then:

Good news. I figured it out.

The problem was I created a new iDVD project and then I selected PAL system in prferences, but you need to select your system first and then when you create your next Project you get choosen system.

So I was shooting and editing in PAL then I was accidentally telling iDVD to burn the DVD as an NTSC disc.

So now I have created a DVD with superb picture, with the quality I was hoping for.

thanks for all replies!
:o)

Sounds like a good bit of detective work. I followed this string with interest, because I'd intended, now that I have one of the "big bopper" G4s, to start using a DVD for mastering, rather than the expensive full size DV cassettes. I was hoping I wouldn't need the DV Studio Pro package. Sounds like it worked OK for you.

Yeah, next Chris will make you start wearing clean Levis with no holes.......

If you look sharp, then you feel sharp. Shirt tails tucked in, and a belt, that's all I ask. Straighten your gig line, mister! I hope not too many people ever had to hear that in their teens and twenties.

As a matter of fact, I *did* hear that in my early twenties while in the USMC -- however, I recall a word other than 'mister' being used!

Semper Fi

Help! Audio render
 

The audio source is from a music CD. I didn't think that this made a difference because I know the CD audio rate is 44.1 KHz but that has never made a difference in the past as i thought that FCP converted.
David