Gb Size Discrepancy

[theteenagehead]

I'm trying to burn a .mov quicktime file exported from FCP to a DVD DL. The weird thing is, the actual file size is 5.85 GB, but when I drop it into Toast it tells me that the file is only taking up 1.86GB. Why is this? I want it to be as big as it can, right? Thanks for any help.

[tsantee]

The video DVD format is for MPEG 2 video which is a moderately compressed format. The movie exported from Final Cut is only slightly compressed. At 5.85 GB I'm calculating that your video is about 65 minutes in length. In that case you can get the maximum-quality video DVD on a single-layer disc because you can't go over a maximum bit rate setting.

 

Here's what I'd do in your case. Click the More... button at the bottom left of the Toast window and click the Encoder tab and then the Custom button. Change the Average bit rate setting to 7.5 or 8 and change the maximum to 8.5. Put a check mark next to Half-Pel. If the highest-quality audio is also important then choose PCM audio. However, with that high a video bit rate along with PCM audio the total bit rate may be so high that some DVD players may have difficulty with playback. I'd back down the Average video bit rate to 7 if doing PCM audio. If you want AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio then I suggest 256 kbps because that will be very good quality.

 

If you only plan to play the video on a computer then you can drag your .mov file to the Data window and burn it to a DL disc without any conversion.