Getting Best Dvd Quality, How?

[rebbi]

Hi,

Just bought Toast 11 and I'm glad to say that so far it's stable on all the tasks I've thrown at it. This is on an early-2008 MacBook Pro running Mavericks.

I am looking for a way to burn my Final Cut Pro X movies to DVD (standard def). I bought Toast because iDVD is essentially orphaned and doesn't handle the newer codecs very well, and because (hooray) Toast is the only alternative I've seen that recognizes the chapter markers I've embedded in my FCP movies and will automatically create good looking menu items for them. (The DVD export function of FCPX is very basic in this regard.)

Here's my question: When I burn my DVD, I get good looking menus, but video with rapid movement or panning motions breaks up in a way I've never quite seen before. (I should mention that my source is interlaced, widescreen, standard def video from an older MiniDV-based Canon camcorder.) I'm not talking about the appearance of scan lines, but rather, larger "stripes" of displaced video, or sometimes it looks pixellated, but the "blocks" are pretty huge.

As I said, FCPX offers only very rudimentary DVD menus, but the quality of the final video is very, very good. Hoping somebody can show me how to get the best of both worlds with Toast.

By the way, the video file I'm importing into Toast is 720 x 480, Apple ProRes 422 format.

Thanks in advance!

[rebbi]

I think Toast is having problems with the ProRes 422 codec conversions to mpeg 2. You might try a different codec when having FCP convert to standard definition before importing to Toast. Here are the settings I find work best for me.

 

tsantsee:

 

Thanks a lot for taking the trouble to post a screen grab! Can you please clarify where that settings window is from? FCPX?

[tsantee]

tsantsee:

 

Thanks a lot for taking the trouble to post a screen grab! Can you please clarify where that settings window is from? FCPX?

If there is a export setting for "QuickTime Movie" then this window appears when clicking the Custom button.

[rebbi]

I think Toast is having problems with the ProRes 422 codec conversions to mpeg 2. You might try a different codec when having FCP convert to standard definition before importing to Toast. Here are the settings I find work best for me.

 

tsantee,

 

I think you are on to something here. I tried exporting my master movie file from FCP in DVCPRO50 compression and then imported that movie into iDVD. The final results were really pretty good; very, very little in the way of scan line artifacts. Oddly, the dimensions of the movie are a little strange: even though the material is widescreen, it plays in a more rectangular format with black, vertical borders on either side in DVD Player on my Mac. But on my TV (played on a PS3) the movie fills the entire screen.

 

Thanks a lot.

[theoldarchiver]

Oddly, the dimensions of the movie are a little strange: even though the material is widescreen, it plays in a more rectangular format with black, vertical borders on either side in DVD Player on my Mac. But on my TV (played on a PS3) the movie fills the entire screen.

Apple DVD Player is usually pretty good in reading the aspect ratio, in my experience. Next time, double-check the aspect ratio setting on exporting the master to DVCPRO50 as 16:9, and also getting the DVCPRO50 material into the authoring app (iDVD or Toast) as 16:9. "Automatic" settings are never as precise as manual settings. Your player or tv may override it to your satisfaction anyway, but it is possible to get it really correct.

[tsantee]

I don't have the ProRes 422 codec but when I choose DVCPro50 or DVCPro25 there is a QuickTime setting for Progressive or Interlaced scan mode. It looks much better when I choose progressive even though the source and the DVD are interlaced. Also, in Toast's custom encoder settings window turn on Half-Pel.

 

Your best bet is to use Compressor to create .m2v and .aac streams so you're not using Toast's mpeg 2 encoder. In that case drag in only the .m2v and Toast will find the audio stream or ask you to locate it.

 

Another user posted about similar artifacts. You might browse the forum to find that thread. I don't recall how it turned out.

[rebbi]

I have a feeling I'm shelling out $49 for Compressor. :-/

[d_deweywright]

Toast is "the dark side" for me, but over on the "light side" I'd be suggesting you look for options that offer you a trade-off between quality and speed, and tell you to choose "quality." Also, if there's a choice between hardware and software rendering, choose "the other one" from what you're running now to see if that makes a difference.

 

Good luck!

[tsantee]

I have a feeling I'm shelling out $49 for Compressor. :-/

I think Toast is having problems with the ProRes 422 codec conversions to mpeg 2. You might try a different codec when having FCP convert to standard definition before importing to Toast. Here are the settings I find work best for me.