Small Clips to DVD?

[eclipse525]

I have a ton of funny clips. Some are ".mpg", ".avi", ".wmv" etc. Now I know that MPlayer can play all these clips but what can i use to actually do a video collage of them and burn them to DVD with chapters? Can iMovie do the job or do I have to use Final Cut? OR neither? Any help, thanks!

~e

 

[WinterMute]

You'll need to convert them to a format that either iDVD or DVDSP will deal with.

QuickTime Pro will convert most into DV format, so you can put it into iDVD, Cleaner will convert almost anything.

iDVD does the conversion to MPEG2 in the background.

If you are using DVDSP, you'll need to convert the clips to MPEG2 before importing them.

iMovie will import DV clips for editing, and will send the whole movie to iDVD.

Your easiest path is to convert to DV for iMovie (or one of the other formats iMovie imports) do your edit then run it over to iDVD.

If you don't have iDVD, export to MPEG2 via QT Pro from iMovie and use DVDSP.

 

[advres]

i find cleaner faster than QT for MPEG2 encoding. cleaner is also much more customizable to what you want. if you are a newbie than QT will be the easiest. software encoding takes a long time mind you. if you only want to archive small clips let it be known that you can save DVD images to CD-R's but they will only play in computer DVD drives. just a money saving adea.

 

[eclipse525]

Thanks guys ......I do have cleaner and iDVD. I just have't played with them. I will give it a shot and then see what happens. I'm sure it'll work out.

I've asked some people about using QT for things like this and most tell me to avoid it. They say I should use a separate app for things like this, they just work better.



~e

 

[WinterMute]

The main issue is quality, QT just doesn't render as well as Cleaner at similar bit-rates, although it is often a lot easier to export from an iApp via QT to MPEG2 than export to DV and use Cleaner.

I have the new Compressor app that comes with FCP4, but haven't used it yet.

iDVD uses the QT codec in the background as you import the clips, but seems to make a decent job of the encoding.

Incidentally, if you collate the clips in iMovie, you can bounce the whole thing directly to iDVD using the "iDVD" button, so you only need to worry about getting the clips into iMovie. Be aware there is currently a limit to the amount of video you can use in iDVD, 60 mins I think.

 

[eclipse525]

In order to keep the clips consistent as far as look and feel once it's on DVD and I'm playing it on my DVD player, do I have to import them into FCP? and is there an easy way to keep the brightness level consistant through out the various imported clips?


~e

 

[WinterMute]

Yes, there are comprehensive controls in FCP for picture quality including brightness, contrast, saturation etc., you'll need to adjust each clip to your own needs, although there are scope tools to tell you the correct figures if you know how to use them