I've come to the end of my workflow, I've mixed down two video tracks (clips and titles) and four audio tracks into two and put all of these in a new sequence.

I then exported to QT using these settings: 

Export as QT movie

Use enabled tracks

Custom

video and audio

720x 540 size to fit

color levels RGB File field order Odd (upper first)

Display aspect ratio 16:9 square pixel 940 x 540

FORMAT OPTIONS

Video Compression H.264

Quality: high

Key frame rate: 24

Frame reodering: yes

Encoding mode: multi-pass

Sound Format uncompressed

Sample rate 44.1Hz

Sample size: 16

Channels: 2

Prepare for internet streaming fast start.

My problem is, the colours on the QT movie are a bit washed out, but more importantly than that is that I'm getting pixelation on some parts when I playback the movie.

Then when I burn this to DVD this gets worse, with my titles being especially pixelated and I'm getting glitches at a lot of places but especially cuts and transitions.

I've been told that on final cut in order to get a nice clean export it's advisable to completely wipe all render files and thereafter do a new and complete render on the whole sequence.

So my questions are; is that also relevant for Avid? If not, what is the best way to ensure a nice clean export?

and;

Should I be exporting as an Mpeg 2 for DVD?

Also when I tried exporting as an mpeg4 so as to get a low res clip for internet streaming purposes, the export would go right to the end and then tell me I had a 'device error 2002',

Where am I going wrong there?

(My clips come from various sources but all in PAL)

Here's what my suggestion would be:

Output a quicktime reference file. It will be small (only a couple KB's) and it has to stay on the local machine to work, as it links to all the source footage. Import that file to your DVD program, and it will transcode/render correctly for DVD it as it prepares to burn it.

If you would like a simple way to create good quicktime files that can be transfered to other systems, just output that reference. Open it up in an encoding program like Sorenson Squeeze or the free program MPEG Streamclip. In there you can choose all the settings you want, including an option to deinterlace. The render is fast, and the results look great!

Hope this helps!

-Jeff

I should also note that when you export the Quicktime Reference you'll get good color results with the "601" Color levels, as opposed to RGB. Also make sure your field order is supposed to be upper first. (Not sure what it is in PAL, but I know it's lower in NTSC). "Use Avid DV Codec" should be checked as well.

OK, I'll try that, but I've had bad experiences with MPEG streamclip and in fact can't find it in my program files to get it off my machine!

Any other suggestions as far as the glitching and my other problems are concerned?

and

Can I wipe all my renders and re-render the entire sequence at once?

Hi,

Take a look at How to DVD on this thread.  There are several good workflow suggestions for various pieces of software you might have.

Essentially, you export a Quicktime reference movie and use that in an encoding program like Squeeze or Procoder to make an MPEG2 file that you can then use in a DVD authoring program like Encore or DVD Studio or DVDit.

dariv:

Can I wipe all my renders and re-render the entire sequence at once?

Why do you want to? 

good luck,
Carl

Thanks Carl, once again you've saved my bacon :-).

I was asking the rendering question because a friend of mine says he gets really smooth renders that way while using final cut, I thought there would be a similar action for Avid, with a similar result. Apparently not no?

dariv:

Thanks Carl, once again you've saved my bacon :-).

You're welcome.  I've been here long enough that I know where a lot of stuff is.  ;) 

dariv:

I was asking the rendering question because a friend of mine says he gets really smooth renders that way while using final cut, I thought there would be a similar action for Avid, with a similar result. Apparently not no?

No, there's no need to delete all your renders and do them again prior to exporting or laying off to tape.  They'd look no  better or worse after rendering them again, and you might wind up accidentally deleting a matte key or something else important.  Once you've got your sequence edited the way you want it, you can go ahead and export or lay off.

good luck,
Carl

camoscato:

Take a look at How to DVD on this thread.  There are several good workflow suggestions for various pieces of software you might have.

Most of the links are deadmeat now... 404 errors everywhere. Someone should fix this. I remember there being some good stuff there. Real keepers!

 It would be a real shame for all that work to go to waste.

Wm.Busby:

Most of the links are deadmeat now... 404 errors everywhere.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the heads up.  I think most of the posts are still around someplace, but the forum addresses changed with the new forum a few weeks ago, so they're getting lost.  Anyway, I've got a message in to Pif to see what needs to be done to update the links.

adios,
Carl

How bizzare! This morning when you sent those links, the one I clicked worked, now none of them seem to work. I was looking for the avid doc on dvd settings for sorenson squeeze.

Any ideas?

cheers

Hi,

Try here.

good luck,
Carl

just got back in town, thanks for that.