DVD's are an important piece of today's workflow and making them can become tricky.  There are software options or hardware options.  To try and help people getting started making DVD's or having issues making them, I'm going to lay out my workflow.  It's simply a point of reference.

1-First I export a Same as Source, self contained, QT mov of my finished Avid Sequence.

Be sure you are not mixing Meridian and DV codecs!  Other folks have no issues with QT Ref files.  I dislike them, but it's simply a preference on my part.

2-I then encode that QT mov into an m2v file using Bitvice.

Compressor, Squeeze, QTPro and Cleaner, among others, will do this as well.  I simply prefer Bitvice over the others.

3-I then flip the AIF audio file created when making the m2v into an ac3 file using Compressor. 

This is not absolutley necessary, but it accomplishes two tasks.  1-It results in a much, much smaller file, which leaves more room on your DVD for video.  2-It makes for much smoother throughput than the AIF and will prevent "bitrate too high" errors later on in the process.

4-I then separate my m2v and ac3 files into one folder and my mov and aif files into another. 

This is mostly about me being overly organized, but it also prevents DVDSP from mistakenly associating the aif file with the m2v rather than the ac3.

5-I then drop the m2v and ac3 files into DVD Studio Pro. 

For a standard start and stop DVD, I simply drop the m2v file into the Graphical pallete.  I then select the First Play option in the Inspector pallette and choose the m2v file.  Finally I select Advanced Burn from the File menu and select the "Build" option.  This leaves me with a Video TS folder.

6-I then drop the TS folder into Toast and burn the DVD!

So that's my way and it works flawlessly... well... except when it doesn't, but that isn't very often.  If you have questions or are you having issues making a DVD, post em' in this thread and we'll do our best to help you get rolling smoothly.

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No need to post.

Is there a way to use Bitvice to scale down HD material to full frame 4:3, i.e. crop the edges? Compressor and Squeeze allow you to do that in one step with fairly decent results, but I can't seem to be able to figure out how to do it in Bitvice (without scaling down to SD first).
Thanks.

Do not know about that... contact them directly... they are very responsive.  If Bitvice is unable to do so, they'll probably know when it will be capable.

Will this work for HD or HDV, as well. I'm sort of running into that now.

OK... I got some feedback from Bitvice.

Blueray and HD DVD will be supported in Bitvice Pro, due to be released by October, but is not currently supported in the current version, 1.8.

Bitvice 1.8 can only encode in the Standard Definition format. However, it can make SD encodes from HD video.  For this you should select one of the non-default scaling algorithms, which were introduced in Bitvice 1.7. Go to the Bitvice preferences and select the Bilinear scaling option. Be sure to restart BitVice so that your selection will stick.  Bitvice would then scale the whole image down to SD quite nicely.

Bitvice currently cannot select just the middle part of the image and do center cut.  Roger from Innobits seemed intrigued by the idea of working that feature in.

Bitvice 1.6 did not have the afore mentioned scaling algorithms, intended for HD sources. It could only use the QT scaler, which may be quick but it downscales interlaced HD very poorly, since it doesn't care if the pictures are interlaced or not.

Thanks for following up. Much appreciated.

I just want to add a couple of thoughts to what Todd has laid out here.

1. Compression to MPEG 2 can be done within DVDSP. That app uses Compressor's rendering engine so it's like doing it all in one step. I like Bitvice's compression better but, if you don't have that app, you're still good to go.

2. DVDSP will burn the TS folders for you so I prefer to take my Avid output, add it to DVDSP, check the path and hit BURN.

For me, it's a lot fewer steps and works every time.

I was just going to ask about that...are there advantages to involving the other applications in the process?  I suppose part of it regards which app performs the compression the best, which it sounds like is probably Bitvice.

But I'm also wondering if there's an advantage to using Toast for the burn rather than DVDSP.

I have not found one for simple DVDs. The QT ref to DVDSP has always been bullet-proof for those.

I always export as "Quicktime Reference" with the default settings.

Then I import it as a track into DVD Studio Pro and it handles the compression/encoding for me when I burn the disc.

The quicktime files are just links to the source media so they export instantaneously and don't consume extra HD space.

I haven't tried this with HD media, only SD.

I have problems making DVDs, but it's to do with fields in the QT exports.
Running 5.7.7 on a Macbook dual core, OS 10.4.10. QTpro 7.4.
I want to make 16x9 QTs from a 25i project for import to DVD Studio Pro 3.
Using DV-Pal codec, and just about been through all permutations but get two field images on each of the QT frames. Oddly it looks fine when the authored dvd plays on a computer (even a PC), but very flickery on movement when played on a TV.
I can make the QT single field using the Movie properties window of QTPro and try importing to DVD Studio pro, but at the end of the day I have authored DVDs in the past without field issues.
Anybody help?

Well, a couple of problems you have there to start.

1. QT 7.4 is not supported

2. Neither are the MacBooks (unless you meant MB Pro)

Having said that, iI have read some problems with QT refs and PAL.

If I were you, I would try to export WITHOUT the DV codec in another codec like animation to see if the fault lies there.

Also, iDVD is having trouble with flipped fields it that is what you are using.

Its Mac Book Pro.
I wonder if its the QT 7.4.
What is the last supported version of QTPro?
I did update it some time ago now and maybe that's when the problems began...