FCP and Compressor to iDVD

I'm sure old story, but I can't seem to find the answers.

I am not sure if I have used compressor to put my videos on iDVD in the past. I edit in FCP 6.02 and then export to QT 7.3.1 then IDVD using my Mac 5 workhorse.. I think I read an article you wrote where you said the video should be compressed I know for web but what about for DVD to play on computer or TV. Does size matter? This party video is 53 min. Do I need to compress? I tried straight to iDVD (without using compressor) but the video stops when playing on my mac laptop, i click and it starts again and then stops etc. It also gets ejected when I try to play it on my Workhorse Mac 5 (where i created it. If I use compressor, I can't seem to get it into iDVD.... just turns red or green after compressing??? Thanks for help. I really need to get this thing done.

Chuck

The proper way to do this is to export from FCP

Select the Sequence in the Browser or in the Timeline, set In and Out points.

File > Export > QT (Not with Conversion). Make Self Contained, Use Current Settings, Do Not Recompress all frames.

Then drop the QT export into iDVD.

--ken

Thanks, that's what I have been doing but I thought i read an article to compress. But now I have to find out how to set the in and out points.

Ok, I opened in FCP and set in point (at the beginning) and out (at the end) and it highlighted everything of course and is all white. Now it is exporting QT self contained, if that is what you said then I'll see here pretty soon and send it to iDVD. This may be why I have had some dvd's act kind of weird in the past, I hope. Thanks again.

Chuck

iDVD does not work with files from Compressor. Ken's way is just about the only way from FCP to iDVD.

-DH