Burning DVD-R Movies with FINAL CUT PRO X

I have been trying to burn a video in a DVD-R. Everytime I burn the movie when I watch it the videos suddenly pause and then continues. I burned several copies of the same project and everytime I burned the DvD the video paused at a different spot. I tried exporting the project as a master file, importing it and then burning it and the movie still paused. I honestly do not know what to do any more!

My workflow for DVD-Rs (until they finally go away for good) is to export the master QT file from FCPX. Then I MPEG-2 compress it in Compressor. After that I pull it into my old copy of DVD Studio Pro to author and then burn it using Roxio Toast. You could just use Toast and skip the authoring process assuming you don't need fancy menus.

Good luck,

---> Jarrod

@JarrodMFay. Why not also burn it in DSP? Since you are authoring it, why not complete the process there? We encode the assets either in Compressor or Sorensen Squeeze and finish the DVD in DSP without any issues in El Capitan.

Hey Janette. Welcome to the forum.

The first thing I would try (to begin to narrow down what the problem is) is to play the DVDs on another DVD player.
Your issue sounds suspiciously like an issue with the DVD playback.

When you test a DVD burned from a computer it is always a good idea to play it back on several different DVD players.

I test on:
1. a Mac with a USB 3 Blu Ray Reader/Writer device plugged in to see if the Mac DVD software plays it ok.
2. dedicated dvd player hooked up to a tv
3. a Blu Ray player hooked up to a tv

It's important to know that there are very loose guidelines for the manufacturing of DVD playback devices. Some DVD players will struggle with bitrates that are higher than 4.3~5.2 mb/sec data rates.

If your machine is playing back, but then pauses at different spots, it sounds like a machine having trouble keeping up with the data rate. Going through compressor, as Jarrod suggested, is a good idea. I would bring the data rate down to about 3.9 mb/s and test on your device again.

If this lower bit rate plays back ok for you, then you know you have a rotten DVD player. If it still doesn't work, let the forum know.

Good luck
Scott M

I think it goes back to the old days where DVD-R compatibility on various players was a big deal. We always had better luck with discs burned in Toast than straight from DSP. It may not be an issue any more.

To be honest, I think (hope) we just convinced our last customer to never ask us for DVDs any more and I will not be disappointed if that's the case. I hate having our beautiful work compressed down to anamorphic SD as a deliverable. :sick:

---> Jarrod

I'm totally with you on that ! We constantly try to get clients to accept delivery via flash drive/online/anything other than DVD, but we can't convince everyone and some (mostly schools and museums) want a DVD along with a digital file for distribution and archive. We only do it because the market here for it exists and clients are willing to pay for the authoring time. We shrink the demand for it each year, though just can eliminate it yet.

dgwvideo wrote: @JarrodMFay. Why not also burn it in DSP? Since you are authoring it, why not complete the process there? We encode the assets either in Compressor or Sorensen Squeeze and finish the DVD in DSP without any issues in El Capitan.

DVD Studio Pro isn't very good at burning discs. Encore is the same way. Both burn as fast as possible with zero speed controls. It figures that you want the disc burned as quickly as possible, quality be damned. Toast will let you control this a bit and I've always had better luck burning an ISO (or in the case of DVD, exported VIDEO_TS folders) with Toast. The compatibility differences between the two apps is real. Otherwise I hate Toast for everything else.