DVD Menu Creation for Completed FCPX Project?

Hey there guys,
I hope that this post finds you all having a great start to 2017.

We have a completed project in FCP X (10.0.9, Mac OS X 10.8.5) which we want to:

1. Burn onto a DVD which is playable worldwide (i.e. Region 9); and

2. Create a DVD menu for.

Therefore, I have the following questions:

A. Is the DVD disk option in FCP X share Region 9 by default, or are there restrictions in place?

B. What is the best way of creating a DVD menu with (i) chapters, (ii) a background image and (iii) background music? We bought a copy of iLife '11 from Amazon in the United Kingdom for iDVD. However, DVD Studio Pro seems to be available from Apple online for free ( support.apple.com/kb/dl164?locale=en_US ), and there are a number of third-party apps out there which seem to perform a similar function. Does anyone have any recommendations or thoughts on which route to go?

C. What exactly is the workflow for this process? Do you create the .img file in FCP X and somehow load it into iDVD or DVD Studio Pro?

Please forgive my ignorance on these matters as it is the first time we are doing anything like this.

I would be grateful for any guidance.

Many thanks for reading this post!

Hi Alex
AFAIK iDVD does indeed format region free. You do need to be aware of NTSC vs PAL.
Since you are using Mountain Lion (10.8.5) the last version of iDVD should work fine including the Themes and Audio wells. Later versions of MacOS have issues.
Be aware that the DVD standards limit resolution and format. The original standard was 480p and 4X3 format. Later versions allow some non-standard formatting and this is reflected in iDVD. You can produce 16X9 format and if I remember correctly the resolution goes up to 756(???)
If you create a Blu-ray Disk (BD) you can create HD 1080 movies with a BD burner using Finder or Toast Titanium.
You want to export out of FCPX as a Master File or QT file and import into iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. Make sure you check mark include Chapter Markers and any other features you want in the Settings pane.
If you use the Share DVD export setting, it generates the file for an actual completed DVD including the ts video and audio files needed, but this is not importable into iDVD/SP.
I don't think the link you provided for DVD Studio Pro will provide a "Free" version, it is just an Update for FCP Studio Pro Apps. You would still need to have them already purchased and installed on your computer in order to use the update.
iDVD was a good app in it's day but Apple has abandoned it. There are some alternatives, but none as easy and nice. Toast Titanium and Adobe are possible alternatives.
There are some threads here on fop.co and more can be found on Apple's community support pages and Ken Stone's site has some good tutorials on using iDVD, DVD Studio Pro… www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html
If you need more specific help, post back, Good Luck

Hope this Helps, Greg

Thank you so much for this amazingly comprehensive post! We sincerely appreciate your kindness.

You mention NTSC versus PAL. Will a DVD that we author using a combination of FCP X and iDVD only work in one of these standards? I ask because we need our DVD to be playable in both.

Your DVD will need to be made either NTSC or PAl. It cannot be made to include both formats. The frame rates and color information is different between these two standards. Generally all PAL DVD players (the European standard) will also read and play NTSC DVD's. In the US this is not the case and US players can only use NTSC. So it would seem for maximum compatibility you would want to burn the DVD in NTSC standards. See this link for some additional information.: www.sjbproductions.com/web_pages/tip_video/ntsc_pal.htm

Thank you so much for this brilliant information! Your kindness is sincerely appreciated.

It looks like NTSC is the way to go. Or we could make two versions. Alternatively, we might produce a blu-ray disk for people who want really high resolution.

Thanks once again!

Back in the day, when I used to produce lots of commercial stuff on DVD, we always did two versions; NTSC & PAL.

This is definitely the best solution. I just wonder about the administrative costs; plus, I am guessing that a lot of our viewers will be using a laptop to play the DVD anyway.

dgwvideo wrote: Your DVD will need to be made either NTSC or PAl. It cannot be made to include both formats. The frame rates and color information is different between these two standards. Generally all PAL DVD players (the European standard) will also read and play NTSC DVD's. In the US this is not the case and US players can only use NTSC. So it would seem for maximum compatibility you would want to burn the DVD in NTSC standards. See this link for some additional information.: www.sjbproductions.com/web_pages/tip_video/ntsc_pal.htm

You've raised a really important question: where in the DVD authoring process is the NTSC/PAL status determined? Can you choose this in FCP X, or is it an option in iDVD or DVD Studio?

As far as I know if your FCPX timeline (project) is PAL then when you share the project to DVD you will burn a PAL DVD. If the project is NTSC then that is the format of the burned DVD. You can also send your project to Compressor and set the encoding functions for PAL settings and then create the PAL disc directly from within compressor.

I'd do one project timeline in FCPX, then Send To Compressor, specify region, etc, there.

Also consider online download/viewer such as iTunes. Not 100% of the market, but a segment that is growing larger.

dgwvideo wrote: As far as I know if your FCPX timeline (project) is PAL then when you share the project to DVD you will burn a PAL DVD. If the project is NTSC then that is the format of the burned DVD. You can also send your project to Compressor and set the encoding functions for PAL settings and then create the PAL disc directly from within compressor.

Thank you for your kind explanation!

So would the workflow be FCP X>Send to Compressor>iDVD?

I totally agree about iTunes. The only thing is that this project has to be a physical DVD because there is an accompanying book.

Sending to Compressor encodes the assets as per how you configure them. Once that is done you can use those assets in DVDSP, and I assume iDVD if you want. They may also work in other DVD burning software. This step would only be necessary if you wanted more control over the authoring options that FCPX DVD sharing provides, which is limited but does allow chapters, background image, logo, etc. Compressor will also allow finer tuning of the DVD burn process. If you don't need menu buttons for navigation and are satisfied with the default FCPX DVD sharing options then you could simply create the NTSC project in FCPX and share to DVD. Then copy the project to a new PAL project and share from there to DVD. You'll end up with a PAL DVD and NTSC DVD. If iDVD offers options for authoring that you want then just import the Compressor encoded assets into that.

dgwvideo wrote: Sending to Compressor encodes the assets as per how you configure them. Once that is done you can use those assets in DVDSP, and I assume iDVD if you want. They may also work in other DVD burning software. This step would only be necessary if you wanted more control over the authoring options that FCPX DVD sharing provides, which is limited but does allow chapters, background image, logo, etc. Compressor will also allow finer tuning of the DVD burn process. If you don't need menu buttons for navigation and are satisfied with the default FCPX DVD sharing options then you could simply create the NTSC project in FCPX and share to DVD. Then copy the project to a new PAL project and share from there to DVD. You'll end up with a PAL DVD and NTSC DVD. If iDVD offers options for authoring that you want then just import the Compressor encoded assets into that.

Thank you very much indeed for your kind explanation!

Does Compressor create a .img file which can be loaded into iDVD?

You don't need to create 2 versions of a DVD (i.e. PAL, NTSC). A 23.976 NTSC version will cover all regions.

Andreas Kiel wrote: You don't need to create 2 versions of a DVD (i.e. PAL, NTSC). A 23.976 NTSC version will cover all regions.

Hi Andreas. To my knowledge this does not ensure widespread compatibility among all set top DVD players in the US and abroad. I may be wrong but last time I checked into this it seemed the consensus was that only about 60 to 70 percent of DVD players would properly play various country formats when the original DVD was mastered either in NTSC or PAL at 23.976. You may have updated information or better experience in this regard than I do.

Per DVD specs all PAL DVD players must support NTSC.
23.976 is converted to 29.97.

Just a few comments conc. iDVD:
as being part of iLive, it was meant to create DVDs from dv-streams -yes you can drop in other coded material, h264, proRes, AIC - but NOT 'premixed' mpeg2! So, any Compressor-prepared stuff is of no use with iDVD.

iDVD never supported switchable SubTitles (on/off/language) nor switchable audio tracks (language versions); even when you dropped-in a QT-mov with two discrete audio-tracks, iDVD didn't support that.

And a conc. Pal/Ntsc: the DVD-players swallowed NTSC disks - it was often the TVs, esp. the Tube ones, which couldn't handle the resulting, odd signal, a 29.97/480 source created in a 50i/576 device… modern flat-screens are much more tolerant … 

iDVD was an awesome, easy to customize disk-authoring tool, when your source was a single movie. But it never got so simple features as a 'Play All' button, or 'Play chapter only' feature; not to speak of subtitles and switchable audio-tracks…

Such elaborated features were a privilege of DVDSP (and Encore).

You can include an iBook with an iTunes movie. Just FYI.