Final Cut Express to DVD

[lowell]

I'm using Final Cut Express to edit my AVCHD videos from my HS F100 (MXP setting, PF30). The original clips (Quicktime .mov files) created using Log and Transfer look stunning. My goal is to maintain as high of quality as possible when getting the edited versions onto DVD. A few problems I encounter:

1. Some of my Video Filters, such as Lyric's Shadow/Highlight, seem to render oddly, causing a flicker effect. It's as if FCE is only applying the filter to some of the frames - not all.
2. Some of the text overlays from Live Type render with a less-than clear background, making it look like you're watching it with sunglasses on until the text goes away - then things immediately brighten up. Rendered and viewed in FCE though looks perfect.
3. The Live Type overlays sometimes come out pixelated when rendered onto DVD using iDVD. Watching on FCE shows really nice.
4. There is an overall degradation of quality once it's on DVD. I'm using export to Quicktime, with the "Make Self-Contained" unchecked, so that iDVD is working from the reference file, not a recompressed .mov file.

Any pointers on how to clean things up and fix some of this would be greatly appreciated. I've had a hard time finding anything about the RIGHT way to get your HD clips edited and onto a DVD. Thanks!

[cgbier]

Scale down your footage to SD first, then do the LiveType stuff.
You'll always encounter quality degradation when scaling down. See Janke's thread about FCE and JES. Try this software. It's free.

Don't use reference movies. You'll always have to keep your original files on the machine. Reconnecting offline files can be a PITA