Outputting/Saving/Sharing Your HD Project to Your HDD ASAP

[George Tyndall]

Outputting/Saving/Sharing Your HD Project to Your HDD ASAP

I just finished a 6-minute HD PRE7 movie with Project Preset NTSC-HD 1080i 1920x1080.
Each of the 2288x1520 slides on the Timeline has a transition, some of which
are very complex, and all the slides are set to change with the beat of the music.
In addition, I used a HD Title Template at both the beginnig and end of the show.
Because it plays fairly smoothly, I have not yet rendered it (my
Work Area is still colored red).

I'm extremely anxious to get the project Outputted/Saved/Shared before going to
sleep. And if would be wonderful if I could watch the Outputted/Saved/Shared
project before retiring.

Problem is, when I click Enter I am informed that it will take more
than 1-hour and 40-minutes to render my HD project on the Timeline--yet it still
won't be Outputted/Saved/Shared.

Solution: Here is how to get your project saved to your HDD in record time AND
create a DVD to watch before you go to sleep

1. Do not take the time to render the project, in other words, ignore for now
the red Work Area line above your Timeline.

2. Click Share.

3. Click Disc.

4. Click DVD.

5. In the Burn To dropdown click Folder (4.7GB)

6. After Folder Location, click Browse then browse to the location where you would like to create a
folder named, say, Project 2009 012001 SD DVD.

7. Because 1920x1080 is widescreen, in the Presets dropdown select NTSC_Widescreen_Dolby DVD (assuming your
monitor or TV is in fact not PAL)

8. For Quality either Leave the box "Fit Contents" checked or, if you prefer, deselect it and drag the slider to
Highest Quality

9. Click Burn (with my equipment, the creation of the Folder took 13 minutes to complete)

10. Open your disc-burning software, browse to your SD DVD folder, then click Burn Disc from Folder (it took
2-minutes and 20-seconds for the burned DVD to emerge from my burner.

11. Insert the DVD into your DVD-ROM drive, assume a relaxing position, perhaps with a beverage
of your choice, and enjoy your creation.

Result. In only 15 minutes (with my equipment) I've got my project saved on my HDD in record time. The bonus is that I
may in the future burn from this folder an unlimited number of additional SD DVDs in a little over 2 minutes each. And
in only 2-minutes and 23-seconds more, I can burn a Lightscribe title, put the disc into a case, and hand over to my
client a very neat package.

Rationale for this procedure: IF your HD project plays reasonably smoothly on your Timeline, it is not necessary
to render it to native HD format on the Timeline and then re-render/transcode your Timeline when you output it to a SD DVD Folder.

Comment on the Quality of the Resulting SD DVD: As I mentioned to Bobby yesterday, even when played back on an
ordinary DVD-ROM drive like the one I have in my office (no "uprezzing"), I am getting with this procedure the
highest-quality SD DVDs that I've ever created.

Workflow Comment: Nowadays,even when my goal is, say, the production of a Blu-ray disc for my client, I first burn my HD Timelines to a SD DVD folder then burn a disc from that folder--and this disc is what I now use to determine whether my project seems flawless and therefore ready to share in other ways.