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Preparing your Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro movie to work with iDVD

You can use movies from Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro in iDVD by exporting them as QuickTime movies. Any movie in QuickTime format can be added to an iDVD project.

To export a Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro movie as a QuickTime movie:

In Final Cut Express, select your sequence, and then choose File > Export > QuickTime Movie.

If you’ve added chapter markers to your sequence, choose Chapter Markers from the Markers pop-up menu, then click Save.

When you do this, iDVD will recognize those chapter markers and use them to create a scene selection menu for the movie. It’s not necessary to make the movie self-contained.

In Final Cut Pro, for best results, export the movie as a digital video (DV) file, as follows:

Choose File > Export > QuickTime Movie.

In the Export window, choose the NTSC or PAL DV format you want to use from the Settings pop-up menu.

If you are using Final Cut Pro version 1.5 or later, make sure the Make Movie Self-Contained checkbox is not selected. (This will make the export process much faster.)

Click Save.

A QuickTime file that references your Final Cut Pro movie is created on your hard disk. This is the file you will add to your iDVD project. When you are ready to add it to your iDVD project, you can simply drag the file from your hard disk directly into iDVD.

To export a movie with chapter markers, you must use Final Cut Pro 3.0.2 or later.

Related Topics

About preparing QuickTime movies to work with iDVD

Video and image formats that work with iDVD

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