how can i convert .mov to .mpg?

[johnnylonghair1]

I am using Final Cut Express HD 3.0.1 on my Mac PowerPC G5 to capture standard definition miniDV video from my Canon XL1s, which it does with a DV/DVCPRO-NTSC compressor. I am editing it in Final Cut Express, and ultimately I want to burn my edited clips onto a DVD with the following format: 720x480, Mpeg-2, Constant Bit Rate(CBR), bitrate=10,000kbps, progressive field order, Mpeg stereo audio at 48Khz, bitrate=224Kbps. This is the format that expertvillage.com requests for submissions.

Final Cut Express HD 3.0.1 does not support Mpeg-2, but one solution would be an inexpensive plug-in that would allow Mpeg-2 output directly from FCE?

I can export self-contained quicktime movies, that list the following codecs: DV/DVCPRO, & Integer(Big Endian); this gives me a .mov file that is about 223 MB per minute of video, with a dimension of 720 x 480. I could use some help converting this .mov file into an .mpg file that is between 75-100 MB per minute of video with the above listed specifications.

I am currently trying to use ffmpegX 0.0.9y to take those large .mov files and convert them into smaller .mpg files, but I can not come close. I can convert it into an MPEG movie, the audio usually doesn't work, it is only 30 MB per minute of video, and the dimensions change to 640x480.

I have read the ffmpeg help, and searched several video forums, but am not well versed in the technical specs of video, and am lost. Any help about the proper settings in ffmpegX would be appreciated, as well as other potential software suggestions, please keep in mind that my budget is small.

thank you

[albloom]

Toast will do it for you. Drag the MOV into Toast's DVD Video
window. And go out to dinner.

[Frobozz]

Those are bizarre specs. Toast doesn't encode MPEG audio; it does Dolby Digital AC-3 and PCM. It also has a 9.0 mbps maximum video bit rate and doesn't do CBR although raising the average bit rate to equal the maximum bit rate should have a similar effect. You also would need to extract the MPEG from the VIDEO_TS folder created by Toast in its disc image file or burned DVD.

I've checked MPEG2 Works and it has a maximum bit rate of 8 mbps. The reason they don't go to 10 is that exceeds the spec for video DVDs. DVD players would choke on bit rates that high: especially CBR. And they want it to be progressive rather than interlaced?

I don't use ffmpegX but if it can't do it then nothing can. Whoever came up with those requirements needs to be shown the door. What an idiot.

Or is this an MPEG 4 video they want?

[johnnylonghair1]

I have no idea why these specs are so bizarre, they are the format requested by www.expertvillage.com, who pays for certain instructional video submissions. They previously requested that submissions be sent in quicktime .mov files on a data DVD, and recently changed to these new requirements.

The files are not meant to be played in dvd player, but rather for expertvillage's use to upload for their viewers on their website, or others, such as youtube. The site has always seemed a little janky, but I'll send them stuff as close as possible to what they asked for with Toast.

thanks for the help

[MungoPark]

A very easy way to convert formats is using VisualHub, I have been using it for long time with no problems.