Create optical discs and disk images in Final Cut Pro for Mac
You can burn a project, a clip, or a range selection to a standard-definition (SD) DVD or to a Blu-ray-compatible disc.
There are two ways to create a Blu-ray-compatible disc:
Use an external optical drive that supports burning Blu-ray discs.
Use a standard DVD burner and standard red laser media to create an AVCHD disc with high-definition (HD) video content and menus. You can play AVCHD discs in Blu-ray players if they’re compatible with AVCHD discs.
You can also create a disk image (.img) file that you can copy to an external storage device. You can send the disk image to a disc replication facility or burn it to DVD or Blu-ray disc media at a later time using Disk Utility.
Markers are added to the file on the disc at 5-minute intervals, making it possible to use the DVD or Blu-ray player’s remote to skip forward or backward 5 minutes each time you press the Next Chapter or Previous Chapter button.
Note: If Compressor is installed on your computer, you can use the Send to Compressor command to open the project in Compressor. See Send your projects or clips to Compressor and the Compressor User Guide.
Burn an SD DVD or create an SD disk image file
In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:
Select a project or a clip in the browser.
Select a range in a project in the timeline or in a clip in the browser.
Note: To share just a portion of a project, you must make a range selection. A clip selection is not sufficient. You can use the I and O keys to set the range start and end points.
If you’re sharing a project that is set to use proxy media for playback, open it in the timeline, then click the View pop-up menu in the top-right corner of the viewer and choose Optimized/Original.
This ensures the highest quality in the exported file. When you choose this setting, Final Cut Pro uses optimized media to create the shared file. If optimized media doesn’t exist, the original media is used. For more information about optimized and proxy media, see Control playback quality in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Do one of the following:
Choose File > Share > DVD.
Click the Share button in the toolbar, then click DVD.
In the Share window that appears, do any of the following:
Move the pointer over the image to skim the video.
If you’re batch sharing (exporting multiple items), the image is replaced by a list of the items you’re exporting.
In the Info pane, view and modify project or clip attributes, such as the title and description.
See Change metadata for shared items in Final Cut Pro for Mac. All of the attributes associated with the project or clip are included in the output file.
Important: By default, the title field lists the project or clip name. Changing the title does not change the project or clip name, which is the name used for the exported file.
At the bottom of the window, view information about the file that will be exported, including frame size and frame rate, audio channels and sample rate, duration, output file type, and file size.
Click Settings, then choose your preferred DVD settings:
Output Device: To burn a disc, choose an optical drive. To create a disk image (.img) file that you can copy to an external storage device or burn to DVD media later, choose Hard Drive.
Layers: Choose whether to burn a single-layer or dual-layer disc.
Automatic: Automatically detects the type of disc you can use.
Single-layer: Identifies the disc as a single-layer disc. You can use this option to force a double-layer disc to be treated as a single-layer disc.
Double-layer: Identifies the disc as a double-layer disc. You can use this option to force the disk image to be formatted for a double-layer disc when you choose Hard Drive as your output device.
Important: Choosing “Double-layer” when using a single-layer disc can result in an error during burning, depending on the project’s length.
Build type: Choose File to save a disk image (.dmg) file, or Folder to save a set of files in a folder.
Disc template: Choose an available template.
Title: Enter the program title in the Title field. By default, the title is the project name in Final Cut Pro.
Volume name: Enter the filename for the disc.
Color space: This field can’t be edited. The values (Standard - Rec. 709 or Wide Gamut - Rec. 2020) are determined by the color space settings for your project. See Use wide-gamut HDR color processing in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
When disc loads: Specify the DVD player’s action when the disc is inserted. Choose Show Menu to have a main menu appear, or choose Play Movie to begin playing the movie immediately.
Markers: Select the checkbox to include chapter marker text as subtitles on the output disc. Users can navigate between the chapter markers by pressing the Next Chapter or Previous Chapter button on the DVD or Blu-ray player. See Add chapter markers in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Loop: Select the checkbox to add a loop movie button to the DVD menu.
Background, Logo image, Title image: To add a background, logo, or title to menus, click the Add button, then select a graphic. To select a different graphic, click the Remove button (with an X), then click Add again.
Preview: View a representation of the menu.
Include captions: If you added CEA-608 captions to your project, you can choose the language version to include on the DVD. See Intro to captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Burn in captions: If you added captions to your project, you can choose a caption language to burn in to the output media file.
Note: Burned-in captions are permanently visible in the output file and are not the same as embedded captions.
Do one of the following:
If you’re burning to a disc (instead of creating a disk image): Click the Eject button to the right of the Output Device pop-up menu, then insert a blank disc into your disc-burning device and click Burn.
If you’re creating a disk image file: Click Next, then enter a name for the file, choose a location to save it, and click Save. (By default, Final Cut Pro burns disk images as single-layer media, adjusting the bit rate accordingly.)
Burn a Blu-ray or AVCHD disc, or create a disk image Blu-ray file
In Final Cut Pro, do one of the following:
Select a project or a clip in the browser.
Select a range in a project in the timeline or in a clip in the browser.
Note: To share just a portion of a project, you must make a range selection. A clip selection is not sufficient. You can use the I and O keys to set the range start and end points.
If you’re sharing a project that is set to use proxy media for playback, open it in the timeline, then click the View pop-up menu in the top-right corner of the viewer and choose Optimized/Original.
This ensures the highest quality in the exported file. When you choose this setting, Final Cut Pro uses optimized media to create the shared file. If optimized media doesn’t exist, the original media is used. For more information about optimized and proxy media, see Control playback quality in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Do one of the following:
Choose File > Share > Blu-ray / AVCHD.
Click the Share button in the toolbar, then click Blu-ray / AVCHD.
Important: The Blu-ray / AVCHD destination doesn’t appear by default. To add it to your set of destinations and to the Share menu, choose File > Share > Add Destination, then double-click the Blu-ray / AVCHD destination. See Create share destinations in Final Cut Pro for Mac and Intro to Destinations settings in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
In the Share window that appears, do any of the following:
Move the pointer over the image to skim the video.
If you’re batch sharing (exporting multiple items), the image is replaced by a list of the items you’re exporting.
In the Info pane, view and modify project or clip attributes, such as the title and description.
See Change metadata for shared items in Final Cut Pro for Mac. All of the attributes associated with the project or clip are included in the output file.
Important: By default, the title field lists the project or clip name. Changing the title does not change the project or clip name, which is the name used for the exported file.
At the bottom of the window, view information about the file that will be exported, including frame size and frame rate, audio channels and sample rate, duration, output file type, and file size.
Click Settings, then choose your preferred Blu-ray / AVCHD settings:
Output Device: To burn a disc, choose an optical drive. To create a disk image (.img) file that you can copy to an external storage device or burn to optical media later, choose Hard Drive.
Layers: Choose whether to burn a single-layer or dual-layer disc.
Automatic: Automatically detects the type of disc you can use.
Single-layer: Identifies the disc as a single-layer disc. You can use this option to force a double-layer disc to be treated as a single-layer disc.
Double-layer: Identifies the disc as a double-layer disc. You can use this option to force the disk image to be formatted for a double-layer disc when you choose Hard Drive as your output device.
Important: Choosing “Double-layer” when using a single-layer disc can result in an error during burning, depending on the project’s length.
Build type: Choose File to save a disk image (.dmg) file, or Folder to save a set of files in a folder.
Disc template: Choose an available template.
Title: Enter the program title in the Title field. By default, the title is the project name in Final Cut Pro.
Volume name: Enter the filename for the disc.
Color space: This field can’t be edited. The values (Standard - Rec. 709 or Wide Gamut - Rec. 2020) are determined by the color space settings for your project. See Use wide-gamut HDR color processing in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
When disc loads: Specify the Blu-ray player’s action when the disc is inserted. Choose Show Menu to have a main menu appear, or choose Play Movie to begin playing the movie immediately.
Markers: Select the checkbox to include chapter marker text as subtitles on the output disc. Users can navigate between the chapter markers by pressing the Next Chapter or Previous Chapter button on the Blu-ray player. See Add chapter markers in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Loop: Select the checkbox to add a loop movie button to the Blu-ray menu.
Background, Logo image, Title image: To add a background, logo, or title to menus, click the Add button, then select a graphic. To select a different graphic, click the Remove button (with an X), then click Add again.
Preview: View a representation of the menu.
Burn in captions: If you added captions to your project, you can choose a caption language to burn in to the output media file.
Note: Burned-in captions are permanently visible in the output file and are not the same as embedded captions.
Do one of the following:
If you’re burning to a disc (instead of creating a disk image): Click the Eject button to the right of the Output Device pop-up menu, then insert a blank disc into your disc-burning device and click Burn.
If you’re creating a disk image file: Click Next, then enter a name for the file, choose a location to save it, and click Save. (By default, Final Cut Pro burns disk images as single-layer media, adjusting the bit rate accordingly.)
Note: Blu-ray and AVCHD menus are best suited for displays set to show 1080 lines of vertical resolution.
You can monitor the progress of the transcode in the Background Tasks window, and you can continue to work in Final Cut Pro while the file is transcoded.
When transcoding is complete, a notification appears. You can view and locate shared projects in the Share inspector. See View the status of shared items in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Note: If you added chapter markers to your project, chapter marker thumbnails are placed at the appropriate location when sharing to disc (DVD and Blu-ray disc) and MV4, QuickTime, and MP4 formats (for playback using QuickTime Player and Apple devices). See Add chapter markers in Final Cut Pro for Mac.
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