Final Cut Pro X and Compressor fail to create DVD image

Last night, I burned the fourth project to DVD in 3 weeks. For the first time, FCP produced the disk image on the first try, and everything went "smoothly." I thought I would update here so that (a) Apple might look into the issues and possibly fix them, and (b) anyone else encountering this problem may be able to find this answer.

From what I can tell right now, there are at least five things that need to happen in order to produce a DVD out of Final Cut Pro X on Catalina:

1. Make sure the DVD drive is NOT connected to the computer. Even if there is no disk in the drive, it must check the drive and fail.
2. Before attempting to burn the disk, quit Final Cut Pro and restart the app while holding down CMD + ALT to delete the preferences.
3. Save the disk image in a folder that is pretty much empty. I have been created subfolders for each project. In those subfolders, I exported a .mov for sharing online and audio files for burning CDs. But I create the DVD image in the parent folder.
4. Avoid all special characters, including underscores, in the DVD title, volume name, and filename. Don't use spaces in the filename, either. Rename it later from the Finder if you must.
5. Don't expect to burn the image to disk from either Finder or Disk Utilities. Rather, open Terminal and use the following command to burn the image to disk:

hdiutil burn <PATH_TO_FILE>

Make sure to use quotation marks around the file path if it includes any spaces.

I am not asserting that this is a perfect workaround. Your mileage may vary. Hope it helps someone.

Hi, Luis. Here is the Settings pane from Final Cut Pro X:

And here is the folder that is generated when everything is said and done. Notice the folder name at the top of the window and the contents which are definitely NOT VIDEO_TS or AUDIO_TS:

I agree wholeheartedly that the process is incomplete. This is exactly why I am asking for help! Below, I have attached screen shots of the entire process I have gone through.

Step 1: In Final Cut Pro X, click the Share button. This dialog appears:

Click the Settings pane in this dialog, this is how I have everything set:

Step 2: Click Next. This is the Save dialog that I receive:

Step 4: After clicking Save, the Share process begins. After some time, this dialog appears: This is strange to me because it should be creating the disk image on the hard disk.

Step 5: Regardless of whether I click "Don't Reopen" or "Reopen," I receive this notification:

Step 7: When I open the destination folder in the Finder, however, this is what I see. Notice that a new folder has been created (it's the highlighted one!). It is NOT given the name that I had specified in the process. And it has the same internal structure as what I posted earlier.

A similar thing happens when I use Compressor. At least that way, I can get it to encode the .m2v and .ac3 files so that I have video and audio, respectively. But it still doesn't create the proper audio or video tiles for the DVD, and it definitely doesn't produced a disk image. It is not in the specified destination folder, and a Spotlight search produces neither an .iso nor an .img file anywhere on the system.

Please help me understand what I am missing!

I should note that, if I click "Reopen" at the Create Disc dialog, I am presented with a prompt asking what I want to do with this new blank media, as though I had inserted a new DVD-R:

In this dialog, I have the options to open the disk in Finder, Music, Disk Utility, or Run another script (the option it offers is Compressor).

GOOD NEWS! IT WORKED!!!!!!! I suspect it was the relaunching with reset preferences that fixed the issue, but I have no idea. In case it matters, here are the answers to all the other questions you asked.

Did you try removing the menu images?

I am not certain which images you are referring to. I have attempted to make the disk with and without both background and logo images in the Create DVD Settings dialog. In addition, I have removed all of the images from the destination folder. And I have left them.

Is this really the file name that being used?

I don't know where the .m2v extensions are coming from. I have renamed the project multiple times, removing everything but alphanumeric characters, adding dashes and/or underscores, etc.

It looks like you're using an .m2v file in FCP. Is that right?

The m2v file is supposed to be generated by the export process, as I understand it. I don't know why it is calling the project a .m2v file.

Where is the folder called Worship?

The folder called Worship is on a 4TB external drive entitled Final Cut Pro (in the finder screenshot above).

What is Waves that's in the image above?

Waves was part of the name of the event.

How much free space is on the system drive?

There are 3.54TB free on the external drive, and 57.14GB available on the system drive.

The system drive is 256GB. I very much understand that filling a drive past 90% capacity results in serious issues. Been there. Done that.

So the first project finally came out. Now I have a new project which also needs to be burned to DVD, but it failed to create the .img even after I reset the preferences again. I also removed all special characters from the filename and project title, thinking that may have been an issue.

Also, it should be noted that, even after FCP successfully produced the .img for the first project, Disk Utility deemed it invalid and would not burn it to a disk. I had to open Terminal and use hdiutil to burn the disk. The final disk works fine, but it is a HUGE hassle to produce. Really needing to figure out what is going on so I can do this reliably and quickly!