AIC to idvd

im in AIC1080i in FCP5 inported from sony HDV, exporting AIC1080i QT and am getting mixed messages wether IDVD will be happy with me or go all interlaced when theres movement.

sorry think this ones allready been answered, getting in a muddle see.

Similar Messages

Stuttery DVD transfer

I have been asked to provide a DVD copy of one of my 15-minute FCE projects, to be played at a company meeting in the second week of June. Usually, I just play an audience my projects from my laptop, but I'm not going to get away with that this time, it seems.
The project in question plays perfectly on the computer: smooth and crisp. My attempts at transfer to DVD have been not so successful, which I assume is down to not finding the right export/codec/DVD combination, despite half a dozen attempts. I just don't know enough about it because I have never had to do it.
I'm 90% of the way there. Still pictures, graphics, talking heads and sound quality have been everything I could have hoped for. The two problems are:
1. Cross-dissolves and fades are stuttery. The best way I can describe it is that it's as if they are playing at 10fps, instead of the project's 29.97.
2. The same goes for anything moving at a reasonable pace on screen (traffic, runners etc). Unacceptably jittery.
Of course, it could be that the whole project is jittery on DVD, but just that it's not obvious in stills, graphics and talking heads; only with subject movement.
The footage was shot at 30fps 1920x1080i H.264, then converted via MPEG Streamclip and AIC to 29.97fps 1920x1080i.
I'm using FCE 4.0.1 (sequence settings AIC 1080i60) to edit and render, and then exporting as a Quicktime movie (not conversion), AIC, to iDVD 7.0.4.
Half a dozen patient attempts at trying various settings have got me not much further forward. It's frustrating to be so close, and to think that so much more trial and error lies ahead of me with no guarantee that I will be successful. Can anyone narrow my options and guide me, please?
I'm running a 24in iMac 2.8GHz with 4GB of RAM, and I have access to FCP 7 and Compressor 3.5.2 if anyone thinks those might be the basis of a solution.
If anyone can help soon, I would be grateful. My deadline is June 10.
Thanks in advance.

Yes, all drives are Mac OS Extended.
I haven't tried exporting as a self-contained movie because, thus far, all the advice in print and on the web has been not to do that. That might be my next move if it turns out that it's not simply a question of ironing out the huge throughput of information required during transitions and rapid movement.
Thanks for replying.

Mpeg2 or mp4?

What is the difference between the 2 of these? I want to compress my video in order to edit it and to also save hard drive space. I am curious which one compresses better and which one looks better. All of my video is currently in .AVI and that is taking up way too much hard drive space. I also understand that I may lose some quality. Can anyone help with this? Thanks much.

If you prime motivation is saving disk space, use h.264. If your prime motivation is quality, use AIC. AIC will be about 10 times the size of h.264 for a given file. This is because AIC preserves every frame. h.264 keeps about 1 in 24 full frames, and compresses the other frames by using information about motion, what has changes since the last full frame, etc.
Obviously, the more times you compress, uncompress, and recompress something, the more quality you lose.
Once your movie is finished, export it as h.264 for playback on an iPhone, AppleTV, in QuickTime Player, or to make a DVD. (For DVD, you could export as AIC, since iDVD will compress it into MPEG2 anyway.)
If you plan to make other movies from the Events in the future, for best quality, keep them as AIC. Hard drives are available for less than $0.15 per gigabyte. If you don't think you will use them again, but would like to have them for reference, keep them in h.264.
Or you could just keep the .AVI files and reconvert if you ever need them.
Message was edited by: AppleMan1958

Problem with AIC aspect ratio in iDVD

I can't figure out why my 4:3 movie will only play stretched to 16:9 in the iDVD "Widescreen Preview".
I've exported my iMovie 09 project to two AIC files. These are identical except for the size, one was set to 720x540 and the other to 1440x1080. (I'm trying to determine if there is any difference in these once encoded to DVD.) Both sizes were set using the "custom" option at export. Both files play properly in QT. The smaller file previews properly (pillarboxed) in iDVD. But -surprise - the larger file gets stretched to widescreen.
I've looked for every imaginable setting that might affect this but no luck. Any ideas?
Sorry about cross-posting this here in addition to iDVD forum, but I need a fix.

Think it's custom dimensions/fit to dimensions

My dvds that are made from iDVD will not play in a standard dvd player. Can anyone help me?*

I am running iDVD v 7.1.2(1158). I used to be able to make dvds that would play in a standard dvd player. As of today I cannot. I do not know what has changed and I do not know what needs to be updated. Can someone assist me?
The dvds that I can make will play from a disk image and they can play perfectly fine in a computer but not in a standard dvd player. I am using an external dvd burner, (The same one have always used) to create the dvds. I am using iDVD to author them.
Here is a list of my hardware.
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-5120D:
Firmware Revision:          A102
Interconnect:          USB
Burn Support:          Yes (Generic Drive Support)
Profile Path:          None
Cache:          2048 KB
Reads DVD:          Yes
CD-Write:          -R, -RW
DVD-Write:          -R, -RAM, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies:          CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media:          To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh
iDVD:
Version:          7.1.2
Last Modified:          7/19/11 8:19 PM
Kind:          Intel
64-Bit (Intel):          No
Get Info String:          iDVD 7.1.2, Copyright © 2001-2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.
Location:          /Applications/iDVD.app
Can anyone help me? The dvds are not even detected

• Material used: Video-Codec and Photo file format and Audio file format - matters too. I use
- Video - StreamingDV .dv or AIC
- Photos as .jpg (only)
- Audio as .aiff 16bit 44.1kHz or 48kHz (ONLY - never .mp3 or directly from iTunes - all converted to .aiff first)
With this I do not mean any setting in iDVD - BUT the raw material used in iMovie / FinalCut / Avid 100 / Adobe Premiere
As this usually matters - later in iDVD
How did You Export from Video-editing program used ? I prefer
• iMovie HD6 - just drop the movie project icon (NOT iMovie Icon - the PROJECT one) over into iDVD big menu window (avoiding - drop-zones as they are for other tasks)
• iMovie'08 to '11 - Share to MEDIA BROWSER - AND AS MEDIUM - not HD or other resolution as iDVD does a bad downscaling job.
• iMovie'13 (version 10.0.x) - Share as 480p - Import this into iDVD
• FinalCut (Pro or Express) - Export as QuickTime .mov - NO QUICKTIME CONVERSION - IMPORTANT
• Adobe Premiere - I don't know - not tested Yet
• Avid 100 - I don't know - not tested Yet
Cleaning the DVD-burner - If it Burns DVDs OK then that's may be not the problem - But if it only burns CDs OK then either the DVD-burning-laser is dirty or broken.
It is very easy to kill this DVD-laser as it over-heats if one burns several DVDs in a row. I only burn three at a time - then let it cool down for 30 minutes till next batch of three DVDs.
Yours Bengt W

IDVD 7.0.4 crashes while burning disc/image

When I try to 'burn' my project to disk or 'save as image' iDVD 7.0.4 crashes without any warnings after rendering the menues right at the beginning of the video render.
Main video in project is AIC (758x592, Quality: middle, Progressiv/Linear PCM, 48 kHz, 16 Bit) exported by iMovie'09 with some chapter markers and video-enhancement as recommended in the forum for best quality and then imported into iDVD.
Earlier project shared to iDVD directly from iMovie burned without problems. Can the codec be the issue? Dropzones use certain parts of the same videofile and they render without problems, I can see them completed in the iDVD-project-package.
Additional questions:
1. why is the file exported with iMovie that large (also with successful project; eg.: orig. file 3, 98 GB, exported file 11,95 GB)? (chapter markers and video-enhancement for the whole file?) Makes archiving a trouble.
2. is there a way to replace the main video in the iDVD-project without distroying the manual menu-/text-/... edits (more titles on one menu, etc.) I made earlier? When I import a whole new videofile in another format (for testing the codec issue), iDVD takes the chapters once more and creates the template-conform menues again, partly overlaying my older ones.

Just to offer condolences. I have been greatly disappointed in iDVD -- crashes more often than burns successfully. Lots of wasted time waiting for a burn to be successful, only to find toward the end of the process, I get a msg "rendering" a problem, or couldn't complete, or crashes and then I have to stand on my head to get the DVD to eject. Have the issue both with movies I've downloaded to iPhoto and with photos downloaded to iPhoto that I've turned into Slideshows. Wish I had awnsers for both of us -- or however many of us that are out there....

VHS Captured With DV Converter Judders In Compressor/DVDSP, OK In iDVD.

This is more a statement than a question.
Some people will be familiar with my inability to produce judder-free DVDs from HDV or AIC footage burned in iDVD ........ which I have previously described +ad nauseam.+
Well here's something entirely different!
Yesterday I copied an old, very poor quality VHS tape to DV via my DAC 100 converter.
Apart from the lousy colour and pictorial quality, the video played OK in the timeline so I exported it to Compressor and burned in DVDSP.
The DVD exhibited the same kind of judder I get when I try to encode HDV in QT Movie and iDVD.
I wasted another DVD getting the same result, so in desperation I exported my project to QT Movie and burned it in iDVD.
The results - PERFECT - at least as far as image steadiness was concerned!

iDVD 7.0.1 and Compressor 3.0.3
I was hoping this would crack the old problem, but no.
I used a 40 second sequence with the camera panning very slowly across a street of houses with strong contrasty vertical and horizontal lines formed by windows, doors, drainpipes and rooflines etc. in the first half and a person walking across the frame etc. slowly in the second half. The 6' walker was a fair distance away only filling about 45% of the height of the frame.
4 test QT Movies were exported and burned in iDVD on one DVD. These were the straight video and then 3 versions with the Shift Filter in the +1, None and -1 settings.
They all looked the same, with jitter not so much on the vertical lines as the horizontal ones, which was a little surprising. The person walking across the frame definitely exhibited jitter.
All these problems disappear when encoded in Compressor or down-converted to DV by the camera during capture and burned in iDVD.
Still, it was worth a try.
I'm wondering whether it is possible to hack into iDVD and maybe alter field etc. settings in there!
There has to be some simple reason why there is a dramatic difference between Compressor/DVDSP and iDVD and it's nothing to do with quality or power or cost.
Incidentally a friend of mine went on a world tour, using an identical HV20 and rough-editing on her MBP as she went. The resulting rough edits were burned in iDVD and the DVDs sent back to her family. These DVDs apparently were jittery but the family didn't mind!

Best settings to use when preparing HD source material for iDVD?

I realize iDVD is effectively abandonware, and that it was never really designed either to run on Lion nor to import high definition content...but nevertheless here I am (somewhat unavoidably) trying to do both and constantly getting the dreaded and mysterious "an error occured during movie encoding" result when I try to burn or export my project to a disc image.
If it matters, I am using a Mac Pro (1,1) with a 5770, running 10.7.5 with 8GB of RAM and oodles of free diskspace. All of my software is fully up to date, including iDVD 7.1.2 build 1158. Several utilities report nothing erroneous with my drives or their filesystems. I have made sure Perian is not installed. I have tried to create and export this DVD using both my primary user account and a clean dummy one I made for testing purposes.
After considerable trial and error experiments, each taking several hours to attempt, I've decided that I'm never going to easily figure out exacty which of my many various source files for this project (holiday videos for family) may be giving iDVD hiccups. Instead, I've decided to take another approach, making all of my content as easy to "spoon feed" to iDVD as possible. Hopefully then I can get this project done.
My question is what, ideally, does iDVD like to be fed?
For starters, I am in the process of transcoding and repackaging all of my content through MPEG Streamclip to be AIC video and uncompressed audio inside MOV containers. In each case I am scaling the video down to be 480 lines tall. Just guessing, but that seems like it would give iDVD the least possible work to "think" about and get confused. Does that sound about right to folks?
Should I be doing something drastic and old school like trying to create DV files? My content is all wide aspect, intended for a 16:9 iDVD project and that seems like it would get tricky (also, this would involve more quality loss than using AIC files).
I am totally open to suggestions here. Just please don't say "dude, use Toast" or something because while I have plenty of other tools that I know would work more easily and reliably, I really want to mimic the holiday discs from previous years that I've created using the same iDVD theme.

I haven't had to wrestle with this problem, but I've followed some of the discussions and here are several ideas and resources which seem reasonable. As background, have you read about better results from using iMovie6? Also, as you imply, DV Stream (.dv) was the native format for iDVD.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16296991#16296991
http://blog.progravix.com/?p=456
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5432
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1611?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
...and don't forget David Pogue's "Missing Manual" series for iMovie and iDVD are excellent resources.
John

From AVCHD to iDVD

Okay - I've gone through posts here ad infinitum until I'm thoroughly confused! Without any reference to codecs, muxed audio or deinterlacing, can someone give me a simple workflow to take 1080i AVCHD footage from my camera, edit it, then burn the resulting movie to DVD with the best possible quality (best DVD, that is - I know it won't be HD. Until the whole planet owns Bluray and DVD is dead, I have no need for HD final product).
I have a Canon HF S11 AVCHD hard-drive camera, I'm running Snow Leopard, and I have iMovie 11, iMovie HD, Quicktime 10, Quicktime 7, and iDVD 11. I also have Final Cut Express, but can't even manage to get it to import video, so let's not go there.
I thought getting iLife 11 would finally end my continuing reliance on iMovie HD, but it's not looking that way. I like some of the transition and titling effects in iMovie 11, but I still like the clean and intuitive audio editing aspects of iMovie HD for cutaways and soundtrack creation (the ability to adjust levels, cut, and drag to place with a couple of clicks). I've only used Garageband when I want specific effects put onto soundtracks.
Note: File sizes are unimportant to me. Fast is always good, but I'm used to hours of rendering and dubbing. I don't want fast/low quality. I just want the slickest way to import, edit then output the best possible quality DVD.

I would also recommend Cosmos from Shedworx to archive your original AVCHD files in their native AVCHD format. I finally found this software after hours of reading through posts about converters etc. But I wanted cataloging and asset management and I don't want to store all my footage in the Apple AIC format which takes up 10x the space of AVCHD.
The workflow now is:
1) Import from camera using Cosmos, do basic cutting in trimming of the AVCHD files right there (without recompression, so no losses!)
2) Decide which clips I'm going to use
3) Batch convert only those clips using Voltaic (by the same company) to AIC (or in my case ProRes422)
4) Edit in iMovie, FCE or in my case FCP
5) Burn with iDVD or DVD Studio
Can't believe how hard it was to find an AVCHD management software on a Mac that actually works directly with the AVCHD files themselves.

IDvd - Onestep dvd from movie, not working?

I am trying to make a onestep dvd from movie - from an avi file... but every time I make one (I followed all the directions perfectly). It looks like it is burning and takes about 4 hrs. but nothing happens. it just says I have inserted a blank dvd. Why does this keep happening?

Hi
from an avi file
.avi is not the food for iDVD - it usually can not handle it at all.
.avi - is no codec but a container - so one must use another program to figure out what codec that's in there.
Then convert it to sometrhing iDVD can use.
My UN-Structured/sorted notes up till Yet ! (May be MANY Faulth ! be careful)
AVCHD
• need of Intel Mac and iMovie’08 or 09 or 11
• can be converted to AIC via Voltaic
Containers.
.mov.
.avi.
You can use MPEG-Streamclip to convert some of the AVI files so that QuickTime can play them
and then to streamingDV for iMovie.
True file formats (?).
.asf (from QuickTimeKirk)
Your product is based on Windows OS and the .asf files are designed for Windows Media Player.
Microsoft discontinued Mac support for Windows Media Player in 2003.
iv50 - old codec on window platform.
• Open on a PC-Window with Microsoft Movie Maker.
• Put into TimeLine
• Save on ”this Computer” as .wmv
move over to Mac and open with QuickTime Pro and save as StreamingDV
(if Flip4Mac is payed then no Waterstamp and time limit)
or
Open in FinalCut Pro as is = No Waterstamp or time limit.
Flip4Mac -- //flip4mac.com
is third party software that "plays" most WMP formats via QuickTime Player. They also sell upgrades that allow conversion from WMP to QuickTime formats.
These upgrades are supported in iMovie version 6 but not for version 7 or 8 (iLife '08 and '09).
So. What to do?
Purchase one of the Flip4Mac upgrades.
Copy the files from the SD card to your Mac and convert to QuickTime formats (DV Stream would work best).
Import the new .dv file into iMovie (any version).
.dv
streaming DV    imports directly it is the same as from miniDV (tape) Camera
.wmv
iMovie is by concept meant to work with miniDV camcorders . . any other 'imports' need a conversion or are not supported... a quick solution would be purchasing a plug-in from www.flip4mac.com, 49$, which allows the conversion of .wmv (a PC format) into something useful for iM (dv-stream) ...
or, ask the emailer to send it in some other codec .. mpg4 for example .. which will be converted by iM 'out-of-the-box' ... and, to work with iM, the video should fulfill a few standards .. 720x480 pixel resolution, 30 frames per second ... otherwise, you will experience a dramatic loss of quality ..
.mp4
container not to be mistaken for .mpeg4 which is a codec - and it’s most often could contain a H.264 encoded material (PS3 and AppleTV)
.m4v
found in iMovie project folders - imported into iDVD without any problems
.mov
found in iMovie project folders - imported into iDVD without any problems
.ram     real-movie by Real-player download
Both Real Networks (.RM, .RA, and .RAM video files) and Microsoft (.ASF, .WMA, and .WMV video files) makes it VERY difficult to import footage encoded with these formats. Especially on a Mac.
.mpg
.mpeg
.vob
.vro
.m2v
.m2a
.m2s
.mts
.m2ts
.swf files are Flash files. You need Perian
.flv Awkward timing in your choice of software as QuickTime 7.4 has dropped support (we hope it is temporary) for Flash Video formats (.swf or .flv file extensions).
MPEG-1.          VideoCD
MPEG-2.             DVD
MPEG-4.         cell-phones to satellite TV - scalable
//danslagle.dvmix.com/mac/iMovie/qt_plugins/3002.shtml
Mpeg Streamclip. Supported formats.
• MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3...
MPEG Streamclip converts from mpeg-1 to whatever you like (within reason).
MPEG-2 Playback File Types.
.mpg, .mpeg, .vob(2), .vro, .m2v, .m2a, .m2s
QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component
Recording types.
DV                        standard miniDV (tape)
DV Widescreen    16 X 9 on standard miniDV (tape)
HDV 1080i            Full HD quality
HDV 720p
MPEG-4
iSight
From Mac to PC - convert to .avi or .wmv
• Transport problem and 2?Gb limit on DOS/UNIX formatted hard disks - You need a
hard disk formatted on a PC in NTFS format
FAT 16 has a 2 or 4Gb file size limit
FAT 32 should be able to handle larger ones
• Rather copy back to miniDV tape (Camera) and use this
QuickTimeKirk. You don't format the drive using a Mac.
Use the PC to format using NTFS and avoid FAT 16 or FAT 32.
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Movie_Maker
Yep. They want DV-AVI as the format. Same thing but in an AVI container.
Export from iMovie to AVI (Expert Settings) and click the "Options" button to set DV as the codec.
Yours Bengt W

Poor dvd quality in idvd 09 avchd

My cam is Sony sr12e which is avchd format, when I edit in iMovie 09, it is fine, and I export it using AIC code with as quicktime mov(since many suggested here that it is better than directly share the mov to idvd). Then drag it to idvd but the quality is still poor.The resulting movie looks like water is pouring down walls and people in still shots mouths move as if they were taking. Lots of movement in horizontal lines. Anyway to solve the problem, I can't believe all mac users are experiencing this terrible bug made by Apple.

I can't believe all mac users are experiencing this terrible bug made by Apple.
It's no bug.
iMovie 09 is a wonderful program assuming that you're using it for what it was designed to do, assemble simple videos to share on the Internet.
I did a compare one day using the same clip burned to DVD from iMovie 06 and from iMovie '09.
The iMovie 06 clip looked like it came from the camera directly and the iMovie 09 clip looked worse. The difference is the single field processing used by iMovie 09 and the fact that it throws out every other horizontal line.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 09 is a "lossless" combination and my DVD's look perfect!

IDVD says 'supported disk no available,' does not burn too DVD!?

I have an Apple Imac G4 10.4.11, with iDVD 5. I have a 1 hour 20 minute 'AVI file on my computer that I want to burn to a DVD. I clicked 'Open New Project' on iDVD, then clicked 'File' and 'Import Video' and added my 'AVI file. I put in the disk ands started the burn. It took hours and hours then it ended and DVD Player popped up and a message came up on iDVD saying 'Supported Disc Needed,' but it accepted this disc, it is a DVD RW disk. How do I fix this?

Hi
There are several things to this.
A .avi is a container that can carry several different codecs - most often not working with iDVD - but need's to be converted to something iDVD likes as streamingDV, .H264 or AIC (last two I think)
• MPEG Streamclip
• QuickTime with Pro activated
• Flip4Mac - There is a free demo - to test and see if it works - usually does
B. Mac and iDVD are picky regarding DVDs used. Memorex and Cheap brands usually gives problems.
DVD-RW so to a Problem maker
I use only DVD-R from Verbatim.
C. A DVD can be burned into two types. Data-DVD and Video-DVD. To get an Video-DVD one has to wait to insert the DVD until iDVD asks for it (or burn it via Apple Disk Util tool from a DiskImage). If inserted too soon - Mac OS will ask You to Format or Eject it. If formatted You've got a Data-DVD.
Yours Bengt W

HD 1440 X 1080 in iDVD can?

Hello! I need help please; I have proyect, a clip (of 20 minutes) but it is
filmed and made in HD 1440 xs 1080. It is not in PAL
I want to view it in my TV (my TV is normally in PAL not blue ray) I have to pass the film HD 1440 X 1080 --> in iDVD and in iDVD can be in HD 1440 X 1080 or I have to pass in the format PAL 720 x 576?
thousand thanks!

AIC will not work in FCP 4.5...nor will HDV. Period...end of sentence. That version is too old, those formats came out AFTER FCP 4.5 was made. The only option is to convert the footage into a format that FCP 4.5 works with, and the only options for FCP 4.5 are DVCPRO HD and uncompressed HD. DVCPRO HD is the better option. HOWEVER, 1080i DVCPRO isn't 1440x1080, it is 1280x1080...so you will be losing some lines of resolution.
Time to upgrade if you want to work with current formats.
Shane

Imovie project when burned thru idvd looks horrible

I have worked for several months on making my first Imovie. It is about 1hr in length. It combines both narration, video, soundtrack and still images. When I previewed the project on imovie looked great. I can also export thru quicktime and it looks good, but not as good as it does in imovie. When I followed the directions on how to export to Idvd, I was unaware of how poorly the finished project looked in Idvd. I burned it and was let down as all my titles where pixelated and the still images are combing real bad. Also some of the images are jerky in the ken burns effect. I find this frustrating as I can save it as a quicktime file and it looks pretty good (but not as good as in imovie). It appears to me that everything I have tried as far as importing to idvd looks horrible when Idvd gets done with it. In fact even the Idvd menu I made looks pixelated and horrible. I am making this dvd to sell to others and to present at talks I am giving. The quality is so poor I am thinking about bagging the whole project. I noticed on the forums regarding both idvd and imovie many of the questions about the quality degredation in idvd dont get answered. Or when they do get answered, the answer is to purchase final cut or more software in general. What I want to know is can I make my excellent looking imovie look acceptable in idvd? If not, why? Why would mac make a option to make a movie project look good in imovie, but the only way to export it is to make it look horrible? Also, is there a way to make a dvd in idvd that looks as good as my Imovie project (without dropping 1,000$ for more software which I am not going to do as now I don't trust it until I see it first)? What am I missing here?

Hi Adam,
Just some general comments about exporting from iMovie '09. From posts on the forum, and from my own experience, it's best not to use Apple's preset export option "Share to iDVD". You may not have used this, but it produces an AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) movie that doesn't look good when burned through iDVD, for some reason. Odd, considering that iMovie edits in this format. _The option "Share to Media Browser" gives much better results._
You don't mention what format your source footage is (to the best of my recollection). This may have a bearing on the final result (burned DVD). Is it DV or AVCHD or some other format? iMovie '09 has a reputation for producing less than stellar results with DV footage, due to the way it handles interlaced material. AVCHD footage turns out quite well on DVD after editing in iMovie.
If you have not already tried this, export using "Share to Media Browser". In iDVD, from the Media tab, drag your movie into the background area of the iDVD theme, then proceed to set up the DVD as usual. When sharing to the Media Browser, you have a range of sizes to select from. Try Large (960x540) and also HD (1280x720). I've used both but see little difference, if any, in the final DVD. But I do get quite good results with both. The picture is softer and less saturated when compared with the original AVCHD footage viewed via the camcorder on an HD TV. This is to be expected, given one is HD and the other SD, of course. But it shouldn't be as bad as you are describing.
There are many posts about DVD quality on the forum. As you would be aware, some offer very good advice. Try different methods using a short test project to see what gives the best results for you. Look out for an e-book by Steve Mullen - not free, but some good tips there.
Hope this helps in some way. Quality issues can be frustrating!
John
Message was edited by: John Cogdell

IDVD 08 insist to transform NTSC 720 x 480 files in 640 x 480!!!

iDVD 08 insist to burn NTSC 720 x 480 files in 640 x 480
And of course smaller with a black box…
I've tried everything in vain.
It's the same If I select widescreen or 4/3 menus…
My files are mp4 H.264 files.
I'm quite desperate since I don't get WHY iDVD wants that DVDs look like 50 years old TV shows !
I looked at the forum and couldn't find any info relative to this problem.
I wonder if it's the fact that these files are Progressive. But I thought iDVD took care of it…
This is a full description of a file I use:
* MediaInfo Mac // Plain text file report
General / Container Stream # 1
Total Video Streams for this File -> 1
Total Audio Streams for this File -> 1
Video Codecs Used -> AVC
Audio Codecs Used -> AAC LC
File Format -> MPEG-4
Play Time -> 16mn 50s
Total File Size -> 1.76 GiB
Total Stream BitRate -> 14.9 Mbps
Video Stream # 1
Codec (Human Name) -> AVC
Codec (FourCC) -> avc1
Codec Profile -> [email protected]
Frame Width -> 720 pixels
Frame Height -> 480 pixels
Frame Rate -> 29.970 fps
Total Frames -> 30283
Display Aspect Ratio -> 1.500
Video Standard -> NTSC
Scan Type -> Progressive
Colorimetry -> 4:2:0
Codec Settings (Summary) -> 2 Ref Frames
QF (like Gordian Knot) -> 1.418
Codec Settings (CABAC) -> No
Video Stream Length -> 16mn 50s 443ms
Video Stream BitRate -> 14.7 Mbps
Video Stream BitRate Mode -> VBR
Bit Depth -> 24 bits
Video Stream Size -> 1.73 GiB (98%)
Video Stream Language -> English
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 2008-12-14 20:24:26
Audio Stream # 1
Codec -> AAC
Codec (FourCC) -> 40
Audio Stream Length -> 16mn 50s 112ms
Audio Stream BitRate -> 256 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode -> CBR
Number of Audio Channels -> 2
Audio Channel's Positions -> L R
Sampling Rate -> 48.0 KHz
Bit Depth -> 16 bits
Audio Stream Size -> 30.8 MiB (2%)
Audio Stream Language -> English
Date of Original Encoding -> UTC 2008-12-14 20:24:26
Thanks in advance for any help!
m

A TV uses rectangular pixels: 720x480.
A computer uses square pixels. So, those same pixels (720x480) are actually 640x480 and a computer. So this is normal.
The quality of your DVDs would be a separate and subjective issue. However, I can suggest that you NOT use H.264 (very compressed format) as the format for iDVD (which does it's own compression) to work with. I would give iDVD a DV or AIC file.
Mike

AIC to idvd

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