AVCHD import & getting full quality import...
I've got a Panasonic HDC-TM20. When I look at the playback of the video on the actual camera the video quality looks a lot better than once imported into iMovie '09.
I am importing using the defaults "Full - Original Size", "Split days into events.", and do not "Analyze for stabilization".
Once imported the video looks a bit fuzzy. Here is an example of the video quality once imported:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JustAnotherFamily#p/a/u/0/zhasv9rXfyA
Is there anything that can be done to get the full quality of 1920x1080 AVCHD?
I feel like I'm missing a step in the process of getting full quality video.
Thanks again for any insights.
i also having the same problem.. im using panasonic HDC-SD100.. the video imported shows a bit movie trail as i use it to record skateboard footage(fast movement).
Similar Messages
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Further my earlier post regarding AVCHD Lite (.mts) clips being too dark after import, I have established that it makes no difference whether I use values of 1.8 (10.5 native) or 2.2 (10.7 native).
Is there any way to affect the iMovie import settings that I've missed...?
iMovie has some excellent clip adjustment tools, but if I let iMovie import my clips at Full Quality (they are 720p AVCHD Lite .mts format clips from a newly purchased Panasonic FZ38), and try to use the video adjustment tools to 'lift' the clips – i.e. adjust exposure, brightness – the results are terrible, with blotchy areas and loss of definition. It seems the Quicktime conversion to get the clips into iMovie loses all detail in the shadowy areas, which obviously can't be recovered.
I've found a temporary workaround by converting the .mts clips using a third-party video converter which has brightness, contrast and saturation controls – a little boost on both the brightness and contrast is all that's needed to get the clips coming out the same on my Mac as they do on camera LCD (and TV playback off camera) - but I'd much prefer not to have to resort to an extra piece of software.
Is this a 'problem' with iMovie (and indeed Quicktime's) support for the relatively new AVCHD format that we may see 'fixed' in time?
Any other thoughts or advice would be much appreciated!!I'm not sure if this is the cause, but there is a difference in the way iMovie 08 handles the video after import, as compared to iMovie HD6, the older, better version. Something to do with the interlacing? or something, but I'm not sure. Some people here think HD6 produces a better quality image than 08.
Oftentimes too, the image you see on your monitor will not be the same as you see on the final DVD product.
Anyway, you are entitled to a free download of iMovie HD6 from the Downloads page of this Apple website. Maybe get that and see if the picture is better. -
Re-importing shared full-quality QT “lossless”?
Is there any loss of quality that would accumulate when sharing a project as a full-quality QT, then importing it back into iMovie, editing it a little, then repeating? Im thinking of using this workflow as a way of merging lots of little clips and shifted-around audio extractions to a single clip and will probably want to do this a couple of times per project, before compressing it in final form. Itll eventually wind up as a QT on CD, if that has any bearing on the question.
Is there any loss of quality that would accumulate when sharing a project as a full-quality QT, then importing it back into iMovie, editing it a little, then repeating?
No, IF you take care to use the same DV codec AND you do not edit the clips (i.e. decompress-recompress the DV codec). Straight cuts are OK because no recompression is involved.
...and even editing the clips (adding titles etc) should not produce any visible difference unless the editing app produces its own artifacts. ...and iMovie HD DOES produce its own artifacts to PAL titles (NTSC is OK):
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_bugs.html#titlesPAL
BTW, iMovie 4 had a bug where it used the wrong DV codec for PAL. If you didn't notice it, you lost some quality when converting to the correct codec.
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie4bugs.html#PAL-DVCPRO -
Losing Quality in FCE With AVCHD Import/Export
When I plug my Canon HF-100 directly into my 1080p 45" LCD Sony the quality is excellent.
When I Log and Transfer into FCE, then add clips to the queue and immediately export them as a QuickTime Movie, the quality degrades noticeably. Especially on those scenes where there is panning. There is considerable motion blur.
Have I done something wrong? I am using full quality settings on the camera at 1080-60i with a tripod and OIS off in order to eliminate this panning blur. I am even using 1/500 shutter speed, and it still blurs whenever I pan. I am using the top end MBP.
But, as I said, playing directly from the camera is much better. Any feedback or suggestions? I have tried everything I can think of.What I don't understand is this. I have seen some highly compressed 540P and 720p video on the web that is remarkably clear. (With bit rates as low as 2500 kpbs) While it doesn't have the detail of the plants and trees I film, it is undersea video with quite a lot of detail.
I am losing all of this detail going from AVCHD to AIC. No compression yet at all. The file size is still huge, and the bit rate is "up there." 1.2 GB for 45 sec. and 230,000 kpbs and it is still blurry.
For anyone interested, here is a sample 45 sec clip. While it is compressed for your viewing, it is still very clear and illustrates accurately the panning blur I see in the uncompressed AIC. This is the same blur I see when viewing the 1.2 GB/230,000kpbs file.
http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/index.php/SlowPan_Test1/500
The reason I am asking these questions is because I am being told elsewhere that this is the nature of the AVCHD "beast." That it is impossible to get the clear panning I desire with any AVCHD/CMOS camera. They say because of the way indivual frames are treated (something to do with a long GOP), it is impossible, and I need a 3 CCD camera with a different codec.
If this is true, then fine. But I don't want to spend $5-10,000 and still have blurry pans. -
AVCHD import of moving clips very jumpy, not when done via FCE or Voltaic
Hi all,
I have a problem when importing clips from my AVCHD cam (a Sony HDR-SR7E) into iMovie 08. When the clips I am importing are of moving objects, or sweeping over a scenery, the imported clip are sometimes extremely jumpy. Like if ist was taken with a frame rate of 1 or 2 fps. It doesn't matter if I choose Large or Full quality, the result is always the same using the specific clips, and impossible to use in an edited movie. And it is not a playback problem, my CPU meters are only up to about 1/4.
If, however, I import the clips into .mov format using another program, like Final Cut Express 4 or Voltaic, then importing it into iMovie 08 using File -> Import Movies the quality is excellent! Nice result/fps with both Large and Full quality/conversion settings. Strange isn't it.. ? So it seems like the import process (and not the converting into 540 resolution if that is done) is doing something wrong in iMovie 08?
I do have some third party codecs installed, like xvid and possibly divx, but not Perian (that I have read has been causing some problems before).
Has anyone else noticed this problem? What is Voltaic and FCE doing in the import process that iMovie 08 is unable to?
Thanks,
HenrikHi all,
I have a problem when importing clips from my AVCHD cam (a Sony HDR-SR7E) into iMovie 08. When the clips I am importing are of moving objects, or sweeping over a scenery, the imported clip are sometimes extremely jumpy. Like if ist was taken with a frame rate of 1 or 2 fps. It doesn't matter if I choose Large or Full quality, the result is always the same using the specific clips, and impossible to use in an edited movie. And it is not a playback problem, my CPU meters are only up to about 1/4.
If, however, I import the clips into .mov format using another program, like Final Cut Express 4 or Voltaic, then importing it into iMovie 08 using File -> Import Movies the quality is excellent! Nice result/fps with both Large and Full quality/conversion settings. Strange isn't it.. ? So it seems like the import process (and not the converting into 540 resolution if that is done) is doing something wrong in iMovie 08?
I do have some third party codecs installed, like xvid and possibly divx, but not Perian (that I have read has been causing some problems before).
Has anyone else noticed this problem? What is Voltaic and FCE doing in the import process that iMovie 08 is unable to?
Thanks,
Henrik -
Macbook - AVCHD import - External disc drive - Import error
Whilst attempting to import any AVCHD clip, I always receive a message informing me there has been an error during import and to check video carefully. Afterwards no imported video images are visible in the events list. i.e. the 'title' is there but no image(s). i.e. it looks like that the final part of the process which creates the small quicktime files has failed.
Now here's the interesting thing, this ONLY occurs when I am attempting to capture the video on my external 1Tb Iomega UltraMax disc drive.
It does not matter if I attempt the import as 'full' 1080i or the 1/4 sized 'reduced' import - both fail. Its just as if the processed output cannot be written fast enough. The import times are circa 4* the length of the clip.
When I however do the import to the built-in drive on the Mac, it works perfectly. Import time to the built-in drive is twice the clip length.
It does not matter if I attach the external drive by USB or firewire (though the latter appears to be slightly faster), both fail with the import. N.B. The drive is MAC formatted.
I have a 1 year old Intel Macbook (2Ghz & 2Gb, 120 Mb disc drive) with the latest version of Leopard and everything fully patched.
Has any one got any thoughts or solutions to this please?Hi folks and special thanks to those whom put forward suggestions.
As mentioned in my original post, the external Iomega Ultramax 1Tb drive is MAC formatted, (and journaled).
One consideration was wether journaling was significantly slowing performance, but according to everything I read, there is little impact.
I took an old 60gb laptop drive and installed it into an external USB2 drive box and formatted as a MAC journaled drive. I then did an AVCHD import using iMovie 08 and all worked fine. I also carefully timed the import and the particular clip took exactly 59 seconds.
I deleted the import, rebooted, formatted the drive as a MAC NON journaled drive and did the same import. A worked fine and it took a fraction over 57 seconds. i.e. the overhead was just a few percent for journaling.
At this point it seemed to prove that something was very odd indeed going on with the Iomega Ultramax drive. This drive is used for time machine backups and time machine had never informed me of any inability to write to the disc.
Using the built-in Mac OSX disk utilities I ran a 'verify' on the drive. Guess what... it came-up with a number of errors including bad structures. I then ran a 'repair'. Unfortunately it was unable to resolve the the faults and I ended-up having to reformat the Iomega drive, as a MAC journaled device.
Tried a new AVCHD import to the Iomega Ultramax and it worked fine. In fact I later tried running Time machine (which was now doing a complete first time backup of my Macbook) _at the same time_ as an AVCHD import of many clips to the SAME drive. All worked absolutely fine.
For those interested in such things, memory usage during an AVCHD import was about 650Mb out of 2Gb RAM and processor usage (Intel dual core) was about 74% in each core. -
How to get lower-quality previews when working with Full-HD?
I'm working with Full-HD video, but I don't need preview (rendered) files to be 1920x1080 too. It takes a lot of disk space and a lot of time to render preview files.
Is there a way to have them some lower quality? For example 720x405 resolution would be enough.
But when I want to make a final export, I need to get Full-HD video.
Thanks!Use a Custom sequence and change the previews as desired.
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Hi,
Canon 5d m3 avchd import fail on some files
looks like it fails over 1gb in size files
I have tried creating a archive of the card then import still fail
I have tried using shot put pro to copy files to pegasus TB drive still fail
If I use finder, find the file, cop the file then paste file on desktop them import again using the fiule on desktop it works ok
Any ideas ? I had this on .7 and .8 i am on a retina mbp mid 2012
taWe are going of topic here are we not ?
I dont transcode to pro res so lets leave that one out.
I use a card reader not a canon utility rubbish
I put the card in the reader, copy onto hard drive
I open up import on fcpx browse for the folder, see the files cmd A them go import selected with copy to event folder too as I always do
Then is starts importing some of the 60 files and has trouble importing 2 or 3 files I have to say ok once message comes up so it will carry on
I am quite techy savy not a novice and have tried all sorts, its not my fault its a bug, I just wondred if anyone else have had this bug and apparently some are. I know how to cc or grade but that is not the problem, it randomly will not import a few files
Keep trying, please
Daz -
AVCHD-Import FCE under OS X 10.8.2
AVCHD-Import of Final Cut Express 4 doesn't work under OS X 10.8.2 anymore.
And the update for FCE (4.0.1) isn't available anymore. Can anybody help?Lion and Mountian Lion are not supported by Apple using FCE.
Users have varying results form not working to a few quirks but in the end you are on your own to deal with issues.
Last time I checked the 4.0.1 update was available??
Double check FCE is at the top level of your system Applications folder.
Have you tried trashing the FCE Preference files?
Al -
Export "full-quality" in iMovie '09.
Using iMovie HD, I used to export my footage as a full-quality QuickTime movie so I could archive it to disk and access it later. However, in iMovie '09, the "full-quality QuickTime" preset seems to have been removed.
What export settings in iMovie '09 will allow me to achieve the highest possible quality? I'd like to archive my footage to disk so that I'll always have a digital file to work with.
Thank you.Welcome BarrenRegions to the iMovie boards ..
no way to answer that question.. you have to compare apples with peaches.. (German proverb):
iMHD≥6 was a dv-only editor (and AIC, but this is another story...); it handles dv lossless.. frequent contributor lennart once made a test of ex- and reimporting a few dozends time the same clip = no loss of pic quality.
now iM08/09:
it handles dv not as dv internally anymore; therefore it accepts lots of other codecs (mp2, avchd, h264...).. so, depending of your source, the export can be lossy.
we have mile-long threads about that, search for posts from Steve Mullen and Euisung Lee who did research this issue +ad nauseam+
as far as I followed that discussion: there's a 'trick', to convert - after import into iM08/09 - the imports to AppleIntermediate with tools as QTpro or Mpeg Streamclip. that blows-up size, but forces iM08/09 to keep quality a 100%...
.. sorry for being less helpful, even as a 'Silverback' on this board, all that is +a bit+ beyond my skills, needs and understanding.. to be honest: I switched awhile ago to FinalCutExpress, and will use iM09 when I'll get a new rec-device.. hopefully this year (Santa! do you listen?!...) -
Converting Full Quality HD files to Large-possible? desirable?
Last year I bought a camera that shoots AVCHD files and have been importing them into iMovie using the Full Quality setting. My HD is now maxed out and I'm realizing that I can't afford to keep such big files stored. What I'd like to know is (a) is it possible to convert all my files to the Large size? and (b) would I regret doing so?
Thanks in advance!It all depends.
If you want to keep all the raw footage then you will need to move it to an external HD, since all iMovie does is create a file, "Project" that tells exactly where to go to get everything and plays them, video clip, music, titles etc. together. iMovie cannot ever play that movie if you get rid of any part of it.
you have several options. IF you want to keep the ability to always edit your movies then you must keep everything in those movies. On the other hand if you are done with the non-used raw footage and only want a high Quick Time movie, Go to the "Share" file and "export to QuickTime", pick the "HD" option and iMovie will import it into a QT movie that looks as good as the iMovie original, and never needs the individual parts to play again.
That movie will reside in the iMovie project file for that iMovie (Users -> MOvies ->iMovie Projects. You have to Click on that file with the control key pressed to "see package contents" and then if you want you can move the .mov file somewhere else.
Then you could trash the video that is taking up all the room. The thing is you never really know if you want to edit that film again. If you feel comfortable trashing the clips you don't want but still want to keep the clips you have and the ability to edit the movie again, you can do this 2 ways and save LOT of HD space.
Again, you could have all the data (events) on an external HD, but then that HD has to be attached to see or do anything with a project. I have all my stuff on a laptop and dont like that option.
So assuming your events are stored on your main HD, to free up space on your main HD (but still able to play complete projects from the main HD) you have 2 options and they do different things.
If you pick an event (click on it) then go to File Menu -> "Move event to trash" it will give you an option to
"Delete" which deletes (to trash) the entire event (essentially destroys project), or "Delete Unused" which moves to the trash all the parts of each and every clip (within that Event) that is not in any project.
The other option is to choose (doesn't matter what you choose first here) File menu -> "Space Saver"
and choosing that ("Reject and review") will move ANY clip in ANY event that is not used, into the trash, but leaves the clips you are using alone. The difference here is that, say you use 50% of a given clip from an event in a project, "delete unused" deletes the other 50% (while also deleting any clips that you use 0% of in the project), while "Space saver" leaves the 50% of the clip not used alone, leaving any used clip intact no matter how much of that clip is in a project, and only deletes (trash) clips in which there is nothing used for a project
The advantage of Delete unused is that really trashes everything that you arent using (btw you have go through that process for every event individually) and frees up the most space. The advantage of "Space saver" is that if you decide you want a second or two more from that clip in your project, it is still there. but then it frees up less space.
It kinda depends on how you film and how much film you use. I film my kid's games and a game (event) may have 45 clips, start and stop camera each is a clip. I may use 10 of those clips for a highlight film. If i used all of the clips, even 1/100th of each clip, then Space saver would not delete anything. but since I use , eg, only 10 of the clips, Space saver really opens up space on my harddrive. I used to use "Delete unused" which opend up even more room, but then if I want to go back and use more of each clip into the project, I cannot because it is gone forever from my HD.
write back if confused.
roger -
Use secondary screen as in iMovie 09/export full quality
1. Is it possible to use a secondary screen to view the video preview of the video I'm working on a secondary screen, while viewing the time line and the rest of the tools on my laptops internal screen as you can in iMovie 09?
2. When exporting in full quality is it really full quality as on the miniDV-tape or has iMovie made any changes to the video or compressed it in any way?Hi
1. Second monitor on Mac port - Don't know I do like this.
• connect Camera (miniDV tape) or A/D box to FireWire
• connect TV or referens monitor to analog out on Camera
• in iMovie pref set Playback via Camera
Now I see in realtime quality, color and audio as the result will be.
2. Well. All authority says that it's the same - but when I tested and from
original saved out a frame as .jpg then Export as full QT quality.
Import this into iMovie and then saved out same frame -
I get a noticable difference. A diagonal line is fairly good in photo from original
and a stair case on the QT exported version.
Most probably I'm doing something wrong. Never figured out what.
Yours Bengt W -
"Full Quality" = Poor quality text?
I am making a DVD, and am using video that is exported from iMovie HD. When I chose "full-quality" for the export, and view it when it is done, the quality (compared to how it looks in iMovie) is crap. It is especially noticeable in the "title slides" where there is just white text over a black background.
In my opinion, it definitely doesn't look like "full quality". What am I to do?What I don't get, is that when I try to do the "share
to iDVD" feature, it opens a completely new project.
I already had one started, but it won't let me share
into that one. What do I do?
To add an iMovie project to an existing iDVD project, drag the iMovie project into the iDVD window. That is how we routinely include multiple iMovie projects on a single DVD.
As Lennart said, there's no good reason to export the iMovie project to a Full Quality movie you send to iDVD. In fact, it can cause problems. Your DVD won't contain the chapters you created in iMovie, for example.
When you Share an iMovie project to iDVD, or drag the iMovie project into the iDVD window, iDVD grabs a special movie iMovie stores for it inside the iMovie project package. The movie is in the package's Shared Movies > iDVD folder. To look inside the package, Control-click on the iMovie project and choose "Show Package Contents" from the popUp menu. (No need to go there unless you're interested. Don't change anything.)
The Full Quality movie you created is confusing you, for it's a confusing thing. iMovie calls it that not because it plays the movie with great clarity, but because it retains all the quality of the iMovie project. Exporting to a Full Quality movie hands us a movie we can import to another project with no loss of quality. Each type of iMovie project has its own type of Full Quality movie, following the movie format of the exporting project. There's never any loss of quality.
Changing the playback features of a DV movie in QuickTime Player has no effect on the quality of the movie itself or on the quality of a DVD you burn of the movie. It only affects playback quality in QuickTime Player itself.
QuickTime has been around a long time. On yesterday's slow computers, we would lower the playback quality on (huge) DV movies so we could play them more smoothly.
Note that if you have QuickTime Pro, you can set your QT Player preferences to play DV movies with high quality by default.
Karl -
IWeb 08 and Photo Download Size not sticking to Original (Full Quality)
I am using iWeb 08 to post personal webpages and photo galleries but even when I select *"Original (Full Quality)"* under Photo Download Size in the inspector it slips off full size and make smaller pictures. I almost always want to offer full resolution image to my friends and family. Is there a way to make this work more reliably? Is it being fixed?
I found in this iWeb test pertained more to the image pixel dimensions than the jpg compression level of the downloadable file as you found out.
Happy New Year
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard. -
How do I export to DV "Full Quality" in iMovie 2009?
The old iMovie used to have a full quality export that would produce a .dv file.
Newer versions of iMovie have a "DV Stream" option, with settings (Progressive, Interlaced, Audio rate, etc.)
I want an absolute, full quality archive of my iMovie project, as sharp and perfect as I see it in iMovie. None of the DV Stream options seem to produce that. The titles look jagged, for one thing.
I want to export my iMovie project so that if I need to re-import it later into iMovie, no quality is lost. I don't care how big the files are, I want FULL QUALITY.Thanks for breaking this down for me, Sheryl, and thanks to everyone who took time to read my quest and fire off suggestions.
I will look for the AIC export option and try to select the maximum quality settings available for it, and then hand that resulting file to my producer.
I have an old Mac with iMovie HD on it, so I will also try importing the AIC export into that and the exporting to DV, as that DV seems like it would be better quality than the DV coming out of iMovie 09. (I seem to remember doing DV exports back in 2006 and being quite happy with the results, which is why this process has been so confusing for me now.) If the producer NEEDS a DV file, I reckon that's the best I can give them right now.
The consolidate project option sounds VERY COOL. I had no idea that was possible! For working between Mac users, that might be just the ticket I need. That also sounds useful when trying to throw away all the extra, unused footage and just keep the parts of the footage that I actually ended up using, but may want to tweak titles and effects later.
Long term, it sounds like I am going to have to transition to FCE or FCP. I will go surf the Web for reviews and impressions of it. I'd be happy to hear more about people's opinions. Investing time, energy and money into a new tool does not appeal to me, but I am definitely going to need full quality DV exports sometimes (anytime we want to get our PSA on the local television channel, for one).
I guess iMovie is still useful for my mini-YouTube fun time projects, (my latest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9TrAZ4yCDQ), but it is a shame that it can't produce something in which the future-proofing is limited only by source quality, not the software's output quality.
(I don't mind limitations based on source quality, them's the breaks! But potentially losing source quality forever because of shackled software is... GAH unforgivable.)
-D
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