Bad DVD quality. Camera or Settings?

Hello.
I've recently finished a DVD for my high school's drama department. I'll fess up right away and say my camera (a Sony HDR-HC3 HDV minidv... 5 years old) isn't the best to film in extremely low light conditions. It doesn't look ungodly on my computer however (im sure the macbook pro's glossy screen helps this).
When put onto a DVD and played back onto the 46 in HD TV, it looks pretty bad.. i guess its passible for a high school show DVD, but im hoping to get into more professional settings (school for video production), and this would be mocked and i'd never have a job again.
The project, was quite long (about 136 minutes) so when i was finished editing within FCP (and color correcting the footage to reduce graininess with an external monitor) I rendered, then exported as a reference file. Imported to Compressor, applied the 150 DVD Best. I upped the bitrate to around 5mbps (just enough to fit the video onto a 4.7 gb DVD) and set the deinterlace filter to Best.
So camera quality, bad/dark lighting, inconsistent lighting vs. DVD compressor settings?
I would like to lean towards the camera/environment. I'm saving for the Canon XA10 AVCHD HD Pro Camcorder which has great low light picture quality.. im hoping this will help the quality of my DVD's.
Any insight?
Thanks!

That was harsh..
Okay, there's obviously things I could have done differently. I wasn't really aware of being able to rent equipment (for cheap) in my area. I've seen stuff advertised online for lower end professional cameras but those still run around more than a $100.00 per day, and my budget isn't what I would consider to be flexible. Also, I was literally asked by the director to film the show the day of the performance. There wasn't much room for obtaining better equipment, BUT I will keep that in mind for the next time.
The tapes, okay I was idiotic. But I think its best to know you did that was stupid in order to never do it again.
As far as the video that was shot, i'm not sure how I could have made it look better given my lighting conditions. I used what manual controls I had, and it made the scenes with the lighting scheme I was adjusted to look good, but it had issues adjust to rest. My biggest problem was artifacts and graininess in the black areas. Im not saying there isn't much i have to learn about getting the shot, but i feel like the camera was limiting in its low light capabilities. Of course, I should have rented something better.
As far as the editing portion of it goes, that is my strongest point and the area I want to focus on in college. I filmed the show on 2 nights and combined footage/audio bits from both nights. This included cross dissolve shots between near and far shots (from 2 different nights) and matching them so they appear to have been from the same show. This also involved mixing the audio in a way that one couldn't tell when the "transition" from audio night 1 and audio night 2 took place. During the orchestra bits there were parts where they messed up on one night, and played it perfectly the next night, so I combined orchestra audio and had them fade into eachother. The end product makes it seems like the orchestra played perfectly. So in some ways i don't lack the creative ability to work with what i have.
I burned a couple more test copies and it looks fine on a standard def TV, and the sound is the best i've ever had. It doesn't look the way i would love it too on the 46 inch, but its better than previous theatre projects since i went through and color corrected all the clips.
Like i said, its a learning experience.. sometimes being harsh is what gets one to learn.

Similar Messages

Bad DVD quality

Imported video as "large" from Sony HDR SR12. burned a DVD using Toast 11. I realize Std def on a 40" LCD is not ideal but I expected better. I have Blu ray and plan to burn HD or BD but some friends do not. Render the movie in Imovie and then burn or import the raw footage into Toast and burn? I tried to increase the Mbps to 7-8 in Toast but that extended my approx 1 hour video to 2 disks needed? I otherwise tried to use the best quality settings. Any tips appreciated!

Hi
May be my notes can give an idea ?
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start. (Share to Media Browser and as Large (not HD or other res.) (I never use "Share to iDVD" any version of iMovie)
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
Yours Bengt W

Quicktime Pro Settings for DVD Quality Streaming to TV?

Hey All,
I have a lot of home movies I've made on my SD camcorder shot in widescreen. I have them all saved in as individual iMovie Project files. In the past I exported from iMovie as Full Quality then went to QP pro and exported them to stream on the web using Video and Audio settings I like.
Now I have connected my Xbox360 to my mac and want to go back into QP and export the files so they can be streamed to my Xbox360 and have DVD quality. I can already watch the videos but they are pixelated because they are obviously in the wrong format.
What QP export settings should I use under Options for Audio and Video on a 16:9 display?
I want DVD quality. On average my videos are 2,3 or 4 minutes long. I assume this solution would also transger over if I ended up getting an Apple TV.
If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

I would still use the save as method to change the file extension. The default "open with" application for .m4v is iTunes, not QuickTime Player and not all users have installed it. Viewers know what a .mov file is. A .m4v may confuse them.
Use the Export to iPod settings (nearly foolproof) and test the file so you're sure it plays in QuickTime and the iPod.
Next use the Movie Info window to add "Annotations". These can be things like changing the "title", adding copyright notices, artist names and dozens of other things.
Also set the movie "poster frame". This special frame shows as an image when, or if, you decide to use RSS feeds or Podcasts for the file.
Now that you've edited the file you need to save it. A "regular" Save may not preserve the fast start properties. Using "Save As" will restore the fast start feature.
Your viewers can either watch the file in the browser window or click on your other link and choose to save the file to their computer.

One Step DVD quality

I have been reading the posts about using IMOVIE09 and then using IDVD. I understand the quality is not great because of IMOVIE09 and the way it does the import.
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
Thanks

Hi
IS the quality better if I skip IMOVIE and use the One Step DVD option in IDVD directly? I am importing Mini-DV tapes.
YES !
else on Quality and iDVD - my notes
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeaskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

DVD quality

Sorry for my poor english.
I 've made a 94 minutes imovie (ilife 11) project with my brand new retina.
But when I make a dvd from idvd of the imovie project, I get a bad quality film (worse than before with the old imovie).
I try to save the project for a double layer dvd to avoid compression but I get the same bad quality.
Thanks for your help.
olivier

Hi
There are many layers to this Question - May be You find help here
DVD quality
1. iDVD 08, 09 & 11 has three levels of qualities. (version 7.0.1, 7,0.4 & 7.1.1) and iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - BEST (but not always for short movies e.g. up to 45 minutes in total)
• Best Performances
(movies + menus less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD (Can be best for short movies)
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6)
(movies + menus up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
Menu can take 15 minutes or even more - I use a very simple one with no audio or animation like ”Brushed Metal” in old Themes.
About double on DL DVDs.
2. Video from
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not self-containing, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos and the Ken Burns effect NOT is used. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly e.g. x4 or x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with Apple’s Disk Utilities application when burning from a DiskImage.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc). For SD-Video - if HD-material is used I guess that 4 to 5 times more would do.
5. I use Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. I use DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW) - DVD-R play’s on more and older DVD-Players
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
(I use JES_Deinterlacer to keep frame per sec. same from editing to the Video-DVD result.)
8. Don’t burn more than three DVDs at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while before next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• DVD is a standard in it self. It is interlaced Standard Definition Quality = Same as on old CRT-TV sets and can not
deliver anything better that this.
• iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 - CAN NOT DELIVER THIS any way know - as they all discard every second line when going from Event's to Project's = Can not be mended.
• iMovie HD6 - Can deliver 100% of what any DVD authoring program needs - and so can -
• FinalCut - any version
HD-DVD was a short-lived standard and it was only a few Toshiba DVD-players that could playback.
These DVDs could be made in DVD-Studio Pro. But they don’t playback on any other standard DVD-Player.
Blu-Ray / BD can be coded onto DVDs but limited in time to - about 20-30 minutes and then need
_ Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro incl. BD-component
_ BD disks and burner if full length movies are to be stored
_ BD-Player or PlayStation3 - to be able to playback
The BD-encoded DVDs can be play-backed IF Mac also have Roxio DVD-player tool. Not on any standard Mac or DVD-player
Full BD-disks needs a BD-player (in Mac) as they need blue-laser to be read. No red-laser can do this.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx. 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• How it was recorded - Tripod vs Handheld Camera. A stable picture will give a much higher quality
• Audio is most often more critical than picture. Bad audio and with dropouts usually results in a non-viewed movie.
• Use of Video-editor. iMovie’08 or 09 or 11 are not the tools for DVD-production. They discard every second line resulting in a close to VHS-tape quality.
iMovie 1 to HD6 and FinalCut any version delivers same quality as Camera record in = 100% to iDVD
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JES_Deinterlacer_3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are play-backed by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choice before Pro Quality)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
(x4 by some and may be even better)
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
unclemano wrote
What it turned out to be was the "quality" settings in iDVD. The total clip time was NOT over 2 hours or 4.7GB, yet iDVD created massive visual artifacts on the "professional quality" setting.
I switched the settings to "high quality" which solved the problem. According iDVD help, "high quality" determines the best bit rate for the clips you have.
I have NEVER seen iDVD do this before, especially when I was under the 2 hour and 4.7GB limits.
For anyone else, there seem to be 2 places in iDVD to set quality settings, the first is under "preferences" and the second under "project info." They do NOT seem to be linked (i.e. if you change one, the other is NOT changed). take care, Mario
to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
Try to break the process up into two stages
• Save as a DiskImage (calculating part)
• Burn from this .img file (burning stage)
To isolate where the problem starts.
Another thing is - Playing it onto a Blu-Ray Player. My PlayStation3 can play BD-disks but not all of my home made DVDs so to get this to work I
• Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up (Mac OS) hard disk
• Use Verbatim DVD-R (absolutely no +/-RW)
• Set down burn speed to x4 - less burn errors = plays on more devices
• No other process running in background as - ScreenSaver, EnergySaver OR TIMEMACHINE etc
• and I'm very careful on what kind of video-codecs, audio file format and photo file formats I use
• and I consider the iDVD Bug - never go back to video-editor to change/up-date - if so Start a brand new iDVD project
• Chapters set as they should - NO one at very beginning and no one in any transition or within 2 sec from it
• Lay-out - Turn on TV-Safe area and keep everything buttons, titles etc WELL INSIDE not even touching it !
TO GET IT TO WORK SLIGHTLY FASTER
• Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-Up hard disk
• No other programs running in BackGround e.g. Energy-Saver
• Don’t let HD spin down or be turned off (in Energy-Save)
• Move hard disks that are not to be used to Trash - To be disconnected/turned off
• Goto Spotlight and set the rest of them under Integrity (not to be scanned)
• Set screen-saver to a folder without any photo - then make an active corner (up right for me) and set
pointer to this - turns on screen saver - to show that it has nothing to show
• No File Vault on - Important
• NO - TimeMachine - during iMovie/iDVD work either ! IMPORTANT
• Lot's of icons on DeskTop/Finder also slows down the Mac noticeably
• Start a new User-Account and log into this and iMovie get's faster too - if a project is in a hurry
• And let Mac run on Mains - not just on battery
Yours Bengt W

Bad DVD burns

In the last few days I have been experiencing a number of bad DVD burns. Wasted about six discs. The playback hangs up part way through.
I finally resorted to "Toast". It gives me good burns everytime, but I miss the themes of iDVD. The recordings are of lectures and are about 1.25 hrs in length with some stills and music. I have done this many many times before with no problems. I let iDVD do the rendering of the stills.
David

Hi
Just some thoughts about DVD-Quality. Unstructured collection.
Can may be be of help.
DVD quality
1. iDVD 8 has three levels of qualities.
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
2. From
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not selfcontaining, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 this can also be set)
This can also be done with (Apple) Disk Util tool.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while befor next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on:
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JESDeinterlacer3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS: They are plabacked by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD08
Pro Quality (only in iDVD08)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choise)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD08
2. Project info: Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD08.
Region codes:
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes:
1 = US
2 = EU
Yours Bengt W

DVD quality poor.

Created a project in Encore with a MP4 file. DVD quality very poor. Very pixilated. Tried multiple settings. Bitrate etc... Did same project in FCP, 100% clearer.

Joe Video wrote:
Original recording with a JVC HD cam GY HM 650.
1080 60i Quicktime
File directly imported into Premier from SD card.
Edited and saved.
Premier monitor picture quality excellent, even full screen.
Exported – Media - H.264, MPEG 2 DVD, MPEG2, MP4
Results the same.
I even tried importing the original clip from the SD card into Encore and the results was the same.
In the Encore monitor, original layout with monitor small, you can see the pixels and the unclearness of the video.
Not even close to the quality with the Premier monitor
I am using a MAC Pro tower, dual Xeon processors, Apple 27” display.
Thank you again…
What codec is the camera quicktime please? a MOV file is a container, and the source in it could be nigh on anything from AVCHD (unsuitable for editing), Long GOP MPEG, lossless, and anywhere in between.
Besdt approach (in addition to the excellent advice from SafeHarbour) is to import into Premiere and create a new sequence from the clip - this will make sure the sequence settings match the source - and then output (at least this is how I would do it) to an interim SD file first rather than scaling & data reducing at the same time. Use at least an 8-bit file, and I recommend the Aja 2VUY codec.
As to why the difference in the onscreen monitors - are they set up right? I got bitten by this one once, and it turned out the in the hamburger settings (the funny little icon for settings on top right of panel) was set to automatic draft quality......
The biggest problem really is the source - why 1080i please? Will the camera not shoot 1080p?

What setting is 'DVD quality' widescreen - ie about 3gb per hour?

I have videod (isn't that a such a quaint 20th century word for the podcast age?) a conference and I want to archive the footage to store on a DVD for later reediting.
The "full quality" setting is massive, I only have 90 mins, but a 20 min clip takes up over 10Gb
The 'CD-rom quality' is just not not dvd quality.
(I am using iMovie 06 btw, i will move onto 08 when it is finished)
Ideally, I would just burn the whole lot raw with iDVD and import it again if i need to reedit - but (for copyright as opposed to technical reasons i suppose) we can't just put a dvd in the slot and rip it like we can an audio cd in iTunes. I have tried the workarounds - but none of them worked for me.
Anyway, I digress: What setting is 'DVD quality' widescreen - ie about 3gb per hour?

Hi there.
*Keep the quality*
0nce you have compressed data - you can't get the original quality back - so store as full quality as possible - and in several formats so there is always a backup.
Media
data cds don't hold that much - 700mb - so forget about them for quality productions and archiving
dvd-roms hold much more - 4,700mb (you can get dual layer ones that double it)
*'share' settings*
Now, you have 2 options for saving the movie;
1. as a file on a DVD-Rom (a compact .mov or a massive.dv)
2. as a proper playable DVD (iDVD)
If the "full quality" iM setting is too big a file for a dvd-rom (and you will be lucky to get 10 mins of footage in 4.7gb), then you could 'iDVD' it and that way you will get a good quality movie up to nearly 2 hours on a disc disc that can be played on most machines (and could even be ripped back into an editable form using third party software)
Alternatively, save it using 'expert settings' listed above and you will probably get good enough results for a longer film without having to burn it as a playable (but uneditable) dvd.
Bear in mind that unless you are using a pro camera, you may not notice the much difference with the higher settings.
Good luck - seeing your work on the big screen is a blast!

Im having problem with the dvd quality, I'm using compressor to convert the video fils from apple prores to mpeg2 .It doesn't matter how long my video is even if its just 5 minutes I'm getting cut edges in the video , does anyone have any idea ?

Im having a problem with the dvd quality, I'm using compressor to convert the video fils from apple prores to mpeg2 .It doesn't matter how long my video is even if its just 5 minutes I'm getting cut edges/lines in the video specialy if i have titles it comes up really bad , I took the same video to a friend of mine who have PC and he uses Encore , did the encoding there and it was just fine no problems! BTW I tried using doferent setings in compressor from CBR and VBR I even pushed up the setings to 8 or 9 BR and still no luck !
does anyone have any idea ?
Thanks in advence ...

Let's focus attention on just the Sony. (What model and what resolution are you shooting?)
For now, I'll assume you're shooting 1080i.
Take a representaive clip into a new sequence. Add a title.
In your sequence, make sure field dominance is set to Upper.
Set render settings to Pro Res 422.
After rendering, export QT self contained.
Import into Compressor (I'm now referring to v3.5).
Select the 90 minute Best quality DVD preset.
Open frame controls and turn on (click the gear icon). Set Resize filter to Best.
Submit burn and check quality on TV.
Good luck.

10.6.2: Bad image quality with SIPS

I used to convert my PDF documents with SIPS like this:
/usr/bin/sips --setProperty format jpeg --setProperty formatOptions high -z 400 200 sourcefilename.pdf --out targetfilename.jpg
This results in a very bad image quality after updating to 10.6.2 (the text contained in the source pdf file is nearly unreadable in the resulting image, especially when using the -z attribute for downsizing).
I could reconstruct this behaviour with several machines today: when using 10.6.1 the quality is fine, but after the update to 10.6.2 the resulting image quality is unacceptable.
Any ideas? Or could this be a bug? The man page for sips does not contain any information about new parameters and the image quality for other target formats (tif, png, ...) seems to be ok.

That picture looks like it was taken in a dimly lit room.
You could try using night mode but you will need a very steady hand.
Most basic phone cameras just cannot produce good pictures indoors when not in brightly lit areas. LED flashes just cannot do a good enough job when compared to real cameras.
Megapixels don't equal quality, it's the lens and flash that make the biggest difference.

Does HDV improve SD/DVD quality

Hallo,
I want to switch to HDV for personal use only, but can't affort to buy a HDV camera and big HD television at the same time. So I have to decide wich one to buy first. So there are some questions maybe someone can answer.
So far I have been recording DV 4:3 PAL with a Canon MVX2i and a Panasonic GS400 and I have been happy with the results. Last year I have made some recordings in 16:9 but in my opinion the quality with both cameras is not very good, esspecially with shots where the camera is not really stable. The picture seem to fall apart a little. I do realize the pixels are streched and with the same amount of pixels it can't have the same quality as 4:3. But on (cable) television there is sometimes a broadcast that doesn't seem to have this "falling apart" effect ( a lot do ) while it uses the same mpeg (720x540) stream as the others.
So my first question: If I buy one of the cheap Canon or Sony HDV cameras and shoot HDV 16:9 footage, edit as HDV and convert it straight to mpeg2 for a regular DVD with compressor, would this give me a noticable quality improvement compared to DV 16:9 to DVD? It doesn't have to be more sharp but does it give a more solid picture?
Second question: Does above workflow decreases the effect of those bend, moving lines you see on for instant brick walls while the camera is moving slightly, because of the lines of the chips and the wall interferance?
Third and last question: Somewhere (I can't find it anymore) in this forum I read something about more artifacts around moving objects in HDV like in low rate mpeg compared to DV. Is this true?
Thank you for your respons.

So my first question: If I buy one of the cheap Canon
or Sony HDV cameras and shoot HDV 16:9 footage, edit
as HDV and convert it straight to mpeg2 for a regular
DVD with compressor, would this give me a noticable
quality improvement compared to DV 16:9 to DVD?
Absolutely not, assuming you are comparing good quality cameras of either format. HDV has a noisier compression scheme, and you will also lose definition (compared to starting SD) when you scale the HDV down for the DVD.
You will get somewhat more definition horizontally with HDV compared to anamorphic SD, but only if the SD is displayed anamorphically rather than letterbox. I think you would notice other problems before you would notice this improvement.
It doesn't have to be more sharp but does it give a more
solid picture?
No. Again look at the quality of your SD camera.
Second question: Does above workflow decreases the
effect of those bend, moving lines you see on for
instant brick walls while the camera is moving
slightly, because of the lines of the chips and the
wall interferance?
It would tend to increase that effect, which again with a decent camera is almost non-existent.
Third and last question: Somewhere (I can't find it
anymore) in this forum I read something about more
artifacts around moving objects in HDV like in low
rate mpeg compared to DV. Is this true?
Yes, HDV has motion artifacts from interframe compression, and DV doesn't. DV does have compression artifacts but all compression occurs within each frame.
If you do go HDV, be sure you understand the effect it will have on your ability to capture, edit, to monitor, to work with any particular camera or flavor of HDV. It is never a simple out-of-the-box solution and often requires more $$ than one thought.
Don't get me wrong here: HDV has lots of promise and can be very useful and improve quality in many situations. But for SD-only output it isn't going to help and will most likely hurt.

Still bad video quality

even is catalyst cs 5.5 two of my problems do not resolve.
bad video quality in fullscreen. i have some videos for offline view (768x576 @ 2600 kbps) but still fullscreen view is messed up, all blocky, not proper video interpolation. in vlc or any other player the flv file looks fine!
the videos also have a 4:3 ratio and show white borders in fullscreen on a 16:9 screen in letterbox, how can make the borders black?
is there any solution?

Hi
as example
Creating a PAL movie in iMovie HD 6 then import this into a NTSC iDVD project
• Works but with a losy quality
I do use JESDeinterlacer3.2.2 and let this do the PAL to NTSC conversion
Now burned as an NTSC iDVD project
• Best result possibly without buying PRO-applications for $$$$$$$
This way should work the other way around too.
Most modern PAL DVD-players can playback NTSC (if TV is old in Bl/W)
Most modern NTSC DVD-players can't playback PAL
If playbacked on a Mac PAL or NTSC is of no interest.
Yours Bengt W

Better than DVD-quality on .mac - but which size?

Hi, that was what Steve Jobs said that there is the possibility to have better than DVD-quality movies on .mac Is this only with HD-cameras and material because they can´t be burnt at that resolution onto a DVD? Or is it also true with standard cameras? And which file sizes are we are going to expect while up- and downloading such movies? Are they even playable for the average internet user?
Thanks in advance for clarifying - Christoph

Steve may have left out the word "current" when he mentioned better quality than a DVD.
DVD's (currently) use MPEG-2 format and only the newest players can handle high definition.
Your Web based files can use high definition formats. Just like those HD trailers at http://apple.com/trailers
You can also publish larger dimension SD video.
Obviously the file size of these larger dimensions would require a fast Internet connection and a very patient viewer.

DVD Quality Sucks

I shoot weddings in HD with a SONY HVR-Z5U and edit them in Premiere Pro CS6 using the correct settings and then use the Adobe Dynamic Link to import them into Encore CS6. I use the DVD and Blu-ray presets in Encore. The Blu-ray discs have a sharp clear quality but the DVDs look awful. If nobody is moving the video looks fine but my videos are mostly long shots of dancing and everyone looks blurry and pixellated. They look much worse than my old wedding DVDs looked on the older 4x3 TVs. I did tests with the same scene on a 2 hour video, a 2 minute video and with Maximum Render Quality checked and I even tried exporting an mpeg2 from PPro and importing that into Encore but I saw no difference. How can I improve the DVD quality?

sneedbreedley wrote:
Well I use the Automatic DVD Setting so how do I change the Automatic DVD Setting from "Lower" to "Upper" field? I can't even find these settings to change them.
So the field order for the default transcode settings can't be changed. Instead, select the asset in the project panel and go to the File menu:
Jeff

Improved DVD Quality

I do some video editing on my Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro. I've recently been trying to import video of personal DVDs and I've noticed the quality of the DVDs is dark and choppy. Just to be specific: I'm talking about simply popping in a DVD and playing it, the quality at that point is bad. I'm assuming that if playback is bad the quality of imported video would be worse. I am trying to get optimal quality and I'm not sure if the lack of quality comes from the DVD drive or the video card. My drive is listed as HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N and my video card is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 120.
Any ideas or suggestions for upgrades are appreciated.

I'm assuming that if playback is bad the quality of imported video would be worse.
Here's one way to find out: http://www.secondchairvideo.com/?p=739

Bad DVD quality. Camera or Settings?

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