Best quality MiniDV transfer to digital

I've got a Canon GL2 with a box full of MiniDV tapes from the past eight years. I want to get these burned to DVDs, but also have them archived as digital copies on a hard drive. What's the best way to import these and keep them at the highest quality possible? Just use iMovie to import? I know they'll need to be compressed to burn to a DVD but I also don't want to have to transfer them again in the future, so I want them very high quality, no matter how much drive space they take up.

If your interest is to simply transfer the material to a more convenient format for playback - *and you don't want to edit the video* - get a DVD-Recorder with firewire input (eg Panasonic DMR-EZ28).
Connect your camera to the recorder via firewire, drop in a DVD-R (or DVD+R) disk, hit record on the machine and play on the camera.
The transfer, encoding and burning happens in real time.
Rinse and repeat until all the tapes are transferred.
If you do want to edit in the future, go with the transfer to the computer as noted in earlier posts. The highest quality transfer is simply bringing in the material as DV. Once transferred, put onto your tapes in a cool, dry, dark location and hold onto the camera. Drives fail. And, they fail more often and catastrophically than tapes.
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Which kind of paper is suitable for printing best quality photo by hp officejet 4500 wireless?

Hi
I have a "hp officejet 4500 wireless" printer and want to print best quality photo from my digital camera. Which kind of paper is suitable for my job? Please kindly advice me.
Best regards,
Faezeh Dibaei

The link below will bring you to the HPshopping website for the Officejet 4500 supplies. Click on the "Paper" link at the top of the webpage and it should show you the supported paper types. I would personally asuggest the Advanced photo paper for photo pritning.
http://shopping2.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/-/-/CB867A?TargetPage=productsupplies
Binary_Zen (worked at HP )
Click the white Kudos star to say thanks
Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem

Since I believe you can't create a Photo album (book) in Apperature, what is the best way to transfer my pictures from my Apperature Library to iPhoto without loosing any picture quality?

Since I believe you can't create a Photo Album (Book) in Apperature, what is the best way to transfer my pictures from my Apperature Library to iPhoto (in order to create my book) without loosing any picture quality ?

Since I believe you can't create a Photo Album (Book) in Apperature, what is the best way to transfer my pictures from my Apperature Library to iPhoto (in order to create my book) without loosing any picture quality ?
Why do you think that? You can create printed Books in Aperture with similar themes as in iPhoto, and with more options to create custom themes on your own.
See this page - http://www.apple.com/aperture/what-is.html - scroll down to see the example books.
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See: Aperture 3.3: Using a unified photo library with iPhoto and Aperture
Regards
Léonie

I've imported a giant cd collection for my work in wav format for the best quality audio using iTunes version 11.1.1. I need to transfer this library to our Music workstation using iTunes 11.0.1. That workstation version of iTunes can't be upgraded for

I've imported a giant cd collection for my boss in wav format for the best quality audio using iTunes version 11.1.1. I need to transfer this library to our Music workstation using iTunes 11.0.1. That workstation version of iTunes can't be upgraded for compatability reasons with other software using iTunes. When I try to transfer the library I lose all of the CD metadata and end up with only track names. Is there a way to transfer everything along with the metadata?

Not easily. WAV format does not store tag information in the file. Realize both AIFF (equivalent to WAV) and Apple Lossless (full quality but smaller files) do, so WAV was unfortunately the worst format to chose.
If you have to go with what you have you will have to explore exporting the library as .xml, moving it and the files to the other computer, then rebuilding a lower version library with the two sets. I am not sure if you can do it with the library.xml file that already exists or if it too differs according to version. You may end up having to export the files as a playlist. You will, of course, lose artwork too, though you can try fetching it from the iTunes Store later.
Some of what you need to do is outlined in these articles though you have the added limitation that you are not building a library of the same version. (It really is a piity you choose WAV, otherwise you could have simply added the ripped files and most of the data would have traveled with them.)
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20401436 - turingtest2 11/2012 post on rebuilding empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash from previous iTunes library file.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Best quality settings for transfer from comp to itunes library

What settings should I use to have the best quality sound when transfering from my computer to itunes?

Do you mean from CD to iTunes? Because if the songs are already on your computer, they probably don't need to be converted again. If you do mean from CD to iTunes, the answer is "whatever sounds best to you." I'm not trying to be flip. It's just that there's a wide range of preference. It's going to be affected by where you listen and the background noise, your headphones, your speakers, how good your hearing is and so on. I generally recommend that you rip the same track in a number of different bit rates in both AAC and mp3 and see what sounds best to you and (if space is an issue) what provideds the best compromise between good sound and small file size. Personally, I use 192 aac VBR. Sounds good on my iPods and on my JBL Creature speakers. I don't have a stereo.

What is the best workflow procedure for importing DV SP 16x9 footage into FCP7 and then exporting the best quality 16x9 to standard DVD so that it looks great (or at least good) on a 50" Samsung LCD TV ?????? Please help! anybody?? Thanks!

We are using a Sony HDV-Z7U camera for acquisition. We recently recorded an event using the camera's non HD capabilities. We set the camera to record "DV SP" 16x9 settings on both Mini-DV tape and CF card.
To import the DV SP footage into FCP7 we chose the "DV NTSC anamorphic" setting in the log and transfer settings window. After a successful transfer from the CF card (the CF card held approximately 83 minutes) we checked the size of the file and found it to be 16 Gigs! Why so big? An 83 miniDV tape shot in SD should easily fit on a standard 4.7 gig MPEG2 DVD.
We need to burn DVDs of this show - we sent it to compressor and got horrible quality.
What is the best setting to use in FCP7's log and transfer settings window to import DV SP 16x9 standard def. footage and what is the best method for exporting for outputting this footage to DVD that preserves the original quality of the DV SP footage?? Anyone? Many thanks

> Why so big? An 83 miniDV tape shot in SD should easily fit on a standard 4.7 gig MPEG2 DVD.
No it doesn't. DV is 13GB per hour.
In any case, a Video DVD uses the MPEG 2 codec, not DV.
>What is the best setting to use in FCP7's log and transfer settings window to import DV SP 16x9 standard def.
DV NTSC anamorphic.
>what is the best method for exporting for outputting this footage to DVD...
Use the Compressor DVD preset "Best Quality 90 mins".
>...that preserves the original quality of the DV SP footage?
Not going to happen, you are compressing by a factor of 1:4. Shooting as HDV would have given you better quality material to start with. DV is at the bottom end of the scale.

How to export the best quality file from FCE?

Hi people. I was wondering which is the option that I have to choose to get the best quality on an exported file from FCE4. The best quality I get is from the "Export - Quicktime movie..." option, but there is a huge compression as I see. The final product isn't as good as it should. Obviously, it won't be the same as the original material, but I was wondering if there was another way of getting a movie with much more quality, like when you use "Compressor" from the Final Cut Studio. Thanks in advance.

I imported the material through firewire (it was recorded on a miniDV tape). I respected the format of the source and the files I got are top notch. The final movie looks great on the computer, the differences come when burning it to a DVD. I'm using IDVD, and the .mov file exported through the option I mentioned.
I want to burn that .mov file to a DVD, which means there will be another compression to MPEG2 once I burn it through the DVD authoring app, but the product has some kind of "shaking" in the dark areas. It's not so bad, but I would like to get the best quality, like the ones I've got from Compressor. Is it possible using the Export - Quicktime movie option?

How to give client best quality of raw footage

So normally I shoot, edit, and burn sporting events for a certain client. However, this thime the just want to pay for the raw footage. Since I've noveer done this before, I'm a little confused. Usually I would export using Quicktime and then drop th quicktime into iDVD or Roxio and then burn a copy. But since they might want someone else to edit the footage, how do I give them the best quality format. I am sticking with burning something to DVD. But last night I was looking at export using quicktime conversion. There were all kinds of options. What would you recommend for exporting? I would assume if I burn it onto a DVD using iDVD, they would have to rip it to edit it. But doesn't puting something on DVD compress the footage? It is shot in SD, but I want to ensure maximium quality. Any suggestions?

It's a Sony miniDV camera. The footage specs are as follows:
Sony:
Frame Size: 720x480
Vid Rate: 29.97 fps
Compressor: DV/DVCPRO-NT
Data Rate : 3.6MB/sec
Aud Rate 48.0 KHz
Aud Format: 16 Bit
Pixel Aspect: NTSC-CCIR601
Field Dominance: Lower(even)
Or at least that's the information I got from FCE. The footage is 3 seperate camera angels with about 75 minutes for each camera. I'm assuming they mean to have someone else edit it, but what program they would be using, I really don't know. When you state "1) an actual copy of the raw footage", do you mean a tape copy? I do not want to give them the original tapes it was recorded onto.
"QuickTime/DV or QuickTime/AIC" I do not know the difference. I refer to myself as the Cole Trickle (Days of Thunder reference) of video editing. I don't know how or why the car works, I just know how to drive it. With video editing, I do not know all the internal knowledge of aspect ratios or what a codec is, but I know how to tell a story and get that feeling onto a TV screen. Yes, I am limited by my own ignorance, but I am a visual learner. I can read it 100 times, but if someone shows me once I have it down.
Aside from the rant, I want to deliver the footage on DVD. Our original agreement was for myself to edit the footage, but I respect the free market. I want to be as profesional as possible when it comes to business. I fell into this client backasswards, and wasn't meaning to create a full time career, but they liked my work and I liked doing it.

Setting for best quality in compressor

Hi.
I'm running FCP 5.1 and Compressor 2.3.1. For best quality videos on youtube I've heard it's a good idea to max out the free space they make available to you. What are the best settings I should use in Compressor for maximum quality uploads to youtube? Also what's a good setting for good quality video with a smaller file size? Also I should note most of my videos uploaded are of short duration 1 minute to 5 minutes. I've been using the settings DVNTSC and it's okay but maybe there's something better you can recommend? Also I tend to use Toast to burn DVD's. What's a good setting for best quality dvd's?
thank you!

For Youtube encoding, read these: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/you_tube_redux_gary.html and http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/you_tube_hd_gary.html
Keep in mind that the more compressed the file is (smaller file size), the lessor quality.
As for DVD compression, I've always found Toast's encoder to create poorer quality DVDs than Compressor or DVD Studio Pro. The best method would be to export a self-contained or reference movie from FCP (Do NOT use QuickTime Conversion), then import that file into Compressor. Use the DVD preset in Compressor that best matches your movie's duration. You can duplicate and adjust presets as needed for your particular movie. Compressor will create the needed MPEG-2 video file (.m2v) and Dolby Digital audio file (.ac3). Import those two files into DVD Studio Pro for authoring and burning.
-DH

Multiplexing Error Problem vs. Best Quality

I've been trying to make the .img file for a 29 minute iMovie which consist of 288 photos + beginning and end. I imported the 288 photos at 5 sec (no burns effect), created chapter marks, added audio and was able to create .img OK using Best Quality, as that's what I've always used in the past - many times. I added 4 sec subtitles to about half the photos which meant it created a second photo 1 sec long. When I tried to create the .img again, I got the multiplexing error. I've tried all combinations without success, UNTIL I tried Best Performance, and it created the .img file. I have over 40GB disk space, but only 786MB memory. All photos in iMovie really slows down iMovie after about 40-50 minutes worth, so I'm guessing memory availability might be an issue. I've done all the other things usually posted - run Onyx, delete iDVD.plist, restart before burn, etc. So why does a 29 minute iMovie of all photos create the iDVD .img file on Best Performance and not on Best Quality????. Suggestions appreciated. Thanks Terry
Power Mac G4 1 GHz Dual Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The size I gave on the photos was before they were imported to iMovie.
One of the problem photos was a scanned photo using a Canon N1240 scanner, which has since died and the other was with an Olympus D-450 digital camera. Both were edited (size, cropping, color, brightness, etc) in Adobe Photo Elements V3. Most of the time I import the pictures (in groups) into iMovie using the Import command, but sometimes I just drag them in. I do NOT use iPhoto. I've done several thousand photos this way (my wife is into genealogy)and I have created multiple DVDs of current family and family history. The problem photo had been used in other DVDs without problem. In one test I ran on this particular movie including the two problem images, the .img file was created OK until I added subtitles to each image in iMovie. I've sometimes had problems editing subtitles in that it deletes the image and adds the title to the next image. I do an Edit UNDO and then move the image to which the title is to be edited over 2 images, click the update and then move the image back to it's original position when update finished. It's annoying, but works. Don't remember if I did a title edit to the problem images or not. I think you're right in that one of many things could have happened when the image was imported. Right now I'm thinking something may have gone wrong when I added or edited the subtitle. Just wish the iDVD and iMovie error codes could be made more specific so it would be easier to identify and fix the problem photo(s). Thanks for your response. Terry

****DVD Best Quality Bitrate

Hi,
I've exported my project from FCP to Compressor, and plan on using the DVD Best Quality 90min setting. When I go into my Encoder settings and then the Quality tab, I can't seem to raise my bitrate above 7.7mbps.
Note: I'm using Two-Pass VBR and I know that you can do it with the CBR, but is not possible with the VBR options?
It's a very, very short clip - about 30 seconds long - and I'd really like to get that bitrate up there.
Thanks for your help.

AppleUsur wrote:
Note: I'm using Two-Pass VBR and I know that you can do it with the CBR, but is not possible with the VBR options?
No, not possible with VBR.
In order for VBR to be well, variable, you need to have some difference between your average and max. As you can see, Compressor prefers that difference to be at least 1.0 Mbps. (A little more, like the 1.3 you get at the top end, once you crank the average bit rate past 6.0.)
But VBR is really meant to minimize the space needed for an encoded file while maximizing quality. Since you seem to have a lot of room, not sure VBR is worth it. CBR is probably best.
Also be careful with bit rates that are too high. Depending on the player used (more expensive THX-certified ones being the problem, actually) a burned disc with a sky-high bit rate can cause issues (freezes, stutters, jumps, etc) that makes a disc unplayable. Even if you use Dolby Digital audio.
But that last bit is hit-or-miss depending on the player and sheer luck. I personally never go higher than 7.0 with CBR or 7.5 Max when doing VBR. Call me cautious.

Best way to transfer disk contents from dead Cube (G4) to new iMac (Intel)

Forgive me if this has been covered before - my search didn't find anything on this particular problem.
My (upgraded, but ancient) Cube finally bit the dust during a power surge/outage at the house. Actually, it was just the power brick that died, but I have ordered a new iMac to replace the Cube. My question is on the best way to transfer the data and info from my old hard drive to the new iMac when it arrives. I am thinking of buying a Firewire or USB enclosure for the Cube's disk (Western Digital 120 GB) and using it as an external drive at the new iMac. Since the Cube is effectively dead, I don't think I can use Migration Assistant, can I? And should this transfer be the first thing I do on the new iMac? I know that many of my apps won't run natively on the Intel iMac, but some will under emulation, so I want to save many of them (Cube was still a G4 PPC). I also want to be able to transfer my iTunes and iPhoto libraries, all my Office files, and other data without having to individually copy them all. Can someone suggest the best course of action?
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Hi Joe Crabtree;
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I'm going to save my old Hi8 tapes on a hard disk using final cut pro x, to save it for the future. But how shall I export it, and in what will be the best quality to save it in?

I'm going to save my old Hi8 tapes on a hard disk using final cut pro x, to save it for the future. But how shall I export it, and in what will be the best quality to save it in?

Hi Carsten...good luck with your project.. I had just about as many Video8 & Hi8 tapes as
you that I digitized and eventually brought into FCPX..took me many months not weeks
to do so,BTW, as each tape was 60-90 minutes in lenght...and many hundreds of
gigab ytes of storage ( uncompressed AVI files)..it's tedious work unless you plan to farm
it out to a processing house...also regarding eventual storage format...remember
Hi8 is 400 lines or about 540X480 in todays resoultion metrics..you can't make hi-def out
of source that starts out as 400 lines...in my case I rewrapped the avi files into .mov
containers and imported the mov files into FCPX where I got rid of the hundreds of
minutes of Colorado mountain landscapes to get to that one minute shot of the kids
on horseback ( late 80's for most of my archives)..so its a job..scouring thru 30X90 min
of source to not miss those precious memories takes diligence and hard work but its worth
it; eventually I encode the uncompressed video I want to save in H.264 format Staandard
Def not HiDef

How to convert HD content to Best-Quality DVD ?

Hi there! I'm thepopol777 and I'm using Premiere Pro for 5 years now. However, this is the first time I have to make a video DVD so I would like some advices.
I've read all threads about HD to DVD, but I couldn't find the answers I'm searching for.
Let's go!
I filmed 40 min movie with my HD sony camcorder. 1920 x 1080. Now, I have to put this on DVD playable on a classic DVD Player. I don't want to put 1080p on DVD, just make a normal SD DVD but with the max quality possible. I know it will not be BluRay quality, regarding the bitrate etc...
So this is what I've already done:
1st Try
1- I've created a Premiere Pro project with the folowing settings: AVCHD 1080p - Squared pixels - 25fps - 16/9 ( Should I create a Standard DV-PAL project a this point? )
2- After finished the mounting, I've clicked on Adobe Dynamic Link -> Encore
3- In Encore, I've created a Transcode Preset with the following settings: MPEG2-DVD - Quality: 5 - 25fps - Progressive - widescreen 16/9 - VBR 2 pass - Bitrate, Min: 6, Goal: 8, Max: 9 - Sound: Dolby digital
4- File - Generate - Disk: DVD
The result of this is, after 8 hours of transcoding, the DVD is done, but the quality is really low ( Or I'm too used to BluRay ). On the 4,7Go space of the DVD, only 2,6 Go was used. So I'm wondering if there is a way to boost the quality with the unused space ?
2nd Try
1- With the same Premiere Pro project, I didn't send to Encore this time. I've done Create Media and with Adobe Media Encoder ( which I prefer ), I've created a file with thoses settings: MPEG2-DVD - Quality: 5 - 25fps - Progressive - widescreen 16/9 - VBR 2 pass - Bitrate, Min: 8, Goal: 8.5 , Max: 9 - Sound: Dolby digital - Multiplexing: DVD
2- Back to the 1st try Encore project, but this time I've manually clicked on the sequence and " Localize Transcoded file "
3- I'm like " Now I've already transcoded the file, the next step should be the burning... But no, after clicking on Generate - Disk - DVD, Encore is transcoding again my transcoded file.
4- Maybe this is because the Transcode Preset is different of my transcoded file? OK Challenge me!!!! Creating a new Transcode Preset with the same values than in AME
5- But nothing changes here, Encore absolutely wants to re-Transcode my transcoded file
6- I Just give up here.
Yeah I know, shame on me to give up.... But I really don't know if my tries were goods. So here I am, don't know if my first-try DVD is the best quality I can get already... Or If I had to re-create a Premiere Pro project with the final size instead of 1920x1080... I'm just lost, and a step-to-step guide will be appreciated.
Thanks a lot!
Thepopol777

Alright, absolutely Perfect!
Of course, it's not HD, but the quality I was expecting for is right here. Thanks for all your advices, it helped a lot!
So the main trick was to NOT export to Encore with Direct Link. ( Thanks Ann )
Just Export Media in Premiere ( that will open Adobe Media Encoder ), put the good settings ( bitrate etc... ), start transcode, then open a new project in Encore and import the files ( video + audio ) and that's it! The option Don't Transcode will appear and at DVD generation it will just use the files without re-transcoding them.
Bye Bye

Best quality to burn a dvd for duplication

Looking for the best way to get the best quality burning a dvd for duplication for resale.
I have iLife09. Its about a 33min video shot with a mini HDdv

Hi
My list on DVD Quality.
*DVD quality*
1. iDVD 08 & 09 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 or 09) / 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 or 09 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 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 choise 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
Yours Bengt W

Best quality MiniDV transfer to digital

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