Burned DVD Quality reference

I have nothing to compare the disks I make with, but the DVD video doesn't come out like a something you could buy. The video is jerky, and has horizontal lines through it, especially in scenes with movement. The source is VHS video tape digitized with an Aurora Fuse capture card, and is about an hour long. It's burned with Toast 6. It looks better on the computer than it does on the TV. I have tried the disks(+ and -) on a Pioneer DVD Player, and a Playstation 2.

Hi-
Have you tried a different media (quality), like Verbatim? Also, slowing your burn down as much as possible could help.
Also, try making a disk image, and playing the disk image back. If the disc image is the same as the DVD's, then it is an encoding problem, from the capture. If it is smooth, then it is either media, or your settings in Toast.
Regular DVD players are going to be pickier about media and burn speed (than the Mac), especially older players.
G4 AGP(450)Sawtooth   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   2ghzPPC,1.62gbSDRAM, ATI9800, DVR-109,(IntHD)120&160,LaCie160,23"Cinema Display

Similar Messages

  • Video quality of burned DVD way inferior to content viewed in iDVD program

    I notice the video and menu quality on my burned DVD is VASTLY inferior to video and menu quality when viewing menus and content in the iDVD program while building the presentation.
    Having encoded at "Professional Quality" to a single layer DVD which didn't look so good, a number of posts in this forum suggested that "Best Performance" actually renders the best video quality.
    I'm using high-quality media from Verbatim so that's not a problem. The DVD's burn fine.
    The content -- all high-quality QT movies with great resolution, color and crisp text and animation, look great in and of themselves, and when viewed in the iDVD program. The menus and clips embedded in the scene select buttons, all look crisp and clean.
    Burned to DVD however, the video looks noticeably "worn" and the clips in the buttons lack any kind of crispness or resolution. Definitely disappointing. The animations look herky-jerky.
    Anyone know what the problem is?

    Hi
    No iDVD has a fixed quality - as old time TVs
    • PAL 625 lines (720x576)
    • NTSC 520 lines (720x480)
    so Your Mac screen are way higher resolution.
    There are NO HD version of iDVD - yet
    *DVD bad quality*
    copy of an answer on a similar question - may be of help
    the iMovie 08 & 09 don't apply
    There are two problems in this question.
    • iDVD
    • iMovie'08 or 09
    iDVD - can only handle Standard definition TV quality - NO version can handle HD !
    SD-TV
    EU - PAL system = 625 lines analog display (no pixles) 25fps
    US - NTSC system = 520 lines and 29.97 fps
    That's the best iDVD can do.
    iMovie up to version HD 6 - could handle interlaced video (displaying every second line
    first then start over with the rest - 25fps = 50 frames of interlaced video
    less flickering.
    iMovie'08 and 09 has destroyed this by deleting every second line
    Result a resolution of
    PAL 312 lines
    NTSC 260 lines
    So photos displayed this way will look crappy.
    Improvment
    Use iMovie HD 6 or FinalCut Express or Pro
    Else only way I know of to get "full" quality is by using other tools all together.
    Roxio Toast™ 10 Pro (incl BR-component) and here the included FotoMagico™ for SlideShows.
    Toast™ also can burn Blue-Ray - even on standard DVD (but much less eg 20 min movie)
    These BR-DVDs Can only be playbacked on a Blue-Ray Player (eg PlayStation 3)
    But they look super.
    A more specific part reg. FinalCut
    I do in FC-Express or Pro
    • Export out as a QuickTime .mov file
    • Not selfcontained (not important but saves time and spaces)
    • NO QUICKTIME CONVERSION (Important)
    I use
    • Verbatim DVD-R disks
    • Burn at a reduced speed x1 or x4 recommended by many)
    • Secure a minimum of 25Gb free space on internal boot hard disk for 4x3 SD video
    and my guess is that I would secure 5 - 6 times more for 16x9 HD
    (Still no version of iDVD can do HD)
    Yours Bengt W

  • Poor quality from burned dvds

    i'm having trouble with the burned dvds i get from this software. everything looks great when creating the project, but after it burns, the menu and slideshow photos look very fuzzy/out of focus. i have tried using professional quality and high quality, but neither look presentable on the dvd either on the computer or the tv.
    is there anything else i can do to improve the quality?
    thanks,
    d

    The pixel content of a DVD is about 640x480 (in still digital image square pixel terms). I'll let you in on a 'secret' - that's only about 0.3 megapixels. They were designed to be viewed on the old, conventional CRT TV sets. When viewed close-up on a large screen set they 'are what they are'.

  • Why are burned DVD's poor quality from the IDVD?

    I made a slideshow in iphoto and exported to IDVD so I could burn copies.  The show lloked great on screen but the first copies on dvd's were terrible.  The quality of images are very poor and seem to be depixilated?  Why would the copies be so poor?  Does the widescreen or standard have something to do with it??
    Help

    Hi
    There are levels in h*e*l*l*
    iDVD - is same as DVD Standard - Interlaced SD-Video
    Feeding iDVD progressive or HD material will not improve result but degrade this as from
    - iMovie'08 to 11 - as they can not deliver - but only every second line of the picture
    - iDVD downscaling from HD - is doing a bad job
    So by using a program that can deliver - best possibly DVD is the result
    - iMovie HD6
    - FinalCut any version
    - FotoMagico™ - (for SlideShows)
    If this is not enough - then DVD is no option as HD-DVD is rare and needs special HD-DVD-players - alt
    • Blu-Ray e.g. from Roxio Toast™ but still needs BD-Player as PlayStation3 etc
    • out in high quality to USB-memory to be played on device that can do this
    • Play via MacBook and out to a HD-projector/TV
    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 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

  • Quality Issues Burning DVD's

    I am new to iDVD and iMovie.
    I am hoping to be able to burn a DVD that will play on a
    standard DVD player hooked up to a TV.
    I made a 4 minute movie in iMovie,
    then onto iDVD...
    Saved movie to HDD
    Burned DVDs via disk utility (one at all 3 speeds)
    Used high quality DVDs.
    The DVDs I created...
    only the 4x would play on my standard DVD.
    It plays in black and white, not color.
    It stops and starts frequently.
    Do I have any other options on my Mac?
    Should I copy the movie to miniDV and take it to
    a company that burns DVD's?
    Any advice would be very much appreciated.
    I posted this question in the iMovie forum as well...
    Thanks in advance,
    Kell

    What kind of media are you using? Are you using Verbatim or Maxell DVD-R and burning from a disc image at 4x or slower?
    Use Roxio Toast or apple's Disc Utilities to lower the burn speed. If your DVD or iMovie has B&W issues where it's not supposed to, then you have a shaky connection / loose cable somewhere. Check all connections (make sure all is snug).

  • Low quality of burned DVD even if I drag&drop iMovie project into iDVD

    Hi all,
    I've a iMovie HD project that I want to burn via iDVD (7.0.4).
    If I click "Share with iDVD" the quality of the resultung video (which is burned to DVD) is rather poor. As I've read within this discussions, the preferred way is to close iMovie and "drag and drop" the iMovie project into iDVD.
    With this way, iDVD (instead of iMovie) will render the movie, which should give a video with far more quality.
    Unfortunately, the burned DVD with the "drag and drop" method has the same low quality as the video with "Share with iDVD".
    I've done a little research and noticed that the "shared movie" for iDVD (iMovie project->Show package Contents->Shared Movies->iDVD) for a 1:10 video has a filesize of only 32kb!
    Is there any way to set the "export" parameters for this "shared movie" (it is a quicktime file)?
    The quality of the completed DVD is acceptable if I export the iMovie project to "DV stream" an import this stream into iDVD. But in this case I lose all my chapter markers of the movie ..
    Is there any way to export the movie from iMovie HD and keep all the chapter markers for iDVD?
    Importing the iMovie HD project into iMovie 08/09 is not an option, as I lose the chapter markers also ..
    Thanks in advice,
    Kind regards.

    Hi,
    the iMovie project was created as "DV" project and I imported DV PAL clips. The iDVD preferences are also PAL (25fps) and the quality setting is "professional quality".
    I've also tried the setting "best performance" within iDVD (as suggested within this forum), but with the same poor result.
    I can see within the iDVD "project info" that iDVD will use "mymovie.mov" within the "Shared Movies->iDVD" of the iMovie project (Show package contents).
    As this converted movie is of low quality, I think this is the root of evil.
    If I export the movie from iMovie with "Export as DV stream" and import this converted movie into iDVD the quality is ok - but I lose the chapter markers ..
    Is there any way to keep the chapter markers?
    Kind regards.

  • Poor quality sound on burned DVD - Any help?

    Hello,
    I am experiencing the following problem: I export videos from Premiere Pro as m2v and wav, repectively. I import them in Encore and let Encore transcode the wav file into AC3. In the preview on the computer, the sound seems OK. When I play the DVD on a set-top player, the sound quality is very poor.
    I tried to use PCM encoding in Encore and the result was the same. Any solution? Do I have to look for another AC3 encoder? From what I gathered searching this forum, the encoder in Encore should work fine.

    Thank you Stan and Bill for taking time to reply.
    I did some tests and here's what I found:
    When I play the burned DVD in my computer (using Power DVD) the sound is acceptable. The problem might be that the set-top DVD player/recorder  (Panasonic), or the sound system in my TV set, or a combination of both, are too sensitive to the quality of the sound track. There are no sound problems with the system however when playing commercial DVD or a DVD recorded with the Panasonic recorder. I re-edited the movie in Premiere and I exported audio as AC3 with the SurCode encoder, using all the free trials (the DVD had 3 timelines). I burned a DVD with this sound file and the quality was significantly improved when played on the same system. Conclusion: It seems the Encore AC3 encoder is not of the same quality as the SurCode. Are you of the same opinion?
    Thanks again,
    Harry.

  • Setting quality when burning dvd

    Hi, I'm working on my first project on my brand new iMac. Finished creating the 23 minute movie, shared it in iDVD and burned it and found the quality to be quite low. I'll try a better quality dvd, but through reading these posts I've seen mention of settings that relate to the quality of a disk...where would this be in the process? Thanks for the help (and the patience!)

    Welcome to the Forum...
    Select "Project Info" under "Project" menu item...
    Select "Professional Quality" for "Encoding" for the best quality rendering to DVD. The "Best Perf" option is a misnomer...read below for details...
    More info from Apple Help file:
    +The encoding settings in iDVD are the following:+
    ◼
    +Best Performance+
    +When you select Best Performance, iDVD encodes your video in the background as you’re working on your project instead of waiting until you burn it. This can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to create a finished DVD. This is a good choice if your project is an hour or less in duration (for a single-layer disc). You’ll finish your project more quickly, and the encoding quality will be excellent for the amount of video you have.+
    +Best Performance encodes your video at a preset bit rate that produces great quality for projects that can easily fit on your disc. If you have a larger project that needs to be squeezed onto a disc, you should select one of the other encoding options.+
    ◼
    +High Quality+
    +This is the best encoding option for larger projects that are between 1 and 2 hours long (for a single-layer disc). With this setting, iDVD chooses the best bit rate possible for the amount of data you need to fit onto your disc. It’s the only option that “squeezes” all the data onto a disc at a bit rate that ensures a high video quality in your burned DVD. Because iDVD does not encode in the background with this option, it takes longer to burn your disc. The encoding process begins when you burn the DVD instead of when you start working on your project.+
    ◼
    +Professional Quality+
    +The Professional Quality option uses advanced technology to encode your video, resulting in the best quality of video possible on your burned DVD. You can select this option regardless of your project’s duration (up to 2 hours of video for a single-layer disc and 4 hours for a double-layer disc). Because Professional Quality encoding is time-consuming (requiring about twice as much time to encode a project as the High Quality option, for example) choose it only if you are not concerned about time.+

  • Disapointed with picture quality after burning dvd

    Hi,
    I have iDVD3 and found the little "cheat" so yo could burn to an external DVD writer as I have a LaCie DVD writer. I duly burned my first project but have to say that I am disapointed with the DVD quality compared to DVDs I have burned with TOAST.
    I did notice that when burning my DVD on iDVD that it looked as though an error had taken place as a message appeared on screen saying that it couldn't write to the DVD and the tray to teh DVD burner opened however it already had.
    Any ideas?

    Hi
    58 min should put You in the situation of High Quality in iDVD but it
    depends greatly how advanced Your DVD-menu is. iDVD can guess that
    it is more than 60 min (together) and then put You in best performance.
    a. I would downgrade QT to 6.5.2 (Apple support downloads and so on)
    b. I don't use - Share to (iDVD, QT or what ever) from within iMovie (if it
    is this that You use) but close iMovie, locate project folder/icon and in
    this find folder -> Share movie -> iDVD -> use this QT movie in iDVD.
    - it doesn't render this way - which harms photos at least)
    (And I'm using OS X.3.9 - feel safe with this)
    Yours Bengt W

  • Loss of quality from iMovie Project to Burned DVD

    Hello,
    I have read some strings regarding this subject but I'm still left with questions.
    I have created a photo collage set to music, in iMovie. It's 12 minutes long, and when I play it in iMovie on my computer, it looks great. All the photos are crystal clear, rich with color, and vibrant in all the right places.
    I played the file in Quicktime 10.0 and it looks great.
    The info in the Quicktime Inspector is
    Format: H.264, 1920x1080, Millions AAC, 2 Channels, 44100 Hz
    FPS: 29.97
    Data Rate: 20.23 Mbit/s
    Current Size: 1549x871
    I burned this to a DVD using Toast Titanium (because ever since my iLife '11 upgrade my iDVD hasn't worked past startup. I can't get it to do anything at all.)
    Somewhere between the Quicktime movie and the Burned DVD, the movie loses a significant amount of quality. It seems all the colors are washed out. I can see my edits on some of the photos... it looks like crap. To me it looks awful, to others it may not look as bad, but I know the difference. It looks awful.
    Can someone please tell me why this is happening and how I can prevent it? All while still using iMovie through this whole process, and Toast for burning?
    Thank you so much
    YahYah

    Hi Ziatron,
    The quality workaround I proposed assumes the person starts with a progressive source material. The original poster did as I don't see how you would import true progressive source media and get interlaced artifacts at the end, especially for stills! We are not in the days of the Sony Mavica you know. What you are doing is importing interlaced video and processing it in interlace with a progressive scan workflow. The combing artifacts you saw is from the consumer algorithm that is inherent in iMovie 11. I know iMovie 6HD and FCE or FCP have better de-interlacing algorithms. You can by pass iMovie 11's weakness by treating the interlaced video through a commercial/high end de-interlace software and get better results.
    As long as you are working with a progressive source media, then you are not bound by de-interlacing artifacts unless your movie was shot in it. Suffice to say, best de-interlace programs cost money and a lot of computing power. That is not something the majority of computer owners use iMovie possess. I see you have a high end Mac Pro. I also have a high end Quad PC with a high end Nvidia graphics card to utilize its hundreds of CUDA cores for vReveal to eat on. But that's not what the general public of Mac or PC owners have nor what the general public buy during Black Friday or Boxing Day in Canada either. High end Macs or high end Quad PCs go with high end video editing software where the de-interlacing and the encoding and decoding algorithms are much better than the consumer versions.
    This is OBVIOUS! Better algorithms will simply slow down any mid-end Macs to mid-end PCs to a low teeny 1-5 fps processing a video clip in H.264 in very very high quality and multiple passes. This is not acceptable to the general public. Which is why, you are also seeing noise artifacts in the workflow too, because you need to first de-interlace the source media and then re-encode to H.264 which obviously adds artifacts to the source before you can use it with iMovie 11, so clearly iMovie 6HD has a clear advantage. This carries over to the final workflow. But most AVCHD material out there is compressed too!
    Consumers need to be aware that there is a difference between consumer grade software and commercial grade software. Also, commercial grade software require a hefty computer to do its job reasonably well! People need to understand that just because you own a nice $900 to $1000 camcorder does not mean that your mid-end Mac can deal with it.
    Getting quality is so easy. Just spend lots and lots of money on hardware to shave off 15mins to a few hours of video encoding to digital video processing, but at what end because it will never end!
    I've seen a few footages floating around on Youtube that looks really good made with iMovie 11. Just keep in mind that there are always tradeoffs for reasonable rendering time vs cost of your computer package.
    Message was edited by: Coolmax

  • Converting and burning DVD from NTSC to PAL

    I have created a DVD using iMovie (6.0.2) and iDVD (6.0.2) using NTSC format. I want to share a copy of the DVD with relatives oversees and I have been trying to create/convert a DVD formatted for PAL. I have not had any success!! These are the steps I have used:
    1. Under PREFERENCES, I selected 25 fps
    2. A message window came up indicating the original iMoive file was converted from 29.97 fps (NTSC) to 25 fps (PAL)
    3. I Selected Save As and saved the converted iMovie file at 25 fps as a different file
    3. I Opened the Saved iMovie file under iMoive checking that the PREFERENCES was set at 25 fps
    4. Export from iMovie (full quality) the movie (I have selected 25 fps under PREFERENCES prior to exporting
    5. Import the movie file I just exported and then set the chapter markers and save the new movie in iMovie
    6. SHARE the new movie and select iDVD
    7. When iDVD opens, I check the PREFERENCEES and it has PAL set in the preferences and also has PAL selected under Poject Info
    8. I set up all the themes, fonts, etc. to customize my DVD
    9. I then select BURN DVD and I get the following message: "TV Standard Conflict? It seems that we are burning a NTSC movie on a PAL disc. Proceed with burning?
    ANY Suggestions or Advice would be greatly appreciated!

    Hello Morris,
    you do not actually have to convert your iMovie NTSC project to PAL before burning in iDVD. just go to iDVD preferences and select PAL as new standard, then create a new project and import your NTSC iMovie. iDVD will do the standard conversion AND encoding.
    the NTSC/PAL conversion done in iDVD, however, doesn't produce the best results - give it a try though, but if you're not satisfied with the DVD's quality, consider getting JES Deinterlacer to do the standard conversion. this software can handle directly the reference movie stored in your project and will output the converted movie to the same location, so when you open your iDVD project, it will be in your media pane
    JES Deinterlacer is freeware and you can find it here:
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html
    hope this helps
    mish

  • Can't burn DVDs? Try this first...

    Like a number of other folks, I had an unexplained failure to burn DVDs and thought something Very Bad had happened to my drive. However, doing some research before buying a new drive (if I had to buy one, might as well get the Latest and Greatest right?) I found there's a lot of really bad media out there. Companies are buying some really cheap junk, slapping their label on it, and putting it on the shelves.
    So before doing anything drastic, try this:
    Go to Applications -> Utilities and start "System Profiler".
    In System Profiler, left hand column (labeled "contents") click "Disc Burning".
    Insert a disk you haven't been able to burn.
    When (sometimes "if") the disc mounts, refresh System Profiler (command-R or from the View menu select "Refresh"). At some point, you should get something like this:
    Media:
    Type: DVD-R
    ID: CMC MAG. AM3
    Blank: No
    Erasable: No
    Overwritable: No
    Appendable: No
    Pay attention to the ID field. In this case, "CMC MAG. AM3"
    Pop over to:
    http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
    And search for your disc ID. This likely is "all run together". That is, for "CMC MAG. AM3", you look for:
    CMCMAGAM3
    And, presto, the discs my drive "quit" on are listed in the section:
    "4TH CLASS MEDIA:
    "Pathetic garbage media, landfill material, about 0-50% success rate. These discs are pretty much only suited for preventing drink cup rings from forming on a table. Most of the time, these are ready-made coasters. If you can actually get a burner to acknowledge the disc, do not expect much. And if the burn actually succeeds, do not be surprised if a DVD-ROM or player chokes on the disc (read/play errors). Cheap prices, cheap junk quality."
    How nice!
    Mind you, I did not buy "CMC Magnetics" discs. I bought a "brand name". I got CMC Magnetics discs with a "brand name" label. And, apparently, their lowest quality (they do have some listed as "3rd Class Media" but not the ones I have).
    This would also explain why I managed to get several burns from the spindle then everything just up and stopped. A "0-50% success rate" means I can expect half *or more* of the discs to fail. I managed about 30% before reaching a run of total garbage in the spindle.
    (In fact, many of the remaining discs--I've taken different ones out of the spindle at random--won't even mount.)
    Also, the fact that companies are "out sourcing" means that even though you may have tried different "brands", you may actually still be getting discs from the same crappy factory! Scroll down to "Branding Guide" at the digitalfaq.com site and you find that CMC is supplying (among many):
    Datawrite, HP, Maxell, Memorex, Staples, and some TDK even!
    Buying different "brands" doesn't necessarily mean you've bought different discs.
    So before doing anything drastic, before assuming the drive has konked out, buy some one packs or three packs of the "1st Class Media" and try them. I haven't a problem with the ones I bought from companies listed as providing "1st Class Media".
    Based on the "Branding Guide", I suggest buying a few from one or more of:
    Verbatim
    Sony
    Panasonic
    Then see if your drive problem suddenly clears up. Did for me. Now to figure out what to do with the 60+ CMC coasters I have left...

    Matt Clifton wrote:
    A great tip that works in OS X 10.5.
    Does anyone know how to get the same information under 10.4?
    If Disk Utility in 10.4 doesn't do it, there are two things I've seen that could help though I cannot vouch for them. One is a little utility here:
    http://tinyurl.com/yr6brj
    Now, that's a Google translated page in Japanese. But I could find no other widgets out there that read the info. I did download the program from here:
    http://homepage.mac.com/raktajino/dvdmediainspector/dvdmediainspector-1.0b1.dmg
    And tried it out. It worked for me. Just leave the "Format" setting to: Pre-recorded Information in Lead-in. Insert a disk, click on the drive name in the top box of the window when the name appears (takes a sec as the disk is mounted). You get hex (which to most folks is known as "gibberish" <g>). But in the first couple of lines on the right hand side, you should see the manufacturer info such as:
    read DVD structure [0E]
    00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 84 0D 12 [email protected].....
    98 99 90 00 03 43 4D 43 20 4D 41 00 04 47 2E 20 .....CMC MA..G.
    41 4D 33 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 02 00 06 09 0D 14 AM3.............
    Second line, far right, you see the "CMC MAG AM3" (with some spaces in "MAG", no I don't know why). Of course, you'll be looking for codes from here:
    http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
    They should show up somewhere in those first few lines.
    According to this discussion:
    http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=56774
    You can get the info in Toast. I can't verify that myself as I don't have the software.

  • Do I really need to buy an external drive to burn DVDs on my eMac (10.4)?

    I have been trying to burn DVDs (using DVD-Rs, not DVD+Rs) on my eMac (OS 10.4) without success. The machine just acts as if nothing has been put in the drive; it whirrs and whirrs, no icon appears, no error message, nothing, until after half an hour or so I have to just eject it. On another forum, I was told that the problem was probably that my eMac can't recognize blank DVD-Rs, let alone burn them, without an external drive that has to be purchased separately. I want to be sure that's really true before buying anything, needless to say!
    Another string on this forum suggested looking under "optical drive" under "About This Mac" to find out this kind of thing. I see nothing that specifically says "optical drive," but under Hardware and Disc Burning, it says:
    HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481B:
    Firmware Revision: 2.05
    Interconnect: ATAPI
    Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
    Cache: 2048 KB
    Reads DVD: Yes
    CD-Write: -R, -RW
    Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
    Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
    Media: No
    Is this enough information for someone to please be able to tell me whether I do indeed need to buy an external disc drive before I can burn DVDs?
    (And, if so, what kind of drive is recommended?)
    Thanks in advance for any help.
    Chris Roth
    [email protected]

    While you can replace the intenal drive, opening up an eMac is not a trivial process and it's far easier to add an external drive. Go with Firewire rather than USB, even if your eMac is USB 2.0; support for Firewire under OS X is better and more stable.You can get a Firewire enclosure for around US$30 to $40 and a bare DVD-RW/CD-RW for about the same; or buy a complete system for around US$130 to $200 depending on features such as third-party burning software (Toast) or built-in label making with special DVD-R or CD-R blanks (LightScribe). OS X 10.3.3 and higher (which of course includes the 10.4 in your profile) includes native support for DVD-R burning, so you don't strictly need third-party software such as Toast, but Toast is more flexible than the built-in burner and allows for packing more data on a disc since Toast has better control over the disc's directory size. LightScribe is an appealing idea, but slow, and the blanks are expensive. When consideringf whether to roll your own, so to speak, with an enclosure and bare drive, don't overlook that you'll need a good-quality Firewire cable; cheap cables can cause a surprising amount of grief. Unless you have a bare DVD-RW drive handy, I persoanlly find the convenience of a commercial drive, with cable and power supply/cord already packaged together, outweighs the savings of assembling a drive yourself. I'm partial to LaCie D2 Firewire drives myself, but there are other models that work fine.

  • Unable to obtain full screen when burning DVD

    I have a trial version of Adobe Premiere Elements
    8. When burning dvd and then playing on my tv through dvd player I am not getting a full screen. The wide screen video covers about 3/4 of the screen instead of the entire screen. The settings I am using are NTSC widescreen dolbyDVD, and Quality is checked with no changes in quality. The preview screen is set  on a magnificatgion fit. The Video is centered on the preview screen. I have spent hours trying to resolve this problem? I have a trial version and not sure if want to purchase with this problem.
    I tried to upload the 8.01 up grade and my computer just blinks on and off; will not load?

    I have been having the same problems.  See my discussion threads on aspect ratios in the past few days.
    Let me share my thoughts on this.  Apparently Elements 8 is optimized to work on 4:3 CRT TV's; HD flat screen TV's must not have made much penetration in India yet.  So when you set the output for NTSC widescreen, what Elements does is compress the widescreen data into a 4:3 frame, squeezing the image horizontally.  Counterintuitively, what you have to do is select NTSC normal.  Then Elements does not further squeeze the widescreen data.  What it then does is fit it into a 16:9 letterbox, still containing the left and right bars, within the 4:3 frame.  Set the DVD to playback in widescreen mode, which expands the letterbox image to full width of the TV, though retaining the left and right bars, then zoom the TV image to full the screen, to eliminate all the bars top, bottom and sides.  Worked for me, but I used a SD camcorder set to record in widescreen.
    A better option might be to change the default pixel aspect ratio, which I am yet unable to effectuate.

  • Video "jigsaw" artifacts appear when camera pans on burned DVDs

    I've been pulling my hair out for days as I export endless new sequences at different settings and then burn DVDs, only to find that the problem does not go away. The issue is the infamous "jigsaw" artifact effect, or whatever you want to call it, meaning that when viewing the resulting DVDs, when the camera pans, images "tear" and kind of spazz out. This seems most noticeable when panning past straight vertical objects, but is not limited to only this circumstance. My suspicion is that this is all the result of an interlacing issue in iDVD, but I have certainly learned that I am capable of overlooking the obvious or being wrong. What I don't understand is that with all of us out there working on Avids and using iDVD, either there does not seem to be a unified ideal export setting that resolves this issue, or I am having a comparatively unique problem. The shame is that most of the DVDs are looking great, and it is only this one issue that is sabotaging completion of this project. I'm at my wits end, so any and all knowledgeable help is supremely appreciated. Help me keep my hair.
    When viewing any of these exported clips within quicktime player, the jigsaw is not visible. But when viewing the burned DVDs on my Mac, the jigsaw is visible.
    When viewing the burned DVDs on my Panasonic HDTV (TH-42PX75U) the jigsaw is visible. When viewing the burned DVDs on my Sony Trinitron Production monitor (non HD), the jigsaw is visible.
    Avid Software: Avid Xpress DV 3.5.0
    Editing system info: Mac G4 "Mirror door" model - Dual 1.2 Ghz PowerPC - memory 1024 MB
    OS Software on Editing System - OS X version 10.2.3
    Quicktime version on Editing system: QT version 6.3
    Software used to burn DVDs: Idvd 8 version 7.0.1
    Computer used to burn DVDs: MacBookPro3,1 - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz (codec downloaded from Avid and installed - prior post about video not displayed in QT exports was due to missing codec)
    Quicktime version on Computer used to burn DVDs - QT Version 7.4 (92) (with Pro upgrade)
    DVD media used: TDK DVD-R 8X 4.7GB
    Info on sequence I am burning - A 1 hour and 50 minute program of African wildlife footage all shot on regular mini DV tapes. Camera used was the Panasonic AGDVX100A on the 24 frame setting that does not require a software fix (the correction is done in camera). All the footage was digitized using this camera. When viewing any of these exports afterward within quicktime player, the "jigsaw" is not visible. It only becomes visible after burning them and then watching the dvd. All burns in iDVD 8 are using the "professional" burn mode.
    Export settings from Avid and iDVD 8 result summary -
    1) Exported at "same as source" from Avid yields arguably the absolute worst result, as I rather suspected with the whole field / interlacing issue, but I was feeling hopeful.
    2) Trying to bypass Quicktime by using "dvstream" as the export setting also yields a very poor result. This jigsaw problem does not occur, but the resulting image is terrible. Very milky blacks, the compression is worse, as in much more noticeable, than any other export, and the image is soft and thin looking, rather anemic, and it ruins the visuals completely. What is a bit odd to me however is that I had been using dvstream to burn DVDs of other projects for years on prior versions of iDVD and it never seemed to be a problem. As I tried this one first, without having the Avid codec installed in my MacBook (which I use to burn as I can run iDVD8 on it, also meaning that trying quicktime reference is not an option, I must export, then move the completed export to my macbook pro), I am currently exporting it one more time to see if installation of the codec fixes the horrible compression and color result, but I am not hopeful at all.
    3) Tried using an Avid forum suggestion that recommended using 720 X 480 - crop/pad - RGB color levels - even (lower field first) - native dimension 720 x 480. No good.
    4) Another Avid forum suggestion to try the "Animation" setting for video
    instead of "Avid DV" is not a viable option. The infamous "2 GB limit" message
    comes up as the export nears completion and aborts. This message does not appear
    with any other export setting. When cutting my sequence in half, the same problem occurs. Even if I could get it to work, the result would be useless if it meant I had to send people several DVDs of the program chopped up into little bits.
    5) Heres a summary of other export attempts all using Quicktime movie and "Avid DV" for video, keeping in mind the info I read about how at least one version of iDVD had the field order (ntsc vs pal)reversed a while back. I would expect that Apple has fixed this problem by now, but just in case...
    a) odd field - 720 x 486 - 601 - crop/pad - 4:3 Non-square
    b) odd field - 720 x 480 - 601 - crop/pad - 4:3 Non-square
    c) even field - 720 x 486 - 601 - crop/pad - 4:3 Non-square
    d) even field - 720 x 480 - - 601 - crop/pad - 4:3 Non-square
    Suggestions to buy a different dvd burning program or new software are nice and all, but I simply cannot afford it. I also have a fear that if I were to try a different program that the same darn thing would happen, as no one seems to be able to say with 100% certainty that this specific problem would be fixed. The only thing that would be worse than my sense of hopelessness and helplessness at present would be spending more money and still not having this maddening issue be resolved.
    Help... and thanks to any of you who take the time to read this epic length post and reply!

    PROBLEM SOLVED! Thanks to having downloaded Toast 8, the dreaded interlacing has disappeared. The first test made me nervous. I exported from Avid using Sorenson and using the "automatic" settings for Toast's detection of fields etc. The DVD still had the jigsaw at the same spots, but it was not as pronounced as some of the tests with iDVD. I then exported "same as source" and used the advanced settings in Toast to tell it "lower field" and maxed the compression settings as much as I could without exceeding disc space. The DVD result is the best looking I've seen so far and all interlacing artifacts are gone! Thanks to Blackdog at the Avid Forum. I now know this interlacing problem was 100% the fault of iDVD 8 and will be using Toast from now on.

Maybe you are looking for