Capture DVD quality video

Greetings, I have a two hour show on DV tape. I want to capture it using Final Cut Pro 5 and output it to DVD Studio Pro. Could someone tell me what the best capture setting is for this or do I have to capture using Firewire NTSC. I'm trying to conserve space on a hard drive.
thanks in Advance
g5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

What format did you shoot in? I take it as DV NTSC.
Theres no way to try an conserve disk space by capturing with a different format.
I would do this if I was trying to conserve disk space.
Capture my footage normally, with my presets set.
Edit my sequences, and export using compressor.
In Compressor I would choose the setting:
"DVD: Best Quality 120 Minutes 4:3" (or 16:9 if that's what you want.)
Using both the AIFF audio and the Dolby audio.
The files compressor makes are smaller.
Then delete your captured files.
BP

Similar Messages

App to capture high quality video; clip; bulk export high quality?

Our students capture long videos in a high quality format (.DV), then often want to define clips within the movie, and hand them off to Compressor for compression. Unfortunatly, with the changes in Final Cut Pro X, we can find no viable way of doing that, and we've searched for hours in the app and online. The closet we found was to export stems out of the FCPX timeline using Roles:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/export-stems-out-of-your-final-cut-pro-x-timelin e-using-roles/
For simply wanting to define multple clips (no combining of clips involved), this is rather tedious, but moreso, when we use this technique, indeed only the video and audio of the clips we hand off to Compressor is seen and heard, but we end up with video black on both sides of the clip, which greatly lengthens the processing time, not to mention that we then need to trim the dead air afterwards.
We tried using iMovie 11, but unlike one or more previous versions, it is no longer possible to export multiple clips.
We've downloaded Adobe Premiere, and will be testing this.
Is there an OS X app that can capture high quality (.DV?) video/audio, make clips, then bulk export to .DV on disk, that doesn't cost over $500?

Thank you, I'm exporting to DV now to try that out.
I was choppy at my explanation, so let me go a little further. Maybe I do just use a DVD player to play this - but, let me explain further - maybe I'm not doing something right in creating the DVD.
I 'shared' from iMovie to iDvd - and burnt right to a DVD. Again, the movie was shaky on the computer. We played it on a DVD player, still a little shaky.. but not near as noticable - it looked pretty good. BUT - this is when the dvd stopped. I hit play, and it picked up right where it left off. I also was skipping through chapters, and it stopped all of the sudden. I had to go back to the main menu to start over. This was all done on a dvd player. Eventually, we played the rest of the video and it went ok. But, something tells me there might be a glitch in the DVD I created.... ?
Someone mentioned they had problems when exporting/burning right to dvd from iMovieHD. They said they exported out, then dragged the file into iDVD.. is that an option - if so, how would I go about doing that?

Apple TV CANNOT play DVD-quality video, let alone HD.

Ok, somebody needs to teach me a lesson (literally). This video encoding stuff is giving me headaches...
If I rip a DVD using MPEG-4 and H.264 at 100% quality the resulting file is over 8000kbps, which is higher than the 5000kbps Apple TV supports.
So, resolution-wise Apple TV may display DVD and HD signals, but when it comes to quality, it's not even close to what it should be. Is that an accurate statement?
According to the wikipedia, DVDs are encoded with MPEG-2 at 8000-14000kpbs. Now, it also says that MPEG-4 H.264 allows you to have similar image quality at much lower bit rates and much lower file size.
So the question would be, can a 5000kbps MPEG-4 be comparable to a 10000kbps MPEG-2 from a DVD?
....Or do I get all this completely wrong?
Thanks for any insight,
Julian
Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.5 Gb RAM

I'm pretty critical about my video quality and I've done a fair amount of testing using Apple's H.264 codec (using QuickTime Pro and Final Cut Studio). So, here's my take on H.264 -- it's NOT as good as many would have you believe. It's better than MPEG2, but I'd question any claim that it is four times as "good." I'd say that under the best of circumstances it's more like twice as "good" or twice as efficient as MPEG2. In any case, a 2X improvement over current state-of-the-art MPEG2 is still a pretty remarkable achievement.
So, where does that leave us with the AppleTV? First, you're not going to get consistent, solid HD quality at only 5Mbps (the limit on AppleTV). However, if you have good material and you encode with care you can definitely produce content that will exceed the quality that you might see on a standard definition DVD (or for that matter, probably as good as any anamorphic DVD).
Then there is the issue of frame rate, since the AppleTV will only do 24fps at 720p (spec) you're probably going to experience frame rate conversion artifacts on some material. Finally, the AppleTV lacks a "true" 1080i mode since for 1080i it just scales the picture up by two times from an internal video source at 960 x 540.
In any case, I'd say that given the proper source material (and the "proper" encoding) that the AppleTV potential sits somewhere between DVD quality and true HD. Of course, the video material that Apple currently sells on the iTunes store is encoded at approximately 1.5Mbps and at frame sizes equal to or smaller than 640 x 480. Given those (low) numbers, you should not expect anything that even approaches DVD quality (assuming that you compare against a good DVD). However, I don't believe that Apple has ever claimed "DVD quality" with the current iTunes content. Under the best of conditions -- and the quality varies widely -- the current iTunes content is most similar to a decent standard definition broadcast, but with a slightly different "look" and a different set of defects than you would see in an analog broadcast.
In the interest of a full disclosure, you should know that I already own an AppleTV and I think it's a pretty good product (i.e. it's worth the $300 even though it may never really achieve HD quality). But let's be fair, if it offered solid HD playback, 30fps 720p, and true 1080i it would be a near "steal" at only $300 (given its audio and still photo capabilities, its wireless 802.11n features, the internal HD storage, and its beautiful "10-foot" GUI).

DVD Quality: Using Pinnacle Video Transfer and I-movie 08

I am using Pinnacle video transfer to upload old video - some directly from old camera tapes, some from 8mm video that has been transferred to VCR or DVD by a commercial service such as Costco. I am using the "Professional Quality" to burn my finished projects, but the quality is not as good as the original upload from the source. Sometimes it is better than others but I am unable to figure out why. Is there a way to use the creative resources for MAC and get good quality video? Thanks very much. Are the professional programs (such as "final cut") a lot better?

Dyann there seems to be a problem with Imovie08 in that it only uses single field processing effectively throwing away half of your horizontal quality. I am a relatively new Mac user and bought my macbook to do video editing, I am having the same problem when importing from a mini dv camera in that the quality when the dvd is produced to be quite honest is crap. Many people are complaining about htis and are asking if Imovie09 will have this fixed but no firm answers yet. Hope this helps

Fit 3 hours of low-quality video on to one 4.7 DVD ?

I am using Encore DVD 2.0. I have 206 minutes of low-quality video I'd like to fit onto one 4.7G DVD. I would much rather sacrifice quality to get it all on one disc. The source files are mpeg-2 totaling 8 GB. Setting the transcode settings to Automatic and building the disc, I get the error that the resulting bitrate would be below Encore's 2 mbps minimum so the build fails.
Strangely, though, in two different projects now, if I keep trying to build, restarting Encore, etc, it will eventually transcode and build anyway, but I have no idea what I did to make it work.
Using a bitrate calculator with 2 channels of 192kbps dolby digital audio and 206 mins of video, it says an average bitrate of 2.5 should work.
Also, I see in the Transcode presets window that the bitrate can be set as low as 1.5. Encore help also says 2.0 is the minimum.
Also, what does the "Quality" slider under Basic Settings mean? Is that a bitrate setting or something else?
Any insights?? Thanks!!

You do have an option, but the quality cannot be guaranteed.
Create a DVD9 folder instead of a DVD5 disc.
Find & download a copy of DVDShrink.
Load the folder into this, and reduce to fit on a DVD5 - if the bitrate can be sufficiently lowered.

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.

How to export a complex Keynote to high quality video for DVD?

I have had dozens of attempts to turn a complex Keynote into a high quality video.
Either they turn out disappointiingly way low res
or they are very choppy with half the transitions gone
or they Cannot make the video at all
HELP.
I need to turn this project in to my client today.

If you use the DVD export in Keynote 3 with a self playing movie, the quality will be fine...just don't trust what you see on your mac screen, play it on a DVD player to check the quality. I did a test a while back and it was only the pauses that looked bad.
Read about it here:
http://www.keynoteuser.com/news/?p=135
pay close attention to what I complain about...it's just the slide pauses, not the normal motion playback, which means selfplaying stuff looks pretty decent (though never as good as the original, but that's the fault of the DVD format, not Apple).

Poor quality video when viewing on canvas - screens captured by Camtasia

I'm creating avi files of Excel screen shots and activities on a PC with Camtasia, moving them to FCP5, and converting them to QuickTime movies. I've tried lots of settings at both ends of the process. The clips look great if played on QT pl;ayer or other players and not bad when played in the FCP viewer. They lose a lot of resolution when I move them to the timeline, render them, and view on the canvas. Any idea what settings I should use to get these clips looking really good? Thanks very much.
Ernie Horan

They lose a lot of resolution...
they have to ...
iMovie is for video editing, delivery is in NTSC/PAL, so max. supported res is 720x480...
video means also: iMovie uses internally "dv" as videocodec (as on miniDV tapes...)… what codec is inside the .avi you're producing on your PC? .. as you probably know, avi (in the Apple world: mov) is just a container, some say "wrapper".. can contain many formats&codecs, which look good in playback, but lose quality when processed in iM.. as said: stay with dv...
if camtasia doesn't support dv, try a less compressing codec (mpeg4?)... try to come close to the video specs as possible...
last word about quality:
"video" means also, your Mac can only "emulate" the final pic quality, video has 30fps, is interlaced etc.... playout to tape/create dvd/use iM's live-playout feature to judge delivery quality....

IMovie '08 option to make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
(Of course I'll have to first get iDVD to open without crashing...)

Which iMovie '08 option will make the best quality video on a DVD using iDVD '08?
1. Share-Media Browser-Large-Publish
2. Share-Export Using Quicktime
3. Or can you use an unpublished iMove in iDVD?
As always, this depends on a number of factors which you failed to cover in your original question.
1) If you source files are SD, other than an increased loss of time in converting you gain nothing in scaling the files up in iMovie '08 only to scale them back down in iDVD. On the other hand, if your source files are HD, then you will likely see a marginal increase in quality which may or may not be worth the price of increased processing time. In this latter case, you are allowing the MPEG-2 compressor to get the most it can out of your file at the P- and B-frame level.
2) Export using QT allows you to customize your output with regard to both compression format and settings. For instance, you can use a codec with extremely high data rate (e.g., VGA dimensions with DV at 28.5-57.0 Mpbs, AIC at 18.0-22.0 Mbps, or even unlimited H.264/AAC at 16.0-20.0 Mbps). High video data rates generally translate to less lost quality during the re-compression process. Thus, if the intermediate file produced by iMovie '08 and passed on to iDVD retains more of its original quality, the MPEG-2 compressor can get more quality out of the final conversion as stated above.
3) Since no physical file actually exists until the project (simply a set of instructions detailing how the final file will be created) is published, there is nothing to be physically sent to iDVD. basically you must create a physical file from the project in order to do anything at all whether sending it to a gallery, iTunes, YouTube, iDVD, etc.

What are the best asset formats to optimise DVD quality?

Hi Guys
Some of my clients have been complaining about the DVD quality they received from me, and I wondered to myself how can I improve in future.
I just want to confirm if these are the best formats for each asset:
1) Video - AVI format (as opposed to MPEG2)? The major irritation I find about AVI is that it eats up lots of disc space, and it takes a lot of time as far as transcoding in encore is concerned.
2) Photos - TIFF format (as opposed to JPEG)? Same story as above regarding disc space.
3) Audio - AIFF format (as opposed to MP3)? Same space problem as the first 2. Furthermore, my major annoyance with WAV files is that you have to know which version of WAV files are the best quality.
Now, I do not what TVs most of my past and future clients own, i.e. a normal 4:3 TV like mine or the 16:9 plasma ones (although the trend these days seem to be LCD TVs). What is the best aspect ratio to use that will work on most TVs?
Also, I use a Sony 30g HDD video camera to record events. I like it since these is no hassle about carrying tapes or DVDs around. But, the problem with the camera is that MPEG2 is the "highest quality" it can record events; my still camera can take jpeg's as the highest quality. And the photos on the DVD look - most of the time - OK in terms of quality. It's only in my last DVD that I built that I saw some of the photos having some sort of problem in the slideshow (something like a water effect on the blazers and shirts of some of the audience - definitely unwanted).
To edit my assets, I use:
1) Power director 6 (for my video). I know you are going to say I should use Premiere Pro. I'm still reading the manual for PPro2 and Ppro doesn't have SVRT like PD6 does.
2) Photoshop elements or Fireworks (for my photos). Photoshop CS2 looks very complex for me at the moment - will learn later.
3) Adobe Audition (for my audio).
All I want is to have the highest quality possible. What's the best advice?
Thanks for all your help guys.

Since you raised the question of Hi8 versus DV tape formats, here are a few thoughts intended partly for you and partly for those who (unlike you) may be planning to get their first camcorder and are wondering about the different formats available.
Hi8 is a second-generation analog format that was marketed starting about 1988 to permit better resolution than the original VHS and Video8 camcorder formats. It was superseded about 1995 by the digital video, or DV, format.
Hi8 produced video of decent quality and was a good capture medium for material that was going to be distributed on VHS or SVHS tape. But the quality of DV is better, and DV has enormous advantages for editing and distribution. In particular, DV has absolutely no "generation loss" when transferring from tape to computer, from tape to tape, or from computer to tape, and it permits sophisticated editing using any one of many "nonlinear editing" applications that are available on PC's or Macs. Once you have edited your video using one of these applications, you may proceed to "author" your DVD's (i.e. add menus, etc.) and they will be of surprisingly high quality.
In mentioning Hi8 you may actually have been thinking of the Digital8 format. This is a format developed by Sony as a bridge between the older Video8/Hi8 world and the DV world. It is logically identical to DV but it uses the same physical tape as Hi8. This tape is now customarily labelled "Hi8/Digital8" to emphasize this fact. Hi8/Digital8 tape is less expensive and reportedly more robust than DV tape.
In principle Digital8 is just as good a format as DV. However, Digital8 has been targeted at a lower end of the market than DV, so even the best Digital8 camcorders may not have as good optics, as good sensors, or as many features as the better DV camcorders.
A few years ago, many people would recommend Digital8 as a very practical format for someone just getting started in video, since it was available at lower price points than DV, was identical in quality as regards format and perhaps better in value as regards camcorders, i.e. Digital8 camcorders were less expensive than DV camcorders of the same quality. Above all, Digital8 was ideal for someone who had previously used Video8 or Hi8, since the early Digital 8 camcorders would play back analog tapes and so could bridge the transition to digital. In fact, by buying or borrowing a second Digital8 camcorder, you could play back your analog tapes from one camcorder and record them as digital tapes using the other camcorder, forever after enjoying the advantages of the digital format.
At the present time, however, DV would be a much better choice than Digital8. Most (or all?) recent Digital8 camcorders have abandoned the ability to play back analog tapes. Only one or two manufacturers are making Digital8, and their offerings have dropped to a handful in recent years. This hardware will quite likely cease to be available in the near future, though the tapes will probably be marketed for years. When your present equipment wears out you would not want to be left with a library of family videos in an unsupported physical format.
In the last few years the DV format itself has been superseded by various high-definition formats, especially by HDV, a format that records to the same physical tapes as DV, at the same bitrates as DV, but, thanks to much greater compression, with twice the horizontal and more than twice the vertical resolution of DV.
Another format using even greater and more sophisticated compression, AVCHD, promises similar quality as HDV with even greater horizontal resolution, although the implementations of AVCHD available now are probably not as high in quality as the best HDV, and are certainly much harder to edit.
Despite the emergence of high-definition formats, there are good reasons for some people to prefer standard-definition DV at this time. One reason is cost. A good HDV camcorder -- the Canon HV20 is probably the best consumer model right now -- is likely to cost $1,000 or a bit more, while good DV models cost a few hundred. A second reason is low-light capability. The imaging chips for high-definition have many more pixels than the chips for DV. If the lenses are the same size, then these pixels must be crowded into a sensor about the same size as that of a DV camera, meaning that each pixel must be smaller and therefore less responsive to low-light conditions. So a good DV camera may be much better in low light than even the best high-definition camcorder of the same size.
Camcorders are now available that record direct to DVD (NOT advisable as John Smith said: the DVD medium is not robust for long-term storage and the necessary MPEG2 compression robs your source video of the quality it would have on tape and is much harder to edit).
Camcorders are also available that record directly to hard disk. Depending on the implementation, and your handiness with computers, thes might be just right FOR SOME USES. In particular they permit much more rapid turnaround between shooting and editing, so they might be right for something that is needed quickly but where archiving is not important (for example, shots of a football team at practice). But (as you have undoubtedly discovered with your 30gig Sony) you must download the material from camera to hard drive when the camera fills up, and this is not as easy as putting in a new tape. Also, the file may not be stored on disk in the relatively uncompressed, and easily edited, DV format. Finally, no hard drive is as safe a storage medium as a tape. With a hard drive and especially with a DVD, you risk losing everything to a crash or scratch; with a tape, you risk at most losing a few frames to a dropout caused by imperfections in the media.
Only you can balance all these factors knowing the type of things you will be shooting, how you will view or share your videos, and what you plan to do with them in the future. Note that DV can be edited together with HDV by many editing programs, though either the quality or the size on screen or both will be noticeably different. Also note that the high-definition formats are all in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, like the newer TV's, while DV was originally 4:3 and may be available in 16:9 but with the additional width achieved by stretching the same number of pixels and possibly by using a smaller fraction of the imaging chip.
I would recommend that you search for articles and forums about camcorders to learn what is available. There is a lot of information out there. As for me, I would certainly not recommend Hi8, or even Digital8, at this time. Choose DV if you have a pressing reason for it, such as cost or the need to get good images in low light; otherwise make yourself more future proof with HDV or AVCHD. They will produce high-quality DVD's when "downconverted" when capturing them into the computer or when exporting them from the nonlinear editor or authoring program (experiment to find which method is best). Unless you are using AVCHD, which is not a tape-based format, stick with tape (for now) if you are concerned with long-term storage.
Best wishes!

DVD Quality - Jumpy

Hi,
In the last 6 months the DVD quality has become jumpy when burning MPEGs to DVD using Premier Elements. Before this it was fine. I purchased a new camcorder but it hasn't improved. When I view the Mpegs on the computer they are fine, however after burning them to DVD and playing it in the DVD player (and a second one to test it), the quality is jumpy like it can't catch up when moving the camcorder. Do you think this is a problem with the computer's DVD burner, the software when compressing it to DVD or something else? I have always saved the movies as MPEG PAL Widescreen then combined several to make the DVD, is this what you'd recommend?

Hi
I haven't changed any of the setting in Premier Elements.
The camcorder is a Sony Handycam DCR-SR78E. Previously I had the DCR-SR52E which used to be fine for creating DVDs until earlier this year when I noticed the jumpiness. That camcorder's LCD lost part of its colour so replacecd it with the 78. I haven't changed Premier elements settings throughout this process.
The files are mpegs which I copy to the laptop using a cable from the camcorder and Windows Explorer to move them around.
Project settings are Editing Mode DV PAL, Timebase 25.00 frames/second. Frame size 720*576 16:9
Playback settings are DV25i (720*576), 24p Conversion method is Interlaced Frame, Desktop Display mode is Standard.
Capture format: DV Capture
Video rendering: Maximum bit depth (unticked), Optimize stills (ticked)
Default timeline: Video 3 tracks, stereo 3 tracks
I've noticed discussion http://forums.adobe.com/message/1753696#1753696 which also uses a Sony camcorder. Could it be the same issue?
Please let me know if you would like any further info.

How can I get the best quality video on YouTube?

I tried what you posted from another poster, Steve, but had a problem at step 2, the part in red.
2. Import this AVI file into Windows MovieMaker, place the file on MovieMaker's timeline and Publish (to your hard drive) a
WMV, dvd-quality (4:3 size) PAL 3,0 M.
When I click Publish, the only option I get is "YouTube" and "Get Add Ons".
Since the option I was told to take didn't exist, I clicked "save movie" and then "high definition 1080p". Hey I'm just trying to figure this stuff out. I'm new to it, so I picked the highest quality I could find.
Well, the result is a movie on YouTube that is OK, but nowhere near the quality of the movie on my computer. Just for fun, I uploaded the AVI file to YouTube from MovieMaker. It was a huge file, it did upload, but the quality was still not there.
So, I return to my original question, which is almost the same as the originally posted question:
How should I save video with Premiere Elements to get the highest quality video to post to YouTube? The videos were taken in AVCHD format, but after editing, I don't know the best rendering option to get the highest quality video when viewed on YouTube. The videos look great on my computer, but on YouTube, the video is really degraded.
Thanks for any help!
I have an i7 processor, 8 gigs or RAM, and am running Windows 7 x64. Video editing is with Premiere Elements and my video camera is a Canon HG10 that shoots AVCHD.

I had the best success using the John Cloudman method from the link you posted. The video was much better quality on YouTube (in my opinion) with this method than the method of going to Movie Maker etc. I tried John Cloudman's Frame widtht of 1280 and Frame Height of 720 and then frame width 1920 frame width by 720. I found 1920x1080 better quality on YouTube than Mr. Cloudman's 1280x720.
I pasted in the part of the link below that I found most useful. A big thanks to John Cloudman for posting this!!
John Cloudman offers further advice:
From the Share tab, choose Personal Computer and then QuickTime. Choose the Cable Modem, DSL preset and then click the Advanced button.
From the settings window, do the following:
b Video Tab
*Video Codec: H.264
*Quality: 100
*Frame Wdith: 1280
*Frame Height: 720
*Frame Rate: 29.97
*Field Order: None
*Pixel Aspect Ratio: square
*Set Bitrate: checked
*Bitrate: 8000 kbps
b Audio Tab
*Audio Code: AAC
*Output Channels: Stereo
*Frequency: 44kHz
That should generate a .mov file that Youtube will handle correctly. You can modulate that Bitrate to reduce the amount of data size, and you can modulate the Quality number to reduce the encoding time. I wouldn't go lower than 3000 kbps for a bitrate or below 50 on Quality. Hope this helps everyone!

DVD quality lower than expected

I’m trialling Premiere Elements 11 with a view to purchasing it to allow my Dad to easily edit video from his new camcorder. The importing and editing work great. (We are importing .m2ts in full HD from a Panasonic camcorder.)
However when we come to burn the DVD the quality is very poor, pretty much looks like a VHS!
We have got better quality by burning the same footage to DVD using the Panasonic own software (but it is difficult for my dad to use).
I have checked:
Project settings are correct (1920x1080)
We have rendered it with the preview render button before burning
We’re in the UK so selecting PAL-widescreen output on the DVD burning stage
We were only testing it with 10 mins footage, so no problem with length reducing quality
Would love to be able to fix this as the Premiere Elements 11 would be great for my dad in all other respects! Any ideas? Thanks!

I have the same software and a Panasonic camcorder.
To get high picture quality you have to stop making DVDs.
The very best quality will come from setting the camcorder to 1080p50. The files will be big. Both HDWriter (that comes with Panasonic camcorders) and PrE11 can use that level. It is also the best setting for action sports.
You did not say what you are using for a DVD player or what sort of TV or other viewing device you want to use.
If you want to play it in high definition you need to get it to a high definition screen some way without degrading it in a DVD player. Get a Blu-Ray Player, a media player like a WD TV Live or plug your computer into your HD TV with an HDMI cord.
With a Blu-Ray player you can have both of your editors make a thing called an AVCHD disk. It looks like a DVD, uses DVD disks, but it is not a DVD. It makes a 1080i version of your footage on an ordinary, cheap DVD in and ordinary DVD burner. The disk will play on most Blu-Ray players as it is part of the Sony/Panasonic AVCHD standard. Because you can only put about 4 GB on a DVD, your videos are limited to no more than 20 or 30 minutes. If you want more, move up to a Blu-Ray burner and use the more expensive disks. Most current BD players have a USB port. Panasonics have a SD card reader. Use either editor and make high definition "computer" files and get them on a memory stick or SD card and they should play. I have a Sony BD player that will even play high def video files directly off of a DVD, but only if the DVD was used as a data disk. The idea is that you copy your video to the DVD like you were backing up data files. The Sony BD player recognizes it as a playable file and sends it to the TV.
The WD TV Live media player is a small box that costs about $90 in the US. It is famous for being really good at playing every video file format, has a remote and a menu system. It will play anything you make with either editor.
The last way is to connect your laptop to your TV or monitor with an HDMI cable. I have a cheap 15 footer. Anything I play on my laptop is duplicated on my 55 inch TV.
There is one other alternative is to use the Panasonic camcorder as media player. You have to use HDWriter to move files to your computer for this. One of it's odd benefits is being able to move file, include edited ones, BACK to the camcorder so you can us it as a HD media player.
This stuff is confusing and it took me six months to figure it out after I bought my Panasonic camcorder. If I can help further, please ask.
Bill

Full quality Video Output

Hi I wanto to use my Imac to play videos, are NTSC videos compressed on MPEG2 Full DVD Quality or H264 NTSC Standard, I want to play it to external TV to play only the video, I tried VLC and connected the TV as second monitor and configured VLC to play video on second monitor, it works, but quality is poor and blurry, if I play the same video from DVD player or from my PC to the monitor it looks full quality but from VLC in that way on the Imac I told you the bad quality problem, What software can I use to play videos getting the BEST quality on my TV?? I have also a CANOPUS that I can connect to Firewire port on my pc I use that to get video signal output but VLC on my Imac didn't recognize the Canopus? What can I do to play videos on my TV on the best quality? what software or what configuration?? Thanks

In Extended Desktop Mode (Mirroring Off) you can drag the QuickTime video to the external TV monitor and then Enter Full Screen.
{quote:}Can I do that on quicktime? have the controls and playlist and modify it during playback in main monitor and video playback ion my TV?{quote}
No, I think that your are going to need something stronger than VLC or QuickTime to accomplish that?
Head over to the iMovie or Pro Applications: Video sections of the forum and check around there to see if one of those will suit your needs.
http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa?categoryID=1
Perhaps
iMovie 11> http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
or
Final Cut > http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/

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

Capture DVD quality video

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