CS4 DVD looks 'weak' 'thin' 'crappy' or disappointing

I shot an event on a Canon XH-A1. Helicopter footage of yachts and party footage.
I made some mistakes in the set up which I own up to; 1. I meant to lock the white balance for the boat shoot, but instead had it on auto (fixed in post) ; 2. I set the camera on high gain for the night time indoor/outdoor stuff. It's a noise fiesta (Gaussian blur fixed that). I may have made other mistakes but nothing too deadly. I'm a still shooter who was pursuaded to do this, and yes, I did it for the money.
My trouble at this point is that I have this rockin' video shot in HDV 24p, I assumed I could down sample for an even more lush result. OOPS.
I hate the way it looks.
First attempt> Capture in Premiere cs4> edit in same> dynamic link to encore>build with stock settings and wahlah! yuck.
2nd, 3rd, 4th,...................63rd> attempt> every variation under the sun, 1 pass, 2pass, mt2, mov. mpegs of all shapes and sizes, looking for a sweet spot that doesn't look like trash.
The only improvement I found was to export as a lossless avi and build from that. It still kind of sucks.
I tried to install Cineform Neo 4K but the Cineform options never show up in the AME options list.
I tried that convoluted workflow system in the CS3 forum with frame servers and scripts and I'm not sure but I believe there was a priest and a blessing involved. I can't make that work.
The trouble may be with my system, its possible that all these voodoo applications do not run properly on a 64:
I7 3.3 quad core
6g DDR3 1600 RAM
Vista 64
OS on 300GB 10,000 RPM HDD
swap files on 2x 150gb 10,000 RPM Raid 0
Video 1700FX
So if anybody has any suggestions, amplifying information, jokes, cute stories or formal statements, please believe that I come to you as a last resort, and after a month of beating my head against the wall I will appreciate it very much.

Sorry, DI is de-interlace? I don't see a Max render qulity setting anywhere. I've made my setting changes via the Export> Media> dialog.
MPEG2 DVD preset
NTSC
fps 23.976
pix aspect 16:9
vbr 2 pass
min 1.62
target 4
max 8
GOP
m 3
n 15

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Preview and .m2v look beautiful, resulting dvd looks awful

I have a short film (2 minutes). It's fairly darkly shot (purposely so), shot in a car at night. There is a nice amount of defintion though, as the actor in the driver's seat is nicely lit, and the backseat falls to black, like I want.
I used Compressor to encode the film, using the DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes setting. Viewing the preview in the simluate mode of dvdsp, and also watching the m2v in Quicktime, I see exactly what I want: the blacks are rich and deep. However, the resulting dvd looks awful. The blacks are muddy and EXTREMELY artifacty. It's completely ugly and unusable.
What could be causing this? And what can I do to fix it? I'm using a very cheap brand of dvd-r I've never used before... could that be part of the problem?

Thanks, Drew. Yes, first course of action will definitely be going out and getting some name brand dvds. This is the first time I've ever cheaped out on blank dvds, and hopefully that's the problem, 'cause that's easily fixed.
I've not had a chance to view the resulting dvd on a proper NTSC studio monitor, but I've looked at it on a decent tv, and on two different computer monitors, and it looks similarly crappy on all three.
I did not make any adjustments in Compressor, I just used the basic setting mentioned above. Could that make a difference? Could upping the bit rate make a difference? I was thinking that since the previews of the resulting encodes looked so nice, that the problem didn't lie there. But, as you might be able to tell, this is hardly my area of expertise.
Unfortunately, I cannot afford bitvice at the moment, but I'll add it to a list of things to look at for future investments.
Thanks for the link to the article! I will read it over and see if it helps.

How can i improve burning quality of dvd.looks fine in preview on idvd,but final burn quality is poor/

how can i improve burning quality of dvd.looks fine in preview on idvd,but final burn quality is poor.

Had same problem with iPhoto pictures and poor burn quality. Went back to original picture file and dragged images into idvd project from there. Set encoding at professional quality and burned at slowest speed. Got very good result with high quality slideshow when played on TV.
Also tried Old Toad's Aug 30, 2011 advice to get a slideshow into iDVD with transitions, music, etc. from iPhoto.
Again the quaility of the burned CD was very good.

Dvd looks good on tv but awful on computer??

okay - another question to throw out. The still image slide shows that I'm burning onto dvds look great on the tv when I play them but when I put the dvd back into my computer to play it it looks awful - fuzzy/blurry etc..
why is this happening??

I belive it has to do with the resolution - your TV (normal 4:3 is 640x480) your screen has much high resolution, so it does some compression to make it fit the new resolution, so blurry on screen but fine once in its native TV screen

I have used still photos to make a Quick Time movie using FCE. The DVD made using i-DVD looks somewhat grainy and the motion isn't smooth when played on my TV. Other DVD's I have made play much better and I am wondering if the problem is my Quick Time m

I have used still photos to make a Quick Time movie using FCE. The DVD made using i-DVD looks somewhat grainy and the motion isn’t smooth when played on my TV. Other DVD’s I have made play much better and I am wondering if the problem is my Quick Time movie settings. The Dimensions and size of the problem movie are 1920X1080 and 584 MB respectively, while the movies that play better have Dimensions of 853X480 and are about 1.3 GB in size. Is this the source of my problem and how do I change things for the better.

Are you exporting to QuickTime Movie, or to QuickTime Conversion? For iDVD, you need to export to QuickTime Movie. Exporting to QT Conversion will kill the quality if you are moving the video from FCE to iDVD.
The file size per se makes no difference.
What size (pixel dimensions) are the photos that you put into your 1920x1080 sequence? Also, exactly what are the sequence properties ... is it 1920x1080i60 ... or i50? In North America it should be i60.
853X480 is an odd frame size. Where are you seeing this number? It would appear to be DV-NTSC, which has a frame size of 720x480. Your 1920x1080 frame size would not be DV-NTSC, it would be Apple Intermediate Codec. DV and AIC will look different, for sure.
Also, your quality setting in iDVD can affect the final video. You may want to check that also (in iDVD Preferences > Projects). Set it to Professional Quality if at all possible.

CS4 DVD will not start

I am running XP Pro with SP3 and all current patches. My dvd drive is a Plextor PX-760A. At first neither the CS4 application dvd nor the Learning dvd would start in my drive.
Then I flashed the drive firmware from 1.04 to 1.07.
This drive uses the windows drivers. Plextor does not supply drivers.
After flashing the firmware the CS4 Learning dvd starts fine. I also found my CS3 dvd and it also starts fine.
However, the CS4 application dvd will not spin up. The drive makes 2 faint beeps, tries to spin up the disk a few times and then gives up.
Any suggestions on what I might try before calling Adobe and asking for a replacement disk?

Success!
A PC at the local library was able to spin up the Photoshop CS4 DVD. I then copied the files to an sdhc card via a USB card reader that I brought with me. Those files take a bit under 4GB.
Back home I scanned the card for malware, copied the files to an empty partition on one of my drives and then installed.
Installation was smooth, my serial # was accepted, and I have opened both Bridge and PS. I am good to go.

SD DVD looks bad

Hi,
A few things.....trying to create SD DVD from HD footage.
The movie looks great on the Mac using a HDTV (720) for moniter.
1. DVD - some audio out of sync.
2. DVD looks bad....color is lighter...image all grainy.
It must be some simple settings.....
please help.

Compressor has made compression simpler but the one setting fits all approach will never be an absolute.
Export a QT reference movie from FC(not self-contained or with QT conversion)
Use one of the DVD presets in compressor based on the length of your program. Make sure you are creating an AC3 file of your audio and not an aiff.
I have found Compressor to be consistently inconsistent when it tries to do HD-SD conversion for DSP. It can work well and then not so well.
If you stil don't get the desired results you could try adjusting the frame control settings found in the inspector window of the MPG-2 setting. I would try better first as best tends to take 10 times longer to render.

CS4 Color looks too saturated on Screen?

Hi all, not sure why but my color in CS4 Photoshop look oversaturated.
When I view them with ACDsee viewer or Canon software they both look the same. But when I use photoshop the images look too saturated. It's not easy to edit my photos, as the out put does not look the same as when I am editing.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance, awaiting any messages that may help out.
Coolpix

What are your colour management policies in the Color Settings panel? And do you calibrate your monitor?
You can get increased saturation -- actually ugly colors -- if assigning a higher gammut profile to an image tagged with a lower gammut profile, e.g. assign AdobeRGB to an sRGB image.
(Note that 'Assigning' a profile gives far different results than 'Converting to' a profile.)

DVD looks different/better than imovie

I did a quick search in this forum to see if this has been discussed before. I'm sorry if it has; I'm new in this forum. Anyways...
I'm trying to edit video that I dumped from a video camera and DVD onto my powerbook g4 1.33ghz w/1.25ghz ram. I'm not having any real issues with the editing process itself. My problem is that, when I burn a DVD of the movie (using iDVD) it looks entirely different than on the laptop. I've even tried using a secondary screen to do the editing on (regular computer monitor). The secondary computer monitor looks the same as the laptop. But, again the burned DVD looks totally different. On the computer, it looks kinda like it's in dropframe but I'm using 29 (or whatever that higher setting is). But when I burn the DVD and play it in a regular DVD player, it looks much crisper, smoother and less pixelated. Will it help if I max out my laptop RAM to 2ghz or is this just a problem inherent in the preinstalled 64MB video card? If it's the video card, I'm thinking about upgrading to a macbook. Will a macbook video card be powerful enough not to have this problem? Any help/suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

bobwex123 wrote:
I use DV tape (not HD), import to iMovie 09 and burn to DVD with iDVD....
... If I upgrade in FCE and spend some time with the interface, will the final DVD quality be better than iMovie 09?
definitively YES.
as widely known, iM08/09 has this little *skip-field problem* with interlaced sources (miniDV imports are always i, independently, what camcorder marketing says), plus a gamma-prob.
details on our website:
http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/
you avoid these probs by using a 'real' dv-editor, as iMHD6 or FCE ..
sidenote: settings in the editor, on transfer and iDVD have to be correct for best quality. as: sequence settings 'fit' to camcorder, NO 'Export using QT conversion', iDVD is set to same standard as camcorder (PAL vs NTSC); project length <60min (=for highest bitrate in iDVD).
+disclaimer: I may profit from linking to my site.+

Pictures (photos) distorted when shared to iTunes; DVD looks great

Hitting a very odd problem in iMovie 09.
I added a series of photos between clips of my movie. I adjusted the Ken Burns Effect for each. It plays back fine in iMovie. I exported it to iDVD and the resulting DVD looks fine. But if I export to QuickTime or Share to iTunes, the photos look distorted during playback...like the've been squished from Widescreen to Standard or something, and so of course the Ken Burns Effect is messed up.
Anyone else seen this, or have any ideas? Strange that it works fine in iMovie and on a DVD.

OK, I went back into iMovie, and suddenly the pics were messed up there as well - they must have gotten corrupted/resized at some point in the process. Adding a new picture (and then deleting it) seemed to re-size all of the existing pics, and everything is fine now. Can't explain how it happened, but it seems to be fixed. Sorry for the red herring.

I exported a iphoto slideshow to desktop, converted it to mpg file by using BURN app, burned to DVD and exported to a USB flashdrive. The DVD looks great but flashdrive is extremely fuzzy. What is the difference and how can I make flashdrive sharper?

I exported an iphoto slideshow to desktop, converted it to mpg file by using the BURN app, burned it to a DVD and exported it to a USB flash drive. The DVD looks great and very sharp but the slideshow on the USB flash drive is extremely fuzzy. What is the difference and how can I make the slideshow on the flash drive look as sharp as the DVD?

Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar. For iPhoto 9.4.3 and earlier select Size = Medium or Large. For iPhoto 9.5 and later selct 480p.
Open iDVD, select a theme and drag the exported QT movie file into the open iDVD window being careful to avoid any drop zones.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best quality video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
If iDVD was not preinstalled on your Mac you'll have to obtain it by purchasing a copy of the iLife 09 disk from a 3rd party retailer like Amazon.com: ilife 09: Software or eBay.com. Why, because iDVD (and iWeb) was discontinued by Apple over a year ago.
Why iLife 09 instead of 11?
If you have to purchase an iLife disc in order to obtain the iDVD application remember that the iLife 11 disc only provides themes from iDVD 5-7. The Software Update no longer installs the earlier themes when starting from the iLIfe 11 disk nor do any of the iDVD 7 updaters available from the Apple Downloads website contain them.
Currently the only sure fire way to get all themes is to start with the iLife 09 disc:
This shows the iDVD contents in the iLife 09 disc via Pacifist:
You then can upgrade from iDVD 7.0.3 to iDVD 7.1.2 via the updaters at the Apple Downloads webpage.

Showtime DVDs look bad

I use my Mac Mini as a DVD player to my Samsung TV (LN-T4061). It works great. I'm thrilled with the results. Except with Showtime DVDs. ALL other DVDs look great. But DVDs (Tudors & Dexter) look really bad. Jerky and liney, almost like the sync is off kilter and the processor is too slow.
These aren't burned or RIP'd DVDs, just off of Netflix, popped into the drive. The results are the same using Front Row or Apple DVD Player.
The details:
Mac Mini 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1.5 GB RAM
OX 10.5.4
connected to the aforementioned Samsung TV via DVI typically using 1280 x 720 resolution (millions of colors) with overscan checked.
I've tried many, many different resolution settings to no avail. Anyone have an idea of what might be going on? It's gotten to the point where I don't rent Showtime DVDs because I know they're unwatchable. Again, the weird part is that every other DVD (outta hundreds) I've tried works great.

Well, VLC works. Which is better than where I was. All of VLC's deinterlacing options look better than DVD player. Blend looks particularly nice. It's not nearly as convenient as Front Row, but at least I can watch.
Is there a way of changing interlacing options in Front Row?

Idvd 09 - preview looks awsome, burned dvd looks like crap on a stick!

What is going on with idvd???
1. I use a Panasonic HD digital camcorder that saves video in 1080p x 720p and looks spectacular veiwed directly from camcorder to TV.
2. I import the video files into imovie 09 and quality still looks great. (I realize my monitor won't display video at it's highest resolution.)
3. I edit the video and as the text and transitions are added the playback gets choppy and starts to freeze. -Whatever!
4. I "share" the final vid to media browser.
5. I create a DVD menu in iDVD 09 and import the video from the media/movies panel.
Preview looks great, runs fairly smooth. ok!
6. I burn to a DVD-R using the Best Performance setting.
7. I place the burned DVD into my dvd player and....
It now looks like I am projecting the video onto a brick wall with the focus out of adjustment. The video is not very smooth, with jittery motion! And the resolution mimics that of an old Sega Game Gear view screen! Text has video noise distortion all around it. Probably would look better on youtube! AND....If I select "Scene selection" option and choose a scene from the middle of the movie, it just plays from the start anyway!
So much for HD! So much for deadlines! Now I just want to know why I "upgraded" to iLife 09 and a new-found crappy quality!! "Hollywood style movies" - MY BUTT!!!!!
Please help!!!!!!
Message was edited by: Jerred Best
Message was edited by: Jerred Best

Hi Jerred,
Welcome to apple discussions. I have some bad news and some good news for you. I'll start with the bad news.
iDVD does Not support burning High Def DVD (even though iMovie will in fact edit HD). That's the bad news.
The good news is that there are third party options available to you at a relatively low cost (under $120).
See here: http://www.roxio.com/
OK. I told you the bad news and the good news right? Well here's the frosting on the cake:
You DON'T need a BD burner if you're doing this on the cheap (like most of us). A standard DVD burner such as your Mac's superdrive will do fine.
See here: http://www.macvideo.tv/dvd-authoring/features/index.cfm?articleId=112361
Btw, you do want to make certain your camcorder/ camera is listed below prior to proceeding with the above info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US
Hope the above info helps but if not just come on back.
Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software / products that may be mentioned in this topic. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information above at your own discretion.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Encore CS4 DVD Templates - Anyone?

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone knows of any websites that provide Encore CS4 templates for either free download or purchase?
In particular, I'm looking for wedding templates, for use with wedding DVDs that I produce.
I know that Encore comes with a dozen or so wedding templates, but I have used them all too many times and I'm hoping to find some new and perhaps more professional looking menu templates.
So, please, if you know of any good websites that have a selection of Encore CS4 templates available for either free or for purchase, then please post the link here!
Thanks in advance!

Try here:
http://www.precomposed.com/products/pro_motion_menu_kits/
and here:
http://videogears.com/
-Jeff

CS4: DVD encoding problem(s) Mpeg2 and avi

Hi,
I have been trying to burn my video files to DVD. After a month of failures and 50+ wasted DVDs thrown in the garbage -- plus countless hours trying to learn the basics, reading the FAQs, trouble-shooting, and losing my patience awaiting technical replies from Adobe (which I now suspect will go unanswered) -- I am out of solutions and waving a white flag.
Problem:
I have two video files. Both were created in Premiere Pro CS4 and exported via the Adobe Media Encoder as MPEG2-DVD high quality files (for NTSC) .
The first Mpeg2 file is 800 MB (41 mins); the other is 988 MB (50 mins).
I have placed the two files into a single timeline, with 21 chapter stops.
The only other file in the entire project is a PSD file for the Menu. It has two buttons, which link respectively to chapter stops 1 and 10.
My results are failure-upon-failure...
Primary question:
When I go to "Build" the DVD, it says the Encoded Size is 4.7 GB ~ same size as the DVD. This displays in the "Disc Info".
Similarly, when I open my "Timeline" properties for that single timeline, it says the duration is 1 hour 31 minutes - 4.7 GB.
Why is the disc a full 4.7 GB when the two video files (combined) are under 2 GB?
Supplementary questions:
My "Flowchart" and "Property" links display the Menu, with the two button links in my Menu PSD connecting to the respective chapter stops.
There are no problems when I click "Check Project," and the project works perfectly in "Preview" mode.
But, when I attempt to test the burned DVD into different DVD players, the Menu doesn't appear and the play defaults to random chapters, then freezes. I can access the menu, but only after the play has started and/or frozen, and I have to do that by clicking the "Menu" button on my DVD remotes. And again, when I hit play on either of the buttons on the main menu, the video files will freeze, which means burning & testing each disc sometimes takes an hour per.
Does anybody have a solution?
I have read and watched several tutorials, to no avail. I have tried burning the Project using large Mpeg files as well as medium Mpeg files, both encoded with 1-Pass VBR, 2-pass VBR, CBR. I have tried widescreen and normal.
I have also tried using AVI files. The two AVI files are respectively 41 mins @ 1536 kbps 720x480 8.68GB; and 50 mins @ 1536 kbps 720x480 10.6GB.
Together, those two AVI files are 19+ GB, which would require 5 DVDs.
What am I doing wrong? What should I be using to burn DVDs - Mpeg-2 or Avis?
When I export from Premiere Pro/Adobe Media Encoder, whould I be exporting as Mpeg2 files or Mpeg2-DVD?
Is it possible that Encore automatically expand and/or compress files, so that the 19GB avi is compressed to 4.7 GB DVD; and the 1.8 GB Mpeg2 "expands" to 4.7 GB?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, as this project has caused me numerous delays and ruined deadlines and soured me even more on Adobe's video editing product and their truly-awful customer support.
Thank you

As far as the use of premiere pro CS4 with Encore Cs4, do not bother to pre transcode your material. Let Encore do this for you. Leave your files in the original format which I assume was AVI. Instead import your Premiere Pro sequence directly from the project (or export it from Premiere Pro it to encore). As you quessed Encore will try and expand/compress your files for the DVD you are making.
Encore by default trys to transcode for the best quality that will fit onto the media you specify which is why it is setting the output to 4.7 rather than the file size of the video.
You were not specific enough about the nature of the failed copies. One thing to do is to always try testing your project from your first menu to see that it behaves correctly. If you don't want your DVD to start playing automatically make sure you set it to open the Top Menu. Then try a test either to your hard drive (if you can), or to a RW DVD.
Message was edited by: tnsprin

CS4 DVD looks 'weak' 'thin' 'crappy' or disappointing

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