Does HDV improve SD/DVD quality

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

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

Similar Messages

How do I improve my DVD quality?

Hi there! I've made video projects using my Sony HDR-CX110, iMovie, and idvd. I know it's not going to look professional, but the quality i get once the project is on DVD is far from the original quality. Is there something I can do to improve the quality? Keep it simple, but if you could give me some advice that would be great!
Thanks!

iDVD compresses to the standard DVD format of mpeg2, so the quality is largely dependent on the source material.
But using the most appropriate encoding setting helps:
iDVD encoding settings:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US
Short version:
Best Performance is for videos of up to 60 minutes
Best Quality is for videos of up to 120 minutes
Professional Quality is also for up to 120 minutes but even higher quality (and takes much longer)
That was for single-layer DVDs. Double these numbers for dual-layer DVDs.
Professional Quality: The Professional Quality option uses advanced two-pass technology to encode your video (The first pass determines which parts of the movie can be given greater compresson without quality loss and which parts can’t. The second pass then encodes those different parts accordingly) , 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 the time taken.
In both cases the maximum length includes titles, transitions and effects etc. Allow about 15 minutes for these.
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
NOTE: With the Best Performance setting, you can turn background encoding off by choosing Advanced > “Encode in Background.” The checkmark is removed to show it’s no longer selected. Turning off background encoding can help performance if your system seems sluggish.
And whilst checking these settings in iDVD Preferences, make sure that the settings for NTSC/PAL and DV/DV Widescreen are also what you want.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1502?viewlocale=en_US

DVD Quality Sucks

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

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

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.

*** HDV to SD DVD

I've been following the post below for a while now in order to take HDV footage to a SD DVD more quickly but I'm running into problems. The post basically calls to create a DVCPRO 50 anamorphic sequence, and drop the HDV sequence into it (nest it). Sometimes this works, but sometimes the HDV sequence I'm dropping in doesn't resize itself like it's supposed to. It is really inconsistent. Just exporting from the timeline directly to compressor to make DVDs is quality I'm happing with, but it takes about 60 hours to convert a 1 hour film. Can anyone either explain why this may be happening and/or pass along some links to a better (and faster) workflow for going from HDV to SD DVD?
For FYI, here is the post I am referring to:
My new HDV to SD workflow is as follows:
Capture and edit Native HDV in FCP 5.0.4 or later.
Create a DV50 timeline (DVCPRO 50) 4:3 or 16:9 (Anamorphic)
Set the Field Dominance to Upper (Odd)
Set the Video Processing - Motion Filtering Quality to Fastest (Linear)
Drop the HDV onto the DV50 timeline, it will scale / letterbox correctly, you can alter the scale and pan it to your liking on the DV50 timeline.
Export the DV50 as a quicktime movie.
This will be fairly quick, because there are no filters required for the field dominance upper, as it matches the HDV - we will let compressor switch the fields instead. However, because of this, firewire preview will have the wrong interlacing, and appear jerky on movement. You can DV (DV25) preview DV50 rendered timelines, it seems to convert on the fly.
Drop the exported DV50 movie into compressor.
Don't add any conversion settings yet, click on the DV50 line, and bring up the inspector window, change the Native Field Dominance to be Upper - same as was in the timeline.
Now add some DVD conversions, match 16:9 conversions with DV50 Anamorphic movies, and 4:3 with regular DV50. Use the 2 pass setting. Because we set the Native Field Dominance to Upper, the MPEG-2 videos will have their Field Dominance set to Top First - this is correct.
Submit.
Timings: (1 min 56 sec timeline) on 1.5 GHz G4
Save DV50 from timeline 10 to 11 minutes
Create 2 pass MPEG-2 from DV50 - 30 minutes
Total time, for 1 min 56 sec of HDV to DVD, 40 minutes on 1.5GHz G4
Previous time, going from the timeline via compressor was 68 minutes.
Create DVD's from those assets, they seem to be the best quality possible in the fastest turnaround time, and using DV50 as an intermediate seems to remove the darkening problems of None, has a colour-space that matches the final MPEG - unlike DV (DV25), and does not require too much HD space. It also creates the MPEG quite quickly too, because the DV50 decode is pretty fast.
If this set-up works for you, and improves things over what you are currently doing, let me know. If it does not, let me know why not! If you think there is a better quality method, share it!
Now, over to you guys, I need some feedback and some advice from the pro's:
With the Upper (Odd) / Top First Field Dominance, from FCP through to Compressor, a lot of time is saved when making the DV50 movie, because it does not need a shift fields filter, BUT, will there be problems with a MPEG-2 that has Top First field dominance on certain DVD players ? It seems to work on the players I have tested. It is possible to do the Lower (Even), Shift Fields +1 filter and Bottom First MPEG workflow, but it is quite a bit slower, although it does preview over firewire on DV properly. Any thoughts from someone who knows this stuff better than me - is the end result the same, or am I relying on the DVD player handling the MPEG properly ?
All thoughts welcome.
Some other updates:
I had a lower quality export of a HDV sequence, to an HDV quicktime movie. I have tried all evening to track it down, and post, definitively what it was, but I am at a loss. I can't reproduce it. I thought it was to do with conformed vs. un-conformed timelines, but they now seem to produce the same result.
Well, this is interesting anyway, Choosing Sequence -> Render All -> Both (and make sure everything is ticked), you will get a long Conforming HDV Video step. Now Print to Video won't repeat the (first) Conform, and happens quicker, and exporting the movie happens a lot faster too. Make sure you have filled any gaps with slugs, gaps will slow things down, even after the conform.
Timings:
1 min 56 sec timeline, about 14 cuts only HDV edits, just a rough cut.
1.5GHz Powerbook G4.
Save HDV from unconformed timeline: 10 minutes
Conform Timeline: 8 minutes
Save HDV from conformed timeline: 1 minute
Weird, huh ? Why doesn't it just conform, then export ?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4) Z1U
The prob

I've followed Bonsai's instructions to create DVDs from HDV footage from this link:
http://www3.telus.net/bonsai/Welcome.html
But my current problem is that when I drop my HDV sequence into the DV50 timeline, it doesn't resize and scale at all.
Here's a photo of my canvas for reference:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bcpatters/canvas.jpg
Does anyone know why this is happening and how I can solve it?

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!

My clips have a yellow line on the timeline sequence. Does this affect my video quality output if I don't render?

I use Adobe CS 6 to edit and I use Sony NX 3 to record. Every time I import my clips. It has a yellow line on the timeline sequence, even when I make new clip from the sequence.. My question is, does this affect my video quality output if i did not render the yellow line out? Please someone help me

Please see this link for more info about red and yellow bars - http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2011/02/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars.html
If you shoot 1080p, you will likely have better results going to DVD than if you start with 1080i. It's hard enough downscaling with decent quality, then if you add in interlacing issues...
When exporting from Premiere to create a DVD, choose "MPEG-2 DVD" as the format, and then choose a preset such as "NTSC Widescreen Progressive".
There is a checkbox at bottom of export window for "Max Render Quality" - use that for best downscaling results.
Use 2-Pass VBR encoding. Use a bitrate calculator to determine best bitrate for length of movie, or quick option is 560/minutes = bitrate. But don't exceed 8.0 on shorter movies. I typically round down a little for safety margin, such as 560/120 = 4.6, encode at 4.5 and no worries.
The export will result in TWO files, .m2v video and .wav audio, import both into Encore for authoring. Encore will convert the .wav to Dolby AC3, reducing file size. Video should NOT get transcoded. And as others said, don't expect HD quality when viewing a DVD...definitely not HD video any longer. But do be sure to use an upscaling player, this makes all the difference. If you run a yellow composite cable from DVD to TV, it will look horrible. Use HDMI with upscaling DVD/Blu-ray player for improved result.
Good luck
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

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).

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

Schoolboy error - poor DVD quality from movie created under iSight

I have mistakenly created a movie using 'iSight' settings when first opening the project
Having now spend 10's of hours editing this piece of work, and burnt to DVD via iDVD, the resulting quality on DVD is horrible - lots of video separation.....which makes a mockery of having bought a High definition camera in the first pleace.
Can anyone offer any advice on how to switch the 'iSight' settings or how to improve the burn quality? I think my only other option is to start all over..!

welcome jldathome to the  boards ...
sad news: GIGO ... which means as an internet phrase +garbage in, garbage out.+
no way to re-improve your project; iM had lowered the quality of all imports to your advice, using the very low iSight settings..
.. I think my only other option is to start all over..!
yepp.

DVD Quality - LCD vs. PLASMA

How come DVD quality is different on a LCD than on a Plasma. I tested my DVD that I made using iDVD6, and on a LCD the quality is acceptable. Then when I play the DVD on a Plasma display the images appear very bright...almost unrecognizable.
Please help...do my original images need adjusting. How come the images are extra birght? I am handing out this DVD to many people and I need to make sure compatability isn't going to be an issue.
Thanks in advance for the help guys!
Eddie K

Hi Ed,
<Spock mode on>: well, one monitor shows correct content, the other not... what is in both cases identical? the dvd. so, pure logic exclude the dvd misbehaving, doesn't it...?
<Spock mode off>
it is easy to create ugly looking DVDs with iDVD (as long as the input is "ugly"), but as long as your TFT shows acceptable results, why should the dvd been authored wrong??! the few tests I remember told us, iDVD does a ... good job (not exciting/tripleA/GoldenStandard...) but for a consumer product with that much convenience.... excellent.
did you calibrate both displays? (that is a long and boring process....)
you did in both cases use the same dvdplayer with same connection?
how do commercial dvds behave with both monitors?
in my humble opinion, Plasmas are often "mis-adjusted" (too much contrast, much too much colors... what do I say, COLORS!!! )

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 to improve the printing quality of pictures, printing a database layout

I have a database that contains also pictures in multimedia containers. If I print a layout containing a picture, the quality of the picture is really bad! Pixeled with big pixels.
Is there a possibility to get better prints?
The pictures are JPEGs of reasonable size.
The picture in the layout on the screen looks MUCH better.
Printing to an PDF and viewing this on the screen is equally bad.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I'm guessing that your images are JPEGs. AppleWorks changes the resolution of all graphic formats except PICT to 72 dpi. There are a couple of things you can do improve the print quality of images.
1. Turn on Fractional Character widths in Preferences > General > Topic: Text. This is a text setting, but it does improve the print quality of images.
2. Open the image in Preview or GraphicConverter & Save As... a PICT to use in AppleWorks.
PICT is generally the best format to use for inserting or pasting into AppleWorks. I find the resulting graphic can be resized somewhat & the resulting saved AW file is much smaller than if using JPEG or TIFF.

Moving from XTi to SL1: Improvements in photo quality?

Greetings. I love my XTi. Am curious to know what improvements in photo quality does the current generation of Rebel's provide. I can read about the difference in features. How does this translate in practice to results. I suspect that I would get more detail (18 meg vs 10 meg), and perhaps higher ISO's are more usable. Maybe a LOT more usable.
What has been your experience? Did you upgrade from XTI or that vintage roughly to current or recent Rebel models?
Thank you.
Art

It depends on a lot of variables - which kind of lenses you''re using, how good is your light, what style of photography you do, etc.
But in general you will see a sizeable increase in resolution. Which may or may not make a difference in your work. If you print large, or crop a lot, it will make a noticeable difference. If you usually just post photos to Facebook or Flickr it won't really be that noticeable.
High ISO performance should be noticably different. I can't speak to it specifically, because I went from an XTi to a 6D and the difference knocked my socks off. But there should still be a noticable difference between XTi and SL1. Now... high ISO performance means a lot to me, but not to everyone. Well, I should say, it doesn't impact everyone's photography as much as they think. If you do studio work, or work with a tripod, or mostly shoot during the day, then it won't have a huge impact. Really, if you don't use high ISO it won't impact you. That said, I'd never take my XTi above 800, and I didn't really even care for 400. It took me awhile to get used to having a new variable (ISO) to play with; I'll use my 6D up to 1600 without batting an eye, and up to 6400 in the right conditions.

Improving High 8mm quality in FCP

I have captured Hi 8mm wedding footage that was shot on High8 Sony professional camcorder 10 years ago. As we all know it looks awful compare to the DV format. What would be the recommendation, beside color correction, for improving the final quality.
Thanks,

So, my advice is if you have more than this tape in your vault, either keep your playback gear for the format serviced or do a bulk transfer to a more current format.< </div>
Worth repeating. Ask any IT geek responsible for maintaining financial and regulatory documents on servers. They convert to new storage media every year or two and, if pressed, they will tell you there's no way to test the viability of the older material.
Q: How would anyone use a VisiCalc file from 20 years ago?
A: They'd have to find the hard copy.
I've got a closet full of 8mm, Super8, and 16mm film, stacks and stacks of Kodak Carousel trays, tens of thousands of 35mm slides in boxes, and drawers full of color and monochrome prints. Some of this stuff is more than 100 years old. Yet I can still look at it because the presentation technology was mechanical (not necessarily analog, silver nitrate conversion is absolutely binary).
Hardly any of my hundreds of 3/4" and Betamax (not BetaSP) tapes are viewable. The oxide is falling off the base. We may never get around to copying our hundreds of BetaSP tapes to DV or DVD. We may never get around to copying our DV tapes to DVD or hard drive storage.
bogiesan

Does HDV improve SD/DVD quality

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